Bitcoin Trader Agrees To Work For Police In Plea Agreement

An anonymous reader writes: Florida Bitcoin trader Pascal Reid, who was arrested in a February 2014 sting operation as part of his plea agreement, promised to carry out 20 sessions of law enforcement training in Bitcoin as well as serve as a consultant in criminal cases involving Bitcoin. This is in addition to 90 days in jail with credit for time served and a $500 reimbursement to the State of Florida for the expense of prosecuting him. Qntra has a write up on the case and the full text of the draft plea agreement.

Comments

I wonder...

[Anonymous Coward]

Judge: "$500 reimbursement to the State of Florida for the expense of prosecution"
Reid: "Can I pay that in Bitcoins???"

"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, couldn't they just go to bitcoin.org and READ instead?

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[cheater512]

Making them read is probably slightly harder than getting them to fly.

A seminar is much easier for them - they can just pretend to pay attention while looking out the window.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[sexconker]

They're LEOs. You'd need to teach them to read first.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

$500 bucks for one of them to read something probably means it has to fit in one or two sentences.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this flamebait? It's factual, LEOs are morons.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[PopeRatzo]

They're LEOs. You'd need to teach them to read first.

Since they caught him, what does that say about the intelligence of the BitCoin dude.

Here's a picture of Pascal Reid and he's exactly as you'd expect him to be. A pasty, doughy hipster who probably subscribes to Ron Paul's newsletter and has his own PornHub Pro account.

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/12...

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

Well how do you make money on Pornhub without a pro account?

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Shadow of Eternity]

I'm torn. On the one hand it's wrong to attack someone for watching porn, on the other hand who the fuck actually pays for porn?

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[rmdingler]

Heh heh...well played.

You will get your clemency when cops read!

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[circletimessquare]

so many internet tough guys in this thread

who will call 911 without a second thought if their house gets broken into

(cue the super duper internet tough guys and their fantasies of getting "justice" by themselves)

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really.

I'm not going to call 911 when my home is broken into if I'm not there. I would have to file a report for the missing items (tax deduction) and report the missing fire arms.

If I'm home and the break in happens well I have an assortment of ways of dealing with intruders. I built a lovely tactical shotgun, but maybe the 45 is closer at the time. If I'm feeling really cocky I do have a custom build ar that works great for cqc. It's not quite mp5 great, but it's the best I'm going to legally get.

Everything spells bad day for the intruders.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[circletimessquare]

oh you're going to file a report, ok

and there is a system in place that uses that report to find your stolen stuff, which is why you're filing a report, right?

and that system is called...

hint: it's the same one being shat on by anonymous internet tough guy social retards in this thread, that they would all run to crying like babies, without a second thought to their socially retarded posturing in this thread with cheetos dust on their unwashed t shirts in their parent's basement

...I built a lovely tactical shotgun, but maybe the 45 is closer at the time. If I'm feeling really cocky..

you have a really awesome fantasy life

i like that part where you never sleep, never leave the gun on the toilet when you take pee, and stay up all night wide awake with eyes in the back of your head tightly gripping your piece

you are never taken by surprise or have any weaknesses. that's impressive

even though every fucking criminal everywhere for all time, from muggers, rapists, home intruders, etc. depend upon the element of surprise

but of course, when you wake up with a gun is pointed at your head, you can reach for yours and pull your trigger before he pulls his, right?

another small hint for the heavily armed mouth breathing moron: what it means to be an adult is to leave childish socially retarded fantasies behind and recognize you aren't invincible. a boy scout hero complex doesn't make up for the cold hard facts of the reality of the world you live in

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[FlyHelicopters]

Yea, you're a tough guy...

I own guns, but I'm the first one to say that a AR is a horrible weapon for home invasion... The rounds WAY over penetrate and you're responsible for the rounds, no matter why you're shooting...

A shotgun with birdshot is the only weapon I'd use in my home. Even a .45 is too much risk of over-penetration.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[shaitand]

"A shotgun with birdshot is the only weapon I'd use in my home. Even a .45 is too much risk of over-penetration."

