Victims Are Always So Ungrateful - Aaron Swartz and Justice

Thankfully, public opinion has largely followed the facts on Aaron Swartz suicide, and there has been widespread condemnation of the prosecutor's behaviour. A petition for District Attorney Carmen Ortiz to be removed from office is already strong:

[https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck]

The family of Aaron Swartz link his vindictive prosecution to his eventual suicide:




QUOTE:

"Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles."

[http://www.rememberaaronsw.com/]







Carmen Ortiz's husband took to Twitter to condemn this statement by the bereaved family of the "justice system"'s latest casualty.





QUOTE:

"@thinkprogress Completely false. Aaron Swartz was offered a plea deal of 6 months. 6 months is not 35 years.

@dangillmor Ah, not really. That article says he was offered a 6-month deal. 6 months is not 35 years or a lifetime.

@mkapor Truly incredible that in their own son's obit they blame others for his death and make no mention of the 6-month offer. "

[https://twitter.com/tomjdolan/status/291017146857828354]
[https://twitter.com/tomjdolan/status/291014000358092800]
[https://twitter.com/tomjdolan/status/291018637274390528]






This is an insight into the sorts of rationalizations probably circulating within the group of people who are responsible for Aaron Swartz killing himself. The rationalization goes like this:

RATIONALIZATION:

'Yes. On the foot of actions which are NOT CRIMES, and over the protestation of the alleged victim (JSTOR) that there WERE NO VICTIMS, the prosecutor brought an array of grave charges that carry AS MANY AS 35 YEARS in prison against an online rights activist, but it is UNFAIR and UNJUST of his parents, when blaming this campaign of state intimidation and malice for THEIR SON'S DEATH, to fail to draw attention to the fact that the prosecution was merely USING THE PROSPECT of 35 years in prison as a THREAT, in order to COERCE Aaron Swartz to BYPASS A TRIAL determining his guilt or innocence, FALSELY ADMIT GUILT to the onerous and unjust charges brought against him, ACCEPT A SHORTER PRISON SENTENCE, which is still a prison sentence, and LIVE THE REST OF HIS LIFE AS A FELON with the attendant stigma and restrictions on liberty, for doing something which is NOT A CRIME.'

Tom Dolan clearly believes that this set of facts mitigates the dominant narrative. It does not. In any legal system worthy of respect, people are not convicted because they were coerced and threatened into confessing in order to avoid an even worse fate. Prosecutors are not given incentives to bring repressively onerous charges as a bully tactic in order to bypass the court room. It was "only six months" and life as a felon. Compared to decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines. Rather than despairing and taking his life, Swartz ought to have been thankful for this clemency? Whether or not he was actually a criminal apparently doesn't matter. The contrast between the maximum possible sentence, and the sentence he was being offered for convicting himself is lifted out of context, and brandished as a mitigating factor.

It mitigates nothing. Against the context of an absurdly unjust prosecution, it actually makes things worse. This is from Ortiz's husband, and we can guess that this is the type of in-group rationalization and mutual absolution circulating in the conversations that are happening after Aaron Swartz suicide. "Of course this isn't your fault. You did everything right!" "So did you."

And it gives an insight into the mindset of the people around Ortiz - the sort of privileged blindness that attends power - that a proposed plea bargain against an innocent man is being held up as an example of justice.

The blindness is so complete that we have the husband of the District Attorney scolding the bereaved parents for how unfair their statement is. The unfairness!

The petition may work. Ortiz' head may roll over Aaron Swartz death. But the sickness runs deep.