“As we think about what happened to Aaron, we need to recognize that it was not just prosecutorial overreach that killed him. That’s too easy, because that implies it’s one bad apple. We know that’s not true. What killed him was corruption. Corruption isn’t just people profiting from betraying the public interest. It’s also people being punished for upholding the public interest.”
Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution
“Basically, this whole system is wide open to abuse, and it’s clear from Ortiz’s actions that she, too, was abusing the system in this manner: pushing for super high possible jail time as a huge and scary weapon to try to pressure Swartz into accepting a lower rate — but also making him a convicted felon.”
Prosecutor as Bully
“That person is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society would only call bullying. I get wrong. But I also get proportionality. And if you don’t get both, you don’t deserve to have the power of the United States government behind you.”
Prosecution of Aaron Swartz Pushed Him Toward Death
”I think Aaron was frightened and bewildered that they’d taken this incredibly hard line against him…He didn’t want to go to jail. He didn’t want to be a felon.”
Aaron Swartz and the Corrupt Practice of Plea Bargaining
“But none of these rights matter if the defendant never gets to trial. And thanks to the legal fiction that plea bargaining is a voluntary negotiation between the prosecutor and defendant, our justice system effectively gives people dramatically longer sentences for exercising the right to have a trial at all.”
Consequences for Prosecutorial Abuse in Case of Aaron Swartz
“The US has become a society in which political and financial elites systematically evade accountability for their bad acts, no matter how destructive. Those who torture, illegally eavesdrop, commit systemic financial fraud, even launder money for designated terrorists and drug dealers are all protected from criminal liability, while those who are powerless – or especially, as in Swartz’s case, those who challenge power – are mercilessly punished for trivial transgressions.”
Prosecution of Aaron Swartz Paints Obama’s Justice Department
And Heymann knew about Swartz’s mental health problems. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Andy Good, Swartz’s first lawyer, said: “I told Heymann the kid was a suicide risk, … they were aware of the risk, and they were heedless.” In what Good says is typical of prosecutors when dealing with a target who is a potential suicide, he recounted Heymann’s response as: “Fine, we’ll lock him up.”
Aaron Swartz and Jean Seberg
“The psychological toll of being targeted by the government for political beliefs is massive, the stuff that filled Soviet-era gulags.”
Watch Aaron Swartz Explain How SOPA Was Stopped
Inspiring Heroism of Aaron Swartz
“He could have easily opted for a life of great personal wealth, status, prestige and comfort. He chose instead to fight – selflessly, with conviction and purpose, and at great risk to himself – for noble causes to which he was passionately devoted.”
Statement from the Family and Partner of Aaron Swartz
“We’re grateful for our time with him, to those who loved him and stood with him, and to all of those who continue his work for a better world.”
Remember Aaron Swartz
“Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable—these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter.”
‘The government killed my son’: Father of Aaron Swartz speaks out at his son’s funeral and claims he was ‘Hounded’ to his Death.
AWTT
Awakenings 
Partner, Witness Say Prosecutors Unfairly Targeted Activist
Father Says Reddit Co-Founder Was ‘Killed By The Government’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2263084/Aaron-Swartzs-father-claims-Reddit-founder-son-hounded-death-government.html
“He was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic principles.”
Tragic Case of Aaron Swartz: Unequal Justice for Web Activists
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com.br/2013/01/the-tragic-case-of-aaron-swartz-unequal.html
“There is a particular overzealousness when it comes to internet activism because the internet is one of the few weapons – perhaps the only one – that can be effectively harnessed to galvanize movements and challenge the prevailing order. That’s why so much effort is devoted to destroying the ability to use it Anonymously – the Surveillance State – and why there is so much effort to punishing as virtual Terrorists anyone like Swartz who uses it for political activism or dissent.”
Common Dreams Removed Linked Article:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/16-5
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/16/zoe-lofgren-proposes-aarons-law?intcmp=239
Is Undercover Over?
Disguise seen as deceit by timid journalists
By Aaron Swartz
http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/is-undercover-over/
Aaron Swartz’s FBI File
Common Dreams Removed Linked Article:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/02/20-5
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/feb/19/aaron-swartz-fbi-tracked-classified-documents
https://shadowproof.com/2013/02/19/aaron-swartzs-fbi-file/
Manning: Before Wikileaks, Leaked Docs Offered to NYT, WaPo
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/28-4
“It further provides [indisputable] evidence that Manning was acting in the capacity of a true government or military whistleblower by proactively seeking out the media in hopes of bringing to light what he considered information vital to the public interest.”
