

Civil Disobedience 2 - stuartmemo
http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2013/02/21213-civil-disobedience-2.html

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csense
This article neglects to mention the disproportionality of the sentence Aaron
was threatened with.

Suppose you were a 1960's civil rights activist staging a sit-in. Suppose the
worst you were expecting was a couple hundred dollar fine and spending the
night -- or maybe the week -- in the county lockup for misdemeanor
trespassing.

Then an ambitious prosecutor looking for another substantial case to win goes
after you with all her resources, disrupts your life for a year with an
incredibly intrusive investigation, and then threatens you with a 30-year
federal sentence.

I'd imagine a substantial number of actual 1960's protestors would reconsider
their decision if the likeliest outcome is a ruined life, rather than a short-
term disruption of your life that will go away fairly quickly.

