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Silk Road founder sentenced to life in prison

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Mearloaf as Curtis Green

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zeemumu

Member
For some reason the original Silk Road was the first thing that came to mind when I read the title and I started to wonder why they would want to arrest someone who's been dead for centuries.
 
Dude seems like a massive cunt judging from that Wired article. The Guardian's report on this had some interesting bits:

Vicky B, whose 16-year-old son died after taking a powerful synthetic at a party and jumping from a second-story roof, said that the time since her son’s death had been unbearable. “This is the photo of the last kiss from my son,” she said, holding up a photo of herself with her son Preston before the school ball where he died.

“We keep Preston’s ashes at home,” she said, her voice breaking. “Sometimes I just hold them. Sometimes I get under a blanket with them and try to get warm.”


I mean I get the dude ran and facilitated the online drug trade but are we really going to blame him because some dumb ass decided to jump off the roof? smh
 

Opto

Banned
Dude seems like a massive cunt judging from that Wired article. The Guardian's report on this had some interesting bits:

Vicky B, whose 16-year-old son died after taking a powerful synthetic at a party and jumping from a second-story roof, said that the time since her son’s death had been unbearable. “This is the photo of the last kiss from my son,” she said, holding up a photo of herself with her son Preston before the school ball where he died.

“We keep Preston’s ashes at home,” she said, her voice breaking. “Sometimes I just hold them. Sometimes I get under a blanket with them and try to get warm.”


I mean I get the dude ran and facilitated the online drug trade but are we really going to blame him because some dumb ass decided to jump off the roof? smh
I think people are more upset to his reaction to the ordeal. I mean, age restriction wouldn't really do anything, but he was a jackass. Ulbricht was more interested in the ideal of the site rather than any real world consequences.

Edit: Gotta say I'm disappointed you're calling a 16 year old kid accidentally killing himself a dumbass.
 
I think people are more upset to his reaction to the ordeal. I mean, age restriction wouldn't really do anything, but he was a jackass. Ulbricht was more interested in the ideal of the site rather than any real world consequences.

Edit: Gotta say I'm disappointed you're calling a 16 year old kid accidentally killing himself a dumbass.
I don't see it as any different than someone driving drunk.
 
I was talking to my wife about this, and low and behold she went to high school with Ross Ulbrich here in Austin Texas! She said he was just a normal dude that they smoke MJ with, but she's not surprised at all that he turned into anti government, anti taxes stance.

It seems like a case of loneliness, desperation, and disconnection that turned him from that into someone willing to order the death of another human being based off that wired article
 
Dude seems like a massive cunt judging from that Wired article. The Guardian's report on this had some interesting bits:

Vicky B, whose 16-year-old son died after taking a powerful synthetic at a party and jumping from a second-story roof, said that the time since her son’s death had been unbearable. “This is the photo of the last kiss from my son,” she said, holding up a photo of herself with her son Preston before the school ball where he died.

“We keep Preston’s ashes at home,” she said, her voice breaking. “Sometimes I just hold them. Sometimes I get under a blanket with them and try to get warm.”


I mean I get the dude ran and facilitated the online drug trade but are we really going to blame him because some dumb ass decided to jump off the roof? smh

Did her son buy the drugs from Silk Road cause if so (and it seems so) you don't think creating a system where in children can buy drugs without any restriction is fucked up and him openly enabling that is not further indication that this guy is awful?
 

The Adder

Banned
Sounds like entrapment to me

Not what entrapment is.

Entrapment would be, for example, an officer threatening to cause him/his loved ones some kind of harm if he didn't order the hits and then arresting him when he did. Or telling him something isn't a crime and arresting him when he did it.

Basically, entrapment requires coercion

Entrapment is not presenting someone the opportunity to commit a crime and then arresting them when they take said opportunity.
 
Did her son buy the drugs from Silk Road cause if so (and it seems so) you don't think creating a system where in children can buy drugs without any restriction is fucked up and him openly enabling that is not further indication that this guy is awful?
Yeah he's pretty awful, I never said otherwise. I just don't think it was his fault someone did something stupid under the influence of drugs bought from the site. It's like saying a beer store is to blame because someone was driving drunk.
 

TheYanger

Member
Boss★Moogle;165775619 said:
So this guy who put up a website gets life in prison while murderers can often get less than 20 years...

I know it wasn't part of the charges, but this is still a 'guy' that would be directly responsible via conspiracy for 5 murders as far as he knew, and as much as the online site reduces face to face dealer violence it enables the very cartels and shit that actually are murdering people around the world. Whether you feel people should be free to have certain drugs or not there are CERTAINLY a great deal of substances that are truly harmful out there that were getting dealt here. The notion that if someone becomes addicted to heroin in the safety of their own home it has no effect on anyone else is patently false.

Also, at the end of the day, whether you think drugs should be illegal, they are. This guy was behind a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT of illegal transactions.

