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Silk Road Case: Prosecution Reads Alleged Transcript of DPR Arranging 5 Murders
New submitter BenBoy points out an article at Wired about the most recent developments in the trial of Ross Ulbricht, alleged to be the man behind the Silk Road digital black market, going by the alias Dread Pirate Roberts. The prosecution has now rested its case, but one of their last presentations was a series of communications between DPR and a supposed member of the Hell's Angels motorcycle club in which he arranged for hitmen to kill five different people. Wired notes,
Ulbricht, who the prosecutors have sought to prove is that Dread Pirate Roberts, hasn't been charged with murder-for-hire in his Southern District of New York case, though he faces charges that include conspiracies to sell narcotics, launder money and more. (He does, however, face murder-for-hire charges in a separate case in Baltimore.) In fact, the prosecution admitted in court that the purported victims of the Silk Road killings were never found, and that Canadian police couldn't even locate records for anyone with their names. ... Even so, the prosecution took pains to read the entire conversation to the jury because it’s intended to show them the darkest side of the Silk Road’s short history.
If genuine, the transcript shows that members of the Hell's Angels organization are familiar with using encryption to shield their communications from law enforcement. Forbes has a detailed update on how the rest of the case has progressed, and Ars has a brief article on today's closing arguments.
If genuine, the transcript shows that members of the Hell's Angels organization are familiar with using encryption to shield their communications from law enforcement.
No it doesn't. Even if the transcript is genuine (there are no reasons to think it's not) we only know that someone suggested being a hells angels member.
There's a reason for presenting evidence even though there are no indications that anybody was killed as a result of the logged conversations (and money transfers) and this case not including a conspiracy to commit murder charge - it is to show that the DPR didn't hesitate to use violence to keep control of his criminal enterprise.
Say what you like about Hell's Angels, but they're clearly not uneducated
Being intelligent and educated is not in itself proof of moral superiority; indeed, many of the most atrocious individuals throughout history have been highly educated and very intelligent. Just like having a 'faith' or believing in a cause does not make you a better person; in fact, recent reearch has shown that terrorism and similar crimes are most often morally motivated - ie. these are people who have thought about things and made a moral choice about what they are doing.
I am not anti-intellectual, but I think it is important to understand this. On one hand, academic education is not enough - we must include moral education as well; but on the other hand, we must also break the religious monopoly on morality. Good morality makes excellent sense from a logical point of view, in that it pro-social; religion at best makes no difference, but is more likely to make people less moral because it can legitimise an 'us vs them' view on the world.