[NBLUG/talk] Re: [vox] [fwd] Hans Reiser in police custody

Jacob Appelbaum jake at nblug.org
Thu Oct 12 13:02:23 PDT 2006


Steve Johnson wrote:
> Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
> 
>> I think we should setup some sort of support for the guy, we'd probably
>> want to talk to his lawyer. Something that could raise money for his
>> legal defense seems appropriate.
> 
> Why? Do you know he is innocent?

No. I do not know that he is innocent. Similarly, I don't know that he
is guilty. I've heard a bunch of different unsubstantiated rumors at best.

What I do know is that I haven't personally seen any support for him in
our community. This is surprising to me.

> 
>> Anyone interested in doing this with me?
> 
> I'm not interested.

Thanks for stating your intentions.

> 
>> I've seen websites in support of finding his wife and so on but
>> basically nothing addressing or supporting Hans during such a messed up
>> time.
> 
> That's because people tend to not want to help support someone who
> committed murder.  I'm not saying he is guilty, but usually the police
> arrest people for murder for a reason.
> 

Personally, I think the police make mistakes, coincidences happen,
people can be setup, other unexplained elements may be at play. The back
story to this issue is like a bad made-for-TV-movie.

We as a society give people the benefit of the doubt by way of a fair
unbiased trail. Only with a fair trial can we know any semblance of
truth in this media dominated snap judgment world.

Generally speaking, people only have a chance if they have a solid legal
defense and money to pay their lawyers who will mount the defense.

It's pretty amazing to me that the response from the so called
"community" is to condemn him without seeing any facts, to make jokes
about the entire situation and basically act as if he's scum because the
police "usually arrest people for murder for a reason."

I guess that's solidarity in action from the Gnu/Linux community.

Disgusted,
Jake



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