You see this "wisdom" repeated everywhere. Interior walls are nothing but drywall, a pellet gun will slice right through them let alone birdshot at close range.

The only advantages of a shotgun for home defense are wider spread of the shot which makes it easier to hit in the nervous moment when all that practice runs down your leg in a puddle of fear and you are lucky to have managed to point in the direction of the attacker and fire a round. The other is that a tactical shotgun is shorter than an AR or AK and therefore more maneuverable.

Those aren't insignificant but wall penetration isn't really a factor.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[shaitand]

"and there is a system in place that uses that report to find your stolen stuff, which is why you're filing a report, right?"

Hardly, the police will never find your stolen stuff. You file the report because the insurance companies require it. If anyone does happen to find your stuff it's going to be them, so they don't have to pay.

"i like that part where you never sleep, never leave the gun on the toilet when you take pee, and stay up all night wide awake with eyes in the back of your head tightly gripping your piece"

I like that part where you never sleep, never leave the phone on the toilet when you take pee, and stay up all night wide awake with eyes in the back of your head tightly gripping your phone.

You do realizing calling 9/11 is more difficult and takes longer than getting to your gun... and that's just the picking up the phone and dialing part. Then there is the waiting on hold part, then the waiting for someone to eventually get around to showing up. In a rural area that could be an hour of drive time for a state trooper or county sheriff. And when they do show up, they are looking for any excuse they can make up to charge everyone with something, including you.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[circletimessquare]

people robbing your house just want your stuff. there is no hannibal lecter around every corner ready to vivisection you, this is moronic fantasy

even if wide awake, with a gun in my hand, i'd rather him just take my tv and go file a report, as you describe

rather than deal with cleaning up the fucking mess of a guy's brains off my wall and the red tape, or risking my death because i'm a moron who thinks real life is like the movies and that my chance of escalating the conflict to mortal threat always turns out 100% my side. my gun will never jam, i'm always a perfect shot, i never mistake an intruder for my kid coming in through the window because he forgot his keys, etc. my life and my loved ones are worth more than some stupid shit i can replace

the simple statistical fact is that owning a gun increases the risk of death and injury to you and your loved ones. you *may* save your tv from being stolen. oh yippie. not fucking worth risking death, unless you are a moron, or more exactly, an immature little weakling with a feeling of inadequacy in life

this guy says it better than me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[FlyHelicopters]

You should watch the recent Mythbusters episode where they tried this...

Short of hitting a metal electrical box in the wall, even a 9mm went right through several layers of drywall and even a 2x4, and was still lethal...

A .45 has twice the energy of a 9mm, it would be lethal through a lot... more than I'd care to test...

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

No, silly you get the pro account to post porn you've made yourself.

Re: "20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

Your premise is wrong. I'm going to call the cops if I'm obviously the victim of a crime because this self-gotten justice you speak of is legally impossible unless in a situation with immediate threat to one's life or of great bodily harm.

We live in an infantile society where responding to one's own problems can quite literally land you in jail. Of course, since you can't make human nature illegal, not responding can on occasion lead to the other party escalating things to where use of deadly force is required when a more moderate response sooner might have averted it--but it's illegal to threaten someone who's done something to you and even letting them know you're armed can be used as evidence of premeditation if something else happens later in some over zealous jurisdictions.

So yeah, I'm going to call the cops because people like you make it legally impossible not to. That doesn't make those of us who distrust and dislike police two-faced. It makes us smarter than you.

Re: "20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[bill_mcgonigle]

hey, you're not allowed to take responsibility for your own safety in Police State USSA.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

hint: it's the same one being shat on by anonymous internet tough guy social retards in this thread, that they would all run to crying like babies, without a second thought to their socially retarded posturing in this thread with cheetos dust on their unwashed t shirts in their parent's basement

Nice straw man.

I'm not the original AC, but I am a former soldier (as is my wife) and electronic warfare tech who lives out in the sticks (not far from some meth heads who like looking for copper) For under a thousand bucks, I know instantly when anything larger than a raccoon is moving within 25 yards of my house. We believe in .357 revolvers (Ruger GP100 - not flashy, just reliable and a high one shot stop ratio for a handgun) and shotguns (Mossberg 500 in 12 gauge). We have multiples of each.

