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As we head into the weekend lets look back at two prominent cases that had their sentences handed down and what that may mean for the current state of justice in America.
The first case was Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer who was convicted on two charges, conspiracy to access a computer without authorization and fraud in connection with personal information. Auernheimer went onto AT&T’s public, unprotected, website and used a script to obtain email addresses for the company’s iPad 3G users. Auernheimer never intruded into the system which was publicly available for anyone to access and sent the emails to a journalist. Weev was sentenced this week to 3.5 years in prison. AT&T is facing no action regarding their complete lack of vigilance/incompetence in protecting their customers’ information. Which is a CPIN violation. Oh well.
The second case was the Steubenville rape case where at least two local high school football heroes raped an unconscious 16 year old then posted photos of the incident. Had it not been for independent media and others the case would have likely been dropped or swept under the rug. And what was the sentence for the convicted rapists? One year. And while they could be held until they are 21 the odds are likely they will simply do the year and leave. And contrary to reporting by CNN, they will likely not be registered sex offenders “for life.”
So embarrass a powerful company that did not do their job by protecting their customer’s information – 3.5 years. Rape someone – 1 year. In the immortal words of Jubal Early from Firefly – does that seem right to you?
Photo by D Gordon E. Robertson under Creative Commons license
18 Comments
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About FDL News Desk
Courts dispense Law, not Justice.
The Law protects the rich and powerful, and always has.
does this seem right to you?
Unfortunately in todays ‘Murika with this justice system, it is status quo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVOJzMDnD4U
This is all part of our sprint toward a caste society: the severity and even the fact of your crime has as much to do with who you are and who you harmed as it does with the facts of the case. Obviously, community somebodies (football heroes) doing great harm to a young female nobody is not that big a deal; a young smart alec doing virtually no harm (some good actually in exposing a vulnerability) to a very important somebody (corporations are people, my friends) is a much bigger deal.
In 1974, the secret bombing of Cambodia nearly became part of an article of impeachment against Nixon; the Obama Administration is now using that secret bombing to justify its own secret bombing. Only 40 years later a possibly impeachable offense has become an excuse to commit a crime – as long as you are the right kind of person.
All I can say is Rise Up, Revolt. I think that is the only option. What we have become is a mockery, a shadow of a memory of democracy. Shameful, outrageous. Terrible. There is no justice, there should be no peace.
It’s not only that corporations are people too. … But what m
Mit meant, and thought you knew, was that corporations are BETTER people than you.
sorry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVOjzMDnD4U
A thumb to their eye!
A 16 year old girl is not as important as a multi-billion-dollar company that helps the government spy on Americans without warrants. The sentences make perfect sense to me.
You are 100% right.
Jubal Early’s fate seemed right though.
Both of these situations suck and deserve serious attention, but comparing them does nothing more than give you a nice headline.
If that’s your goal..nicely done.
Touche.
Weev lives!
Law is one thing. Enforcement is another.
Discretion in sentencing is a third thing.
I agree that Obama’s secret drone serial killing is wrong. However, technically, there is a difference between Nixon’s secret war against Cambodia and Obama’s secret drone murders, that difference being the Authorization to Use Military Force.
Where the fuzziness comes in is that, after 911, Bushco redefined “war,” giving it a meaning that it had never had in all of human history; and, unfortunately, a lot of Democrats went along with Bushco in that. Even Democrats who voted against the Iraq War voted for the resolution sometimes called the “War on Terror” resolution.
Nothing in law directs anyone to give a lesser sentence for rape than for business crimes, though.
Thanks, DS.
No, it doesn’t seem right to me.
But good judgment says he didn’t commit a business crime.