Yeah he's pretty awful, I never said otherwise. I just don't think it was his fault someone did something stupid under the influence of drugs bought from the site. It's like saying a beer store is to blame because someone was driving drunk.

Bad analogy, the beer store is at fault for selling illegal types of beer to a minor without checking their age.
 

Skeyser

Member
I think it's likely that the judge and jury took his hits attempts into consideration when deciding wether he deserved life or not. Especially the jury, they probably didn't care much wether he was officially charged for it or not.
 

Ceres

Banned
I think it's likely that the judge and jury took his hits attempts into consideration when deciding wether he deserved life or not. Especially the jury, they probably didn't care much wether he was officially charged for it or not.

Juries usually have no input on length of sentence. They simply chose guilty or not guilty based on the evidence and the judge hands down the final sentence if guilty.
 

Gr1mLock

Passing metallic gas
He should have been a banker. Not only would he have kept his money but they probably would have given him more.
 

someday

Banned
The judge took the attempted executions into account with her sentencing. I guess federal judges apparently can do this if they feel the evidence is adequate enough.

The judge also said there was "no doubt" that Ulbricht paid for murders of those who had threatened Silk Road. Prosecutors had charged Ulbricht with commissioning six murders-for-hire but those charges were dropped and there is no evidence that these murders were ever carried out.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/29/technology/silk-road-ross-ulbricht-prison-sentence/index.html
 
Yeah the alleged assassinations/executions don't really even matter. How may thousands of pounds of drugs do you need to facilitate the sale of before our all those year sentences reach 85+?
 

someday

Banned
Uh doesn't sound like that at all. She's right that there's no fucking doubt, but she didn't use it in her sentencing. The guidelines for the crimes he committed more than justify the sentence given.
How do you know this? I'm genuinely curious. To me, what a judge says during the sentencing is relevant. I'm not suggesting that he couldn't have gotten life anyway, I've read the thread, but it sure sounds like she took that other stuff into consideration.
 

ICKE

Banned
I wonder how many people would make excuses for Ross Ulbricht if he didn't come across as a sympathetic tech guy - clean cut and all that.

If this was some Mexican dude who was accused of ordering hits and running an illegal smuggling organization, would people make these libertarian arguments?
 

someday

Banned
I know it's easier to say after, but I'm surprised he couldn't tell he was being scammed. I guess he felt too much pressure to really stop and question this "hells angels" guy
I felt the same way reading it. Especially how he balked at the price, comparing it to his last "hit" which we know was a scam.
 

Skeyser

Member
I felt the same way reading it. Especially how he balked at the price, comparing it to his last "hit" which we know was a scam.

Yeah, and these guys being familiar with pgp encryptions, but unable to do a simple google search to figure how to remove gps locations from a picture would have made me super suspicious.
 

ZQQLANDER

Member
Pretty sure it wasn't. The media would be all over that angle, but everything is about drugs, guns, and fake ids.

I guess you are right.... I'm pulling up several articles saying that child porn, weapons, and assassinations were prohibited according to the terms of service of the website.
 

Mael

Member
I guess you are right.... I'm pulling up several articles saying that child porn, weapons, and assassinations were prohibited according to the terms of service of the website.

Do we know how it was enforced? Because otherwise it's pretty much meaningless.
I mean CP is prohibited on 8chan, doesn't change that there's a whole board dedicated to it.
 
Let's fan cast the Silk Road movie!

Robert Pattinson as Ross Ulbrich


Jonah Hill as Chris Tarbell


Oona Chaplin as Julia Vie


Walton Goggins as Carl Mark Force


Timothy Spall as Curtis Green

Why would Jonah Hill play Tarbell? I don't see it.

He seems kind of a Matt Damon sort. But like, someone who is a younger Matt Damon.
 

ZQQLANDER

Member
Do we know how it was enforced? Because otherwise it's pretty much meaningless.
I mean CP is prohibited on 8chan, doesn't change that there's a whole board dedicated to it.

Yeah who knows...never been on silk road so no first hand knowledge.
 
Do we know how it was enforced? Because otherwise it's pretty much meaningless.
I mean CP is prohibited on 8chan, doesn't change that there's a whole board dedicated to it.

Yeah who knows...never been on silk road so no first hand knowledge.


He would've had a charge for trafficking child porn for sure. The FBI wouldn't take the drugs thing more seriously and brush off child porn sales.
 

Fjordson

Member
I've been reading deep into all this shit the last few days. It's all fascinating. Especially some of the links on this page: http://antilop.cc/sr/

One person still out there and uncovered that I'm wondering about is Variety Jones. He advised Ulbricht on security stuff and helped with the site. Ulbricht referred to him as a mentor and there are way more chat logs between Ulbritcht and him than with any other Silk Road employee. Yet his identity is still unknown.
 
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