The bottom line is, you can be a pussy if you like, but if you come into my house, either me or my wife is going to cut you in half, city boy.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

My house won't get broken into so that will never be a concern.

Also, how is calling LEOs morons in any way a "tough guy" thing?

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

There are many different scenarios and increasingly there are criminals who in addition to wanting your stuff also wouldn't mind the feeling that comes along with killing someone. Calling the police is something you might do after it's all over. If you're armed you're at least on even footing. Would you honestly shoot someone coming through the window in the dark without turning on the lights and finding out who it is? You have the gun. They are in a compromised position coming through the window. If you turn on the lights yell freeze they're going to look up at you and you're obviously not going to fire if it's your kid. That only happens to morons who don't think things through.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for being sane and safe. There's an abundance of people being shot trough walls, denying it is madness.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[david_thornley]

Increasingly? Have you observed what's been happening to crime rates?

Re: "20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[Anonymous Coward]

And hope we get justice from the yes men in blue suits who shun paper work?

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[shaitand]

Right, my point was not that a .45 didn't have penetration risk. My point was that all calibers will over penetrate and therefore you don't really need to factor that in to your choice of home defense firearm. Your AK/AR will over penetrate but so will your shotgun loaded with birdshot. So use whichever you are most competent with or have at hand.

Hopefully you do factor it in to how serious a situation has to be before utilizing a home defense firearm regardless of caliber. That should be a pretty high bar and you should always assume you are going to be shooting whatever is on the other side of the wall.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[shaitand]

That's debatable. There aren't really an abundance of people being shot at all. Unless you mean the ones being shot by people in uniforms.

Re:"20 sessions of law enforcement training"

[FlyHelicopters]

An AR/AK may well go through your house, your neighbors house, and into a third house next to it, depending on the type of round you use.

At short range, bird shot will go through dry wall, but not a lot beyond that. Beyond a dozen or two meters, it may not even be lethal to a human wearing a heavy winter coat (assuming you miss his head). It would suck and hurt, but not nearly to the extent a real bullet would.

A .45 can easily go out of your home and into the next door neighbors house.

Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

So, once you got arrested by the cops, they can extort you for anything by throwing the book at you, and you either risk wasting your life in jail or comply.

This is your so-called "justice" in America?

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Psychopath]

So, once you got arrested by the cops, they can extort you for anything by throwing the book at you, and you either risk wasting your life in jail or comply.

This is your so-called "justice" in America?

You're conveniently leaving out the bit where he was helping undercover cops with Bitcoin for the purpose of obtaining stolen credit card numbers. Fuck this guy.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[penguinoid]

It's not extortion. It's compelling a person to be a witness against himself.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[bloodhawk]

So, once you got arrested by the cops, they can extort you for anything by throwing the book at you, and you either risk wasting your life in jail or comply.

This is your so-called "justice" in America?

plea bargains are common place in most countries. I have no problem with them leveraging the threat of jail against scumbags like this guy in order to catch more or bigger fish. The only time I have real issues with plea bargains is when it is allowing some of the more depraved individuals get off lightly.

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't have a problem when somebody who didn't even think commit an actual crime is intimidatedinto a plea as they face grossly exaggerated charges?

That isn't even on your radar?

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[penguinoid]

And how do you feel when an innocent man accepts a plea bargain because he felt he had no choice but to give a false confession? That is, of course, on of the main dangers in coercing confessions.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[ShanghaiBill]

And how do you feel when an innocent man accepts a plea bargain ..?

... or when a guilty person is coerced into giving false testimony against an innocent person in exchange for leniency. It is common for suspects to agree to testify against another person as part of a plea bargain, and later retract that testimony, yet the conviction of the innocent person will stand.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

honestly even without that, snitches are the worst of low lifes. pick a side and stick with it pussy. its not like the law possess any grain of morality. working with the police is as good as working with a competing mafia.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[bloodhawk]

this isn't about "coercing" a confession. He is guilty, he was caught. What he is doing is trading reduced charges/jail time for giving up other criminals. corruption is corruption and it will exist regardless of what laws are in place so saying you shouldn't endeavor to catch criminals as you might accidently catch someone innocent is ridiculous, police are there to catch criminals, courts are their to evaluate the evidence and determine guilt.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

He did pick a side and stick with it. He picked HIMSELF, a sane and perfectly reasonable choice. As if you owe any sort of allegiance to other criminals. basically it is very similar to the cancer that is patriotism where the government convinces you it is good to sacrifice yourself for their interests. It is bullshit, a snitch is simply someone that finally woke up and made the right choices for a change (i.e. help themselves).

