
Banjo CEO steps down after news of past KKK membership - anigbrowl
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/05/08/banjo-ceo-steps-down/
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0zymandias
The title underplays it. It’s more than just membership in a despicable
organization. He has actively participated in violent hate crimes.
Specifically, he was involved in a drive-by shooting at a synagogue.

This is not the kind of background I would want for an employee (or CEO) of a
surveillance company with sensitive and private data about US citizens.

[https://onezero.medium.com/ceo-of-surveillance-firm-banjo-
on...](https://onezero.medium.com/ceo-of-surveillance-firm-banjo-once-helped-
kkk-leader-shoot-up-synagogue-fdba4ad32829)

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XiZhao
Here was his response:

> 32 years ago I was a lost, scared, and vulnerable child. I won’t go into
> detail, but the reasons I left home at such a young age are unfortunately
> not unique; I suffered abuse in every form. I did terrible things and said
> despicable and hateful things, including to my own Jewish mother, that today
> I find indefensibly wrong, and feel extreme remorse for. I have spent most
> of my adult lifetime working to make amends for this shameful period in my
> life.

> In my teens, I dropped out of school, lived on the streets, ate out of
> dumpsters and raised money panhandling. I was desperate and afraid. I was
> taken in by skinhead gangs and white supremacist organizations. Over the
> course of a few years, I did many things as part of those groups that I am
> profoundly ashamed of and sorry about. Eventually, I was able to get myself
> away from this world while serving in the United States Navy. This turned my
> life around. While serving my country, I worked with law enforcement
> agencies in hate group prosecutions and left this world behind.

> Since then, I have tried and failed to completely accept and come to terms
> with how I, a child of Jewish heritage, became part of such a hateful,
> racist group. One thing I have done, through therapy and outreach, I have
> learned to forgive that 15 year old boy who, despite the absence of
> ideological hate, was lured into a dark and evil world. For all of those I
> have hurt, and that this revelation will hurt, I’m sorry. No apology will
> undo what I have done.

> I have worked every day to be a responsible member of society. I’ve built
> companies, employed hundreds and have worked to treat everyone around me
> equally. In recent years, I’ve sought to create technologies that stop human
> suffering and save lives without violating privacy. I know that I will never
> be able to erase my past but I work hard every day to make up for mistakes.
> This is something I will never stop doing.

~~~
lowdose
It seems extreme but I think we should give everyone a chance to learn.

He changed his opinions on a range of subjects. If everybody has to step down
from a CEO position because of opinions and affiliations they had 30 years ago
we will severely limit leadership options to a more narrow group of people
than we should.

I think zeitgeist and thereby society is moving quicker than we realize and
thereby we shouldn't hold people accountable for every thought they had for an
eternity. We should narrow it maybe down to a maximum of decade or so.

The boom of data recording on individual level is otherwise going to hunt
people down into infinity.

Especially around the most controversial topics like sexism, racism and other
bigotry people will make mistakes and what we are doing today is likely to be
seen as immoral by a majority of the people living next century.

In 1901 a woman was sentenced 30 days to jail because she smoked in public in
New York City.

In 1958 the government of Belgium decided to invite 500 people out of a
colonial of Africa , to put these people on display next to the chimpanzees.

Today both examples from last century would at least end in a career suicide.

~~~
sudosysgen
I don't know, it's more complicated that this. He was a terrorist. Would you
give a second chance to a terrorist? It is a bit more complicated than how he
wrote it.

Indeed, he was involved in a terrorist attack against a synagogue, as the
getaway driver.

~~~
artificial
There are people in entertainment who were in gangs. Nelson Mandela was also a
terrorist who got a second chance. This deeply gets into philosophy and I
don't really have a good answer.

~~~
anxman
I love this trail of thinking though. Like, what if I told you that there are
museums named after a violent domestic abuser? Should we judge Picasso for who
he was, for his work, or for both?

~~~
artificial
I think so, the harm comes from judging someone from the past through the lens
of the modern day. Maybe there will be a movement to add asterisks to
everything? *the painter, not the domestic abuse performance artist.

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xedrac
I tell my kids that being a teenager means you lose your brain for awhile,
then it comes back. I know I had my share of brain-dead moments as a teenager.
This guy appears to be the definition of a reformed person, and I am grateful
to have read his story.

