
Man who threatened to kill Ajit Pai’s children pleads guilty, faces prison - educationdata
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/09/man-who-threatened-to-kill-ajit-pais-children-pleads-guilty-faces-prison/
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newscracker
I have conflicting thoughts about this.

On one hand, threatening someone (or someone's loved ones) with death is
utterly wrong and despicable except for crimes committed by that someone with
similar impact where emotions may run really high and would be understandable
under the circumstances. A net neutrality defeat is not one of those
situations when its direct impact is looked at. [To expand further, I also
believe that death threats or attempts even for the most heinous crimes is
wrong for a few different reasons, though it's understandable why someone may
think that's right.]

On the other hand, without further information on whether the convicted person
could or would actually carry out the threat (the assessment of which may not
be an easy endeavor), and when the person doesn't have a prior record, the
following stance by the US Attorney's office seems way too harsh to me:

> The US Attorney's office in Virginia opposed the motion for bail pending
> sentencing.

> "Incarceration is, by its very nature, a hardship, and neither the
> defendant's mental health status nor the nature of his conviction is rare or
> uncommon, particularly when compared to other offenders," the government
> wrote.

We know that law is meant to reduce discretionary decisions, but discretion is
also there in the actual sentencing and in bail decisions. Somehow the
attitude of US Attorneys to get a very high conviction and sentencing rate, as
measured in person-decades, seems more like a stepping stone to future
political growth of the attorneys and less about viable deterrence of crimes.

If we were to take a poll asking people if and when they wished a certain
prominent figure would just disappear (or die) because of some decision that
was believed to be incorrect and damaging, I'd guess the majority of the
population everywhere would say they've had those thoughts several times in
several instances. Humans are emotional creatures, and our reactions to many
things are emotional, with rationality probably struggling to reign in the
emotions. In a sense, everybody is emotionally unstable at several points in
life. I feel we ought to come up with better ways to handle these as a
society.

~~~
legostormtroopr
Everyone has thought that the world would be better without someone in it, but
he didn’t stop there.

This isn’t your average internet “ill kill u noob” death threat.

He emailed Pai with a list of local schools and threatened his children. He
said Pai was responsible for children’s suicides and threatened to kill him.
He showed clear malice and intent.

You shouldn’t be conflicted about this, what he did was wrong. Even if you
hate Pai or net neutrality what he did has tarnished net neutrality advocates
as violent nutters.

~~~
gay
I get no one likes Ajit or what he's doing, but no one deserves to get it
taken out on their children.