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

why are you changing the topic to a situation that has absolutely nothing to do with the case and what kind of retards are voting you up?

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

law enforcement has plenty of problems. it needs to be cleaned up of bad apples and structural stupidities

it's still orders of magnitude better than actual criminals

if you see no difference, you're only revealing yourself to be a social retard

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

it's a tool. it can abused

you don't have an argument against it's use, you have an argument for monitoring of law enforcement and prosecutors

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[PRMan]

Not even when Aaron Swartz gets life thrown at him for making public domain documents public domain? And then kills himself because of it?

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Dereck1701]

Problem is in the US it has been taken to an untenable degree. The Aaron Swartz situation is a pretty good example, federal prosecutors threw a litany of charges at him that could have put him in prison for up to 50 years, then offered him a 6 month plea deal. All for downloading some publicly funded research papers using questionable means. This creates a situation where people who have committed extremely minor crimes, or those who haven't committed any crime at all, are forced to "admit guilt" or risk an utterly devastated life.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

He agreed to the punishment the moment he became a criminal.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

law enforcement frequently fucks up and is full of bad apples and must follow moronic laws and policies

but i really want to know about this magical place you live where law enforcement never makes a mistake, has no bad actors and has perfect laws and policies

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

you need to be able to keep track of one subject matter at a time. swartz is about prosecutorial overreach and retarded laws endorsed by congresscritters owned by corporations

it doesn't help the side of what is good and right to not even know what the fuck you are talking about

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

look at my sig. i'm no friend of stupid ip laws and aaron's death was a horrible tragedy

but you need to be able to keep track of one subject matter at a time. swartz's case was about prosecutorial overreach and retarded laws endorsed by congresscritters owned by corporations

the scumbag in this story has absolutely nothing to do with swartz. not in intent, not in action, not in prosecution

it doesn't help the side of what is good and right to not even know what the fuck you are talking about. you can't change the system if your position is "bad things happening! everywhere all the time it's all the same and interchangeable!"

no, moron. know what the fuck you are talking about and be able to stay on target and topic. or you just reduce yourself to a useless blathering fool who hurts your cause by making those who care about this cause look to be nothing more than social retards

which, unfortunately as the comments in this thread shows, there are a lot of around here

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

yes, the cops may falsely charge and falsely imprison an innocent person

i also understands the cops may charge and imprison an actual criminal

i am also fairly certain the latter happens a lot more often than the former

and when the former happens, we should work on making sure laws and policies aren't stupid, that bad apples in the system are punished and removed, and that less mistakes happen. and we should appeal bad convictions and overturn them. how's that sound to you?

what we certainly should not do is imagine that all of law enforcement is only defined by the bad outliers, because that would be fucking moronic

we need law enforcement. and we need to clean up law enforcement. what we don't need is a fucking crusade against the existence of law enforcement like a complete social retard

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

Citation needed

i stopped reading there

no citation needed you dumb useless fuck

you don't need to cite that the earth is round or that water is wet. if you don't understand that most of police work is necessary and done competently, even with all the fucking tragedies and maliciousness and accidents, then you're just a stupid socially deficient idiot. most of law enforcement work is actually cleaning up after criminals and fuck ups. really, that's the obvious fucking truth you sheltered ignorant. google the fucking basics of a topic yourself, fucktard

the news covers it when a cop shoots an unarmed man. and that cop should go to jail for a long time

but the news doesn't cover the 100,000 other instances of law enforcement work that actually makes society and your life better

objectively speaking, not as a baseless insult, you are a moron on this topic

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[shaitand]

Who exactly is going to do that? 90-95% of cases require a public defender and public defenders have an average of 7 minutes to spend on your case, have no investigation arm, and almost all that 7 minutes is spent at the appearances during which you first plead not guilty, the 30 second conversation to find out what the prosecution has decided to go with on the plea "bargain", and the subsequent appearance to enter your guilty plea for the plea bargain.

