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Carmen Ortiz weighing appeal for motel owner forfeiture suit
- cobrabyte 14y agoSigh. This woman just doesn't get it, does she? You'd think that the public taking to pitchforks for her job would have led to some serious introspection on her part.
- tokenizer 14y agoIf she keeps it up, she'll definitely lose any political future, as we usually don't forget things here on the web.
- tedunangst 14y agoI've heard rumors that Massachusetts is considering allowing people who don't read HN to vote...
- dredmorbius 14y agoSnark aside, Aron Swartz, and in his shadow, Carmen Ortiz, have had substantial mainstream media play. The geeks are pretty connected, and while we're not the ruling oligarchy, we (to the extent this herd of cats can be labeled "we") are a significant and growing power bloc.
- manicdee 14y agoThis will actually solidify her political future, showing that she is willing to make "the hard decisions" and pursue "what is right" in the face of harsh opposition from people demonising her and attempting to sully her name in public. Remember that most of the people who have any voice in these matters make decisions by reputation, not merit.
- emkemp 14y agoOr maybe, just maybe, she thinks she's doing the right thing?
- stfu 14y agoExactly. Some people see it as confirmation of their "mission" when they face criticism.
- spigoteater 14y agoLike Göring?
- mpyne 14y agoI think it's the Marines that have the saying: "Anything worth shooting, is worth shooting twice." Unless the judge points out some obvious mis-application of the prosecutor's legal logic then it shouldn't be unusual to "weigh an appeal" as the logic was supposed to have been sound enough to warrant the case in the first place.
- AnthonyMouse 14y ago>I think it's the Marines that have the saying: "Anything worth shooting, is worth shooting twice." The war on drugs is not a war between nation states. This hotel owner is a civilian and a citizen of the United States, not an enemy soldier. >Unless the judge points out some obvious mis-application of the prosecutor's legal logic ... Isn't that what the judge just did in throwing out the case?
- mpyne 14y agoI didn't mention anything about the war on drugs. I'll spell out the analogy though: Anything worth trying once for, is worth trying twice for. > Isn't that what the judge just did in throwing out the case? Judges throw out cases on non-obvious reasoning all the time. E.g. "the prosecutor failed to consider the test used in this Circuit since U.S. v. Foo (2004) and therefore the charges are moot".
- spigoteater 14y agoShe has some of the traits of a malignant narcissist, so no, she'll never get it.
- electic 14y agoThis just reeks of being vindictive, evil, stubborn, revengeful, and down right dumb. This woman has no place in any elected office.
- socrates1998 14y agoWow, speechless.
- fleitz 14y agoExcellent, hopefully she can fully sully the reputation of the USDOJ to the point where the Senate has to step in. A horrible case like this is exactly the kind of case to bring to trial before the people to set precedent. The more egregious the violation the more restrictive the regulation will be. The harder you push the pendulum the harder it swings back. Sounds like she's vindictive enough to dig two graves. Does anyone know how much traction she's getting amongst the AM radio crowd? Sounds like something that audience would eat up, especially in light of Kelo.
- imjk 14y agoThere's nothing scarier to me than people of power who are so drunk in their own arrogance that they refuse to ever accept that they could be in the wrong. I too hope that this come back to bite her.
- cheez 14y agoI believe the nature of the job and ascendancy to the job requires a lack of empathy.
- lysol 14y agoWhen civil cases are used instead of criminal cases it seems particularly disgusting that the government can even appeal a decision in favor of a private citizen.
- eliben 14y agoPlease, stop this. This is off topic on HN. A prosecutor's legal battles with some drug-infested motel is not what I come here to read about. Stop turning HN into a tabloid where people read about loved and hated celebrities.
- thesis 14y agoI'm not sure about you, but I am not forced to read every article on the first page. Skip over them if they don't interest you. Sheesh.
- eliben 14y agoBut there's only a limited amount of articles on the first page... I would much rather see something programming/startup/technology-related up there. The threads about Aaron were important. The follow-up threads about his legal case vs. Ortiz were perhaps less interesting to some, but still very much relevant. _This_ is blatantly off topic. Journalists and bloggers are sensationalist and know how to keep milking a good story when they see it. I do not expect this to overflow to HN.
- shardling 14y ago>_This_ is blatantly off topic. It's worse than that -- it's simply not interesting.
- betterunix 14y agoYou can downvote articles. Or you could ignore them. For some of us, the state of the US legal system, and the actions of a prosecutor with a fetish for attacking hackers, is something worth paying attention to.
- benatkin 14y ago> You can downvote articles. Not on HN, only on reddit. You can flag them.
- jMyles 14y agoThis is not off-topic. This is about the use of "discretion" on the part of a prosecutor to stifle entrepreneurship. This is squarely and centrally within the mainstream of HN.
- tedunangst 14y agoSay what? You think the motive for seizing the hotel was "I'm tired of all these pesky entrepreneurs"?