TIM DECHRISTOPHER in BIDDER 70: They tried to convince me that I was like a little finger out there on my own that could easily be broken. And all of you out here were the reminder for all of us that I wasn’t just a finger all alone in there, but that I was connected to a hand with many fingers that could unite as one fist, and that that fist could not be broken by the power that they have in there. That fist is not a symbol of violence. That fist is a symbol that we will not be misled into thinking we are alone. We will not be lied to and told we are weak. We will not be divided and we will not back down. That fist is a symbol that we are connected and that we are powerful. It’s a symbol that we hold true to our vision of a healthy and just world, and we are building the self-empowering movement to make it happen. http://www.alternet.org/print/activism/going-jail-save-wild-oil-and-gas-drilling
AARON SWARTZ AND JEAN SEBERG
The psychological toll of being targeted by the government for political beliefs is massive, the stuff that filled Soviet-era gulags. People like John Kiriakou and Thomas Drake have had their careers destroyed and their lives torn apart simply for telling uncomfortable truths that expose corruption and lawlessness at the highest levels. The only surprise is that there aren’t more people who simply can’t handle the intense pressure.
Seberg’s family blamed the FBI for her death, just as activist Aaron Swartz’s family rightly blames his overly zealous prosecutors. Public intolerance for this kind of government harassment and abuse of power should be vigorous and swift . . .
How Prosecutors Turn a Protest Into a ‘Riot’
Little did I know that I would be swept up into a legal nightmare that demonstrates how prosecutors intimidate and manipulate defendants into giving up their rights. Minutes after I got to downtown Washington on Jan. 20, police officers used pepper spray, “sting-ball” grenades and flailing batons to sweep up an entire city block in a mass-arrest tactic known as “kettling.” Next, prosecutors … took the highly unusual step of indicting more than 200 of those arrested. Most of the people in the group, which includes journalists, legal observers and volunteer medics, face charges of engaging in a riot, inciting a riot, conspiracy to riot and property damage. In addition to seizing the contents of at least 100 cellphones, prosecutors secured broad warrants for Facebook pages. The government has failed to provide most defendants in the case with evidence of their alleged individual wrongdoing. For example, I was offered a plea deal (to a single misdemeanor charge) on the basis of virtually nothing more than being at the site of the protest.
This serves to illustrate a critical problem in the American justice system: Prosecutors have the power to single-handedly destroy lives, and there are few consequences for abuse of that power. At the same time, their main measure of success is the ability to secure convictions, not the degree to which justice is served.
How Did Julian Assange Become a Political Prisoner of Our Time?
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/04/how-did-julian-assange-become-political-prisoner-our-time
In a tiny room of an embassy under heightened security, he now quietly suffers in solitude, fighting against character assassination that is now slowly turning into a real murder. When the justice system is controlled in the hands of oppressors, justice of this founder of the publisher of last resort relies on the court of public opinion. As Assange’s plight for freedom intensifies, we can remain silent, allowing tragedy brought upon all those legendary peacemakers to repeat itself. Or, we can act with moral courage to end oppression and change the course of history. Will humanity find strength to claim its own dignity to open democracy? Or, will crudeness and barbarianism take over, bringing a society into despotism?
What Empire Loyalists Are Saying When They Bash Assange
View at Medium.com
Heffernan claims falsely that Assange is “wanted on various criminal charges”; Assange has not been charged with anything. Heffernan claims falsely that Assange “has been closely linked to the Kremlin and Russian president Vladimir Putin”; this is just objectively false with no evidence backing it up whatsoever. Heffernan claims falsely that “the distinct possibility has surfaced that during his embassy tenure Assange communicated with Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s consigliere, via magic decoder rings or the internet”; there’s no evidence that Stone had any “back channel” with WikiLeaks, and the information he notoriously amplified was already public. Heffernan claims falsely that WikiLeaks is “Russia-aligned”; another assertion for which there is zero evidence and much evidence to the contrary. You get the picture.
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/11/03/break-in-attempted-at-assanges-residence-in-ecuador-embassy/#comment-344503
Common Dreams Search Results for Aaron Swartz
(Article Titled “Real Consequences for Prosecutorial Abuse in Case of Aaron Swartz” was Taken Down): https://www.commondreams.org/search/site/Aaron%2520Swartz
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