Abuse is the only form the plea bargain takes. It will stay that way too. There isn't a person in this conversation who doesn't have hundreds of charges coming if they'd been caught. The legal system is out of control. Almost everyone in jail is there for something which shouldn't be illegal whether they did it or not and once they are imprisoned for nonsense people then consider it perfectly acceptable to foster an environment of maggot ridden food and rape. If they ever get out they have reduced rights and aren't eligible for employment at any decent job ever again.

How about if the prosecutor doesn't have time to take them to trial and the defender doesn't have time to defend them, we simply call that a lack of due process and turn them loose. And we keep on doing that until our laws are sane.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[shaitand]

"but i really want to know about this magical place you live where law enforcement never makes a mistake, has no bad actors and has perfect laws and policies"

False dichotomy. The current extreme of near universal corruption and abuse at all levels of government including the foot soldiers aka police and a magical land of perfect laws and policies are not the only choices.

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

you do realize that crime and criminals actually exist, right? you only imagine the existence of plea bargains as used against innocent people? what the fuck?

plea bargains are like a wrench. you use a wrench to tighten a bolt. you don't use it to hit a nail or open a window. if some dipshit prosecutor uses a wrench for what a wrench is not intended for, this is an argument against that dipshit prosecutor. it's not an argument against the existence of the fucking wrench!

you fucking social retards, where do you come from?

every single fucking step of law enforcement and criminal prosecution is ripe for abuse. from the time of initial contact between police and suspect, to sentencing by the judge, and every step in between, is rife for thousands of kinds of abuse. and we hear about the abuses and the tragedies daily

and yet, it is better than no justice system at all, by many of orders of magnitude

do you imagine bad intent only exists in the justice system and law enforcement? do you know what a society is like that does not try to combat crime? i'll give you a hint: that society ceases to exist. show me a rich happy society without a functioning law enforcement apparatus. go ahead, i'm waiting

you focus on fixing the problems in the justice system: the structurally moronic policies, the bad apples, you protect against how stupid mistakes can result in horrible accidents

but what you don't fucking do is whine about the existence of the fucking justice system! what is with you social retards?

genuinely, objectively, not as a simple empty insult, you are a socially underdeveloped moron, if you don't recognize the value and importance of law enforcement and prosecution of the inevitable criminals in general society. of which plea bargains are a perfectly legitimate, useful, and vital tool. to say otherwise only reveals you to be incredibly fucking stupid about basic human nature and the world you live in and what happens when society doesn't enforce the basics of how to treat each other. without enforcement, some people will continually treat others far worse than any fucked up law enforcement dept, that's for damn fucking sure. oh you say a law enforcement can do different kinds of worse abuse? then clean it up you fucking moron, don't argue against the existence of law enforcement and prosecution, and the vital tools they need, like plea bargains! jesus fucking christ

in your thinking and your words you focus on the moronic laws, bad actors, and royal fuckups

that's a tiny subset of the what law enforcement is

if you don't understand that, stop talking about what you don't understand. really. you care. but you're a fucking retard on this topic

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

100% correct

i still want to know about where the retard i replied to is from, so i may google and find the easy top 10 examples of recent police and prosecutorial abuse from that country, since it exists everywhere

we're not talking about genocide here, we're talking about a plea bargain with a slimeball criminal. and the asshole i replied to acts like someone is jailing gandhi. this person is obviously a hysterical moron who has no sense of proportion, and i want to prove it to them by shoving far worse recent cases from their own country in their face

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

this isn't about "coercing" a confession. He is guilty, he was caught. [...] courts are their to evaluate the evidence and determine guilt.

And that's exactly what more posters in this thread ignored. He has NOT been determined guilty by a court of law with the prosecution presenting evidence proving his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

He has taken a Plea Agreement, which conveniently short circuited the court system. Prosecution no longer have to prove his guilt because part of the plea is to admit guilt.

