Yes. Less than 72 hours since I pressed submit on my half-edited, strike-while-the-iron-is-hot petition.

It feels rather hollow, I wish we hadn't lost Aaron.

At the risk of being down-voted, are we risking the same threat that one of these prosecutors would also take their life? Put yourself in the position of someone who voted. How would you feel if they took their lives, as a consequence of this poll/vote? They are people too.

I worry that the hamsters running the cogs are being blamed rather than the system.

Being a federal prosecutor isn't just a job, it's a privileged position of power. It's not someplace where you bumble through law school and wind up arguing to put people away for life; all of these people competed to get where they are now. These are people who went to elite law schools and worked hard at being the sort of people that rise up the ranks in a federal D.A.'s office. And one of the things that goes with the unbridled power to decide who to indict and what charges will be brought; is the responsiblity to use that power appropriately. Anyone who does not understand that responsibility should not be allowed to pass the bar, much less be handed the power to ruin lives with relative impunity.

Agreed. You can't compare losing a job versus losing all your money and your family and friends money as well as ending up 35 years behind bars in a federal prison, coming out around 60 years old with nothing left.

I don't think we are arguing the persecutor should go to prison for 35 years. I'm in favor of having the persecutor OUT of office with prejudice (i.e. never back into office) and perhaps relooking into everyone he had convicted.

"...that one of these prosecutors would also take their life?"

An eye for an eye. Being passive doesn't seem to bring any justice.

If you invade Iraq based on flimsy (at best) evidence, there are no consequences. If you sit in an office in Washington DC and order the torture of prisoners (which is still illegal in the US) there are no consequences. If you wreck the economy, there are no consequences. (This just in: HSBC gets a free pass for money-laundering.)

But if you're a low-level geek (Bradley Manning, John Kiriakou, Aaron Swartz) then you will be crushed under the full weight of the law.

Important People don't go to prison. Low-level geeks with a conscience go to prison. Or have their lives completely ruined.

They have no empathy or respect for us? I have no empathy or respect for them. Harass her until she commits suicide. Washington is full of sick-and-twisted freaks. We should stand as a perfect mirror to their moral crimes.

Bradley Manning stole over 700,000 classified documents and handed them over to a hostile foreign national. Not because he wanted to make the world a better place, but because he didn't like being in the Army. That is not responsible disclosure by any stretch of the imagination.

Even if government employees were protected for blowing the whistle, what about the 690-something thousand documents that had absolutely nothing to do with anything sinister? Why didn't he even make the slightest attempt to bring light to the issue through official channels? You can't go to court and say that the system would have failed you if you didn't even give it a chance.

I'm not saying he deserves life in prison or anything, but make no mistake, he's a traitor, not a patriot.

But when HSBC helps Iranians launder money, that gets a free pass?

You said "I'm not saying he deserves life in prison or anything..." that's exactly my point. Important People get a free pass. Low-level geeks get crushed under the full weight of the law.

I get your point, I just can't stand seeing people mention him in the same breath as people who don't belong in prison at all. When uninformed people see them all lumped together like that, they are likely to start assuming things about the other guys.

You are correct though, if you aren't important, you are pretty much screwed.

Fix the machine, not the people? (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/nummi)

It's hamsters all the way down. Not blaming any hamsters for wrongdoing is implicitly agreeing with the system.

We're not talking about putting them in jail. You can't compare them to Aaron Swartz.

The 'hamsters' run the system.

They're people, but they're people without morals or scruples, who would happily sell another person's existence for their own financial gain.

A bit like slave traders, really.