~~~
vikramkr
I'm glad he's reformed, but participating in a racially motivated drive by
shooting is not your typical brain dead teenager moment, and this is something
that he should have been honest and upfront about, not something that should
have been found through investigative journalism. Especially when his job
involves surveillance service contracting for the criminal justice system,
where racial bias and privacy ethics issues are at the forefront.

~~~
manfredo
> I'm glad he's reformed, but participating in a racially motivated drive by
> shooting is not your typical brain dead teenager moment

Being made homeless at 15 isn't your typical teenager experience, either.
Omitting the fact that he was recruited at a time where he was exceptionally
vulnerable is a substantial change.

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Wesxdz
I met and talked to Damien Patton in the last year: he gave a talk at my
college. I remember feeling inspired by his perspective on how anomalies of
real-time public data could be used to protect and help people at their most
vulnerable moments.

------
Jordanpomeroy
Anyone else feel sad that terrible choices made as a minor are having such a
devastating impact on an otherwise upstanding human being?

~~~
vikramkr
His company does surveillance tech for the criminal justice system, meaning
they handle sensitive data and are involved in areas with high risk of racial
bias and important privacy and ethics questions. If I was contracting with
him, I'd be concerned about why his criminal history wasnt communicated sooner
given how relevant it is to the nature of his business (especially with
concerns about racial discrimination in the criminal justice system), and I'd
be curious why I only found out about it through a news report. He isn't owed
societies trust with something so sensitive, delicate, and important. I'm glad
he's reformed as a person from his getaway driver for a racially motivated
drive by shooting days, but I don't feel sad at all that government is taking
the background history of their contractors very seriously and that he is
responding by stepping down to signal to people impacted by the criminal
justice system the values of Banjo and to alleviate concerns people will have
if their police force is contracting with an ex KKK member.

~~~
manfredo
> If I was contracting with him, I'd be concerned about why his criminal
> history wasnt communicated sooner given how relevant it is to the nature of
> his business (especially with concerns about racial discrimination in the
> criminal justice system) and I'd be curious why I only found out about it
> through a news report.

Why is this concerning? Do you expect people to post their criminal histories
on their LinkedIn? Even if said crimes occurred as a minor and the person has
spent their whole adult lives as a law abiding person?

I don't find it curious at all as to why he didn't go around announcing his
past criminal connections: because it would hamper his career prospects, and
because he doesn't want people to portray the actions he took as a homeless
teenager as reflecting his character as an adult. This whole thread
demonstrates why not highlighting his past history was a wise decision.

~~~
vikramkr
Looking at the original article, it looks like he continued associating with
skinhead groups in his time in the military[0], and that the reason it didn't
come up in background searches is because his name was misspelled.

Yes, I absolutely expect someone entrusted with enormous responsibility in the
criminal justice realm to be upfront and open about their past and be held to
a far higher, far more stringent standard. And it doesn't help that his
company hasn't been the most morally upright company in recent times
either[1].

[0][https://onezero.medium.com/ceo-of-surveillance-firm-banjo-
on...](https://onezero.medium.com/ceo-of-surveillance-firm-banjo-once-helped-
kkk-leader-shoot-up-synagogue-fdba4ad32829)

[1][https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3bgky/banjo-ai-used-
secr...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3bgky/banjo-ai-used-secret-
company-and-fake-apps-to-scrape-facebook-twitter)

~~~
manfredo
Also, he did state that he had been involved in gangs, as per your own source:

> “We all have a personal story,” Patton told an audience at the Domopalooza
> tech conference in Salt Lake City in March 2019. “It’s probably what drives
> you every day to do what you do. Drives your family life, your work life.
> It’s no different from me.”

> “I came out of an abusive household,” he told the crowd. “When I was a young
> kid. And I left. And I was a homeless kid living on the streets, under the
> underpass of the freeway in Los Angeles, eating out of the dumpster. Never
> finished high school, belonged to street gangs,” he said. “Was up to no
> good.”

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s09dfhks
wow I almost took a job here! Never thought id hear about the company all
these years later

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miscPerson
A repentant CEO is gone, but unrepentant gangsters are still celebrities.

Social justice!

~~~
vb6sp6
false dichotomies are really weak arguments

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miscPerson
It’s not a false dichotomy — it’s pointing out a differing standard in conduct
based on race, which is racism.

It’s also pointing out that the fundamental choice in what’s acceptable or not
is dumb: someone who made a mistake while young and genuinely has tried to
build a better life should be welcomed into society, while criminals who
continue to promote a criminal and violent lifestyle should not be.

It’s also mocking that people who talk about “social justice” are often deeply
racist and unforgiving people — which perhaps could be fairly criticized for
tone, but is again not a false dichotomy.

~~~
vinay427
I think you point out a dichotomy that's interesting, except that I can't find
any evidence that people who talk about social justice "often" support
violence-inducing criminals and condemn reformed criminals who are white. This
sounds like a specter manufactured to make a point about a reality that
doesn't match up with the world we (or at least I) live in.