Who knows if he was really guilty, or he was just a scapegoat who decided it was cheaper to agree to the plea than risk who knows how many years of jail time?

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[penguinoid]

why are you changing the topic to a situation that has absolutely nothing to do with the case and what kind of retards are voting you up?

Because some people are talking about plea bargains in general, rather than about this specific case.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

There's an opportunity here for either profanity or objective study.

Guess objective study is out of the question, Totally. Predictable.

Captcha: endanger

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

That must explain it. It's not all the tricks they use like denying one access to evidence until days before the trial when they've had you incarcerated for *years* or denying you the right to a speedy trail by means of forcing you into a situation where you can't review the *evidence* because it's hundreds or thousands of pages. Or the dozens of laws they've charged you under for which they can't even make a reasonable connection, or for which were passed to 'be hard on crime', or to get some politician elected/look good in the press, etc. They'll drain you of your financial capacity to defend yourself as well. You had a million dollars and before the trial hasn't even started you've gone broke from the legal costs? Cause that is what happens in the real world.

The federal guilty plea rate has risen from 83% in 1983 to 96% in 2009,[24] a rise attributed largely to the Sentencing Guidelines. That alone should be enough to convince people that there is something terribly wrong with the system. A change in the law meant to make things fairer utterly eliminates ones ability to get a fair sentence. Of those who don't take a plea the chance of winning in court is so low (regardless of guilt) NOBODY whose sane does it.

The smartest thing you can do is plead guilty cause paying a lawyer to defend you will drain you of all the cash you've got and that's what is ultimately going to happen anyway. Then instead spend your money on the specialist lawyers at sentencing. They'll make every effort to get your sentence reduced as much as is possible.

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

That is beside the point.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

This creates a situation where people who have committed extremely minor crimes, or those who haven't committed any crime at all, are forced to "admit guilt" or risk an utterly devastated life.

This creates a situation where people who have committed extremely minor crimes, or those who haven't committed any crime at all, are forced to have their lives devasted by either admitting guilt to a lesser charge or in fighting the greater charge.
FTFY.

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[damnitalready]

"you do realize that crime and criminals actually exist, right? you only imagine the existence of plea bargains as used against innocent people? what the fuck?"

Weren't you just a few threads earlier arguing against home gun ownership? You do realize that crime and criminals actually exist, right? You only imagine the existence of guns as used against innocent people? What the fuck? You spewed a statistic and several arguments against protecting yourself with a firearm because it could be used improperly, yet you're here supporting plea agreements as a tool?

"you fucking social retards, where do you come from?"

Probably the same place as you hypocritical retards.

"if you don't understand that, stop talking about what you don't understand. really. you care. but you're a fucking retard on this topic"

Amen brother, shut the fuck up.

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[david_thornley]

Swartz wasn't threatened with life. Forty years was the maximum penalty for all the counts, and there was no way he'd get anywhere near that.

Moreover, he wasn't charged with what you say. He covertly used somebody else's network to DOS the academic paper site, denying other people the use of the site. That's actual harm. If he'd bothered to limit the bandwidth he was using, so he wouldn't have been an asshole about it, I don't think anybody would have cared, let alone filed charges.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

if you need a study to prove that law enforcement mostly fights crime, you are, objectively speaking, a socially retarded moron

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[circletimessquare]

law enforcement mostly fights crime

you understand that right?

there are bad outliers that need to be cleaned up. absolutely. better laws, more aggressive removal of bad apples, better policies and tactics to prevent tragedies

but my point here is ridicule the (objectively speaking, not a baseless insult) socially retarded morons who are actually on a crusade against the existence of law enforcement itself, and think law enforcement mostly hurts people

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[shaitand]

Is is this mod "overrated" I don't like the point you made day? Because I don't see any logical refutation. Unless "water is wet and law enforcement are good guys you idiot" counts as rational debate on Slashdot these days.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[beastofburdon]

You haven't been paying much attention to the way police behave have you?
career criminals break the law less often than your average police officer. I'll not even get into how bad the "bad outliers" are.

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[beastofburdon]

Looks some little internet dipshit has forgotten that the vast majority of our violent crime and property crime(aka real crime) is actually caused by our laws and law enforcement. If we just got rid of the police altogether crime would go down. At that point, all we need are detectives and a couple grunt security to actually make the arrest. It would amount to less than a tenth of the law enforcement we have now and be far more effective.

Re: Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[beastofburdon]

swartz is about prosecutorial overreach

What do you think this is about then?
If abuse of plea-bargaining is not prosecutor overreach then I do not know what is.

Re:Plea agreement = legalized extortion

[beastofburdon]

I'll trust a drug dealer before a cop any day of the week. They are simply more trustworthy, and usually better people.

"unauthorized money transfer"

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like Florida considers Bitcoin to be money and they need to go after Paypal next.

Wimp

[Anonymous Coward]

Snitch. The BTC community has decided to disable him.

Hash tag FTL
Hash tag Freedom
Hash tag hash tag
-shitposting on Slashdot

You people must have families you need to protect. Fuck you and their law.

Bitcoin is not money

[Tokolosh]

It is a commodity, according to today's news at https://news.yahoo.com/cftc-br...

But according to the plea bargain "The Defendant, PASCAL REID, will enter a plea of guilty
to count three (3) Unauthorized Money Transmitter in violation of Florida Statute 560.125(5)(A)."

So what is it? Money or commodity?

Re:Bitcoin is not money

[Spy Handler]

The money laundering charge he received wasn't because bitcoin is money, it's because he agreed to take $30,000 and help them pay for stolen credit cards by converting their US dollars (money) into bitcoin with which they can swap for the CC numbers. Instead of bitcoin they could've used gold bars or silver or pearl necklaces, it's just that bitcoin was more convenient.

Re:Bitcoin is not money

[mysidia]

The plea agreement doesn't decide what it is; he chooses to plead guilty in exchange for some deal, instead of having a day in court, even if the charges have no merit.

LOLbertarians

[PopeRatzo]

Of course he agreed to work for the police. Because at heart, every BroCoin libertarian is just a punk who will suck the swinging dick of whichever daddy figure has the power.

Re:LOLbertarians

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF? I think your view of libertarians is highly distorted. You need to raise your IP2/3 specs significantly.

Re:LOLbertarians

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course he agreed to work for the police. Because at heart, every BroCoin libertarian is just a punk who will suck the swinging dick of whichever daddy figure has the power.

You've got issues, man.

Re:LOLbertarians

[rtb61]

Limits with criminal working with law enforcement. If law enforcement needs to take advice from criminals, than something is hugely amiss with their training. The only thing criminals should become involved with in regard to policing is testifying about other crimes already committed, nothing more. Pay an honest computer geek/nerd to do it, if it is actually worth doing. This stupid short cut of working with criminals just results in criminally run investigations, where the criminal again seeks to gain advantage by corrupting the process, false witness, reward based testimony and, the criminal being protected by corrupt law enforcement. The only accepted public service should be cleaning public parks, gardens and roadways. Citizens who have broken the law should never ever be used in ongoing policing operations.

Re:LOLbertarians

[drinkypoo]

Limits with criminal working with law enforcement. If law enforcement needs to take advice from criminals, than something is hugely amiss with their training.

They're going straight to the source to find out what the criminals do so they can figure out how to defeat them. That's pretty much exactly what they ought to be doing...

Wimp.Snitch.Fuck.

[zenlessyank]

You play, you pay. We all know that. Then you shut the fuck up until they let you go. The more you say, the longer you stay. Now you are their bitch for life, which will probably be short, since, you know, 'murika.

Re:Wimp.Snitch.Fuck.

[circletimessquare]

internet tough guys. fat social retards eating cheetos in their parent's basement trying out the swagger and language of street drug dealers. hilarious

Re:Wimp.Snitch.Fuck.

[zenlessyank]

I'm tough in person too. Wanna dance??

Re:Wimp.Snitch.Fuck.

[circletimessquare]

you're a fat pasty socially underdeveloped fuck in your parents basement drinking soda by the gallon and with greasy pieces of chips on your unwashed t shirt

i would bet real money on that

a) he took $25,000USD b) money is a commodity

[raymorris]

First, he took $25,000 USD cash. Since cash is most definitely money, money was involved. Bitcoin was also involved.

Secondly, a commodity is a fungible thing of value.
  Money is a fungible thing of value (commodity) that does not spoil (it's a store of value) which can readily exchanged within a community.

So if it's money it is therefore also a commodity. It's not either/or , it's "yes, this is a commodity, is it also money".

Re:a) he took $25,000USD b) money is a commodity

[tepples]

Money is a fungible thing of value (commodity) that does not spoil

Fiat money spoils. It's called inflation. Bitcoin, on the other hand, aims to be deflationary.

Re:a) he took $25,000USD b) money is a commodity

[Anonymous Coward]

Money is a fungible thing of value (commodity) that does not spoil

Fiat money spoils. It's called inflation. Bitcoin, on the other hand, aims to be deflationary.

So in other words, fiat money gradually over time becomes worthless. Bitcoin is worthless right form the start.

Re:a) he took $25,000USD b) money is a commodity

[Kjella]

Fiat money spoils. It's called inflation. Bitcoin, on the other hand, aims to be deflationary.

If you confuse inflation with one of the causes of inflation - printing money. Inflation is a rise in the general price level or a loss of purchasing power, depending on how you look at it. A bitcoin was worth over $1000, now it's worth closer to $200 so that's an actual 80% loss in purchasing power assuming you bought in at the top and live in the US. For the people who just want to use Bitcoin as an intermediary between other currencies you just need a small amount of coins that you keep swapping around, it doesn't matter what the value is as such. It's only the people who want to hold bitcoins that care about the absolute value. Basically you have a bunch of speculators speculating about what other speculators will do. If you get more people collecting bitcoins the price will rise, if they bail out the price will fall. What's keeping the price from falling further? Nothing really, except the belief that it will go back up.

Watch out, street rat

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're lying you're dying

Re:Watch out, street rat

[circletimessquare]

internet tough guys. fat social retards eating cheetos in their parent's basement trying out the swagger and language of street drug dealers. pathetic

What exactly was he convicted of?

[Anonymous Coward]

What exactly was he convicted of? This seems weird on the face of it. Justice???

Re:What exactly was he convicted of?

[Anonymous Coward]

What exactly was he convicted of? This seems weird on the face of it. Justice???

Money laundering. Specifically:

According to a release from the State Attorney's Office, Reid and another suspect, Michel Espinoza, would offer to sell Bitcoins - a virtual, electronic currency. Special agents posing as Bitcoin buyers contacted Reid and Espinoza claiming that they needed to move money to pay for stolen credit card numbers. The agents claimed that some of the numbers came from last year's massive security breach at Target.

Re:What exactly was he convicted of?

[moeinvt]

It's illegal to operate a "money services business" without a license. Basically, they're saying he was operating like a bank or a Western Union by the mere act of selling $25k in bitcoins for cash. I think this is a first of its kind case when it comes to bitcoin.

He had been charged with money laundering, but that charge had already been dismissed

Problem with plea deal

[CanadianMacFan]

While I don't have a problem with plea deals in concept (they do have their issues) I have a problem with this one because it's using the person to provide services that the police department would normally have to pay for. So is this going to be a trend now? When someone with knowledge that the police would normally hire in a consultant for they just make sure that there's a clause in the plea deal saying the person has to help the police. Why stop with consultants? Instead of community service you have to do your hours working at the police department. Free janitors, laborers, etc. Think of how much of the budget it will free up.

Re:Problem with plea deal

[YrWrstNtmr]

Isn't this what people here have been demanding for years? Someone gets busted for a 'computer crime', and instead of a long sentence, work for/with the police to help prevent such in the future.

Well, here's one. And people still bitch about it.

Re:Problem with plea deal

[Anonymous Coward]

They're an admitted Mac fan. You can neither expect intellectual honesty or reasoning from them. They're also from Canada. They're obviously stupid.

Re:Problem with plea deal

[circletimessquare]

if you did something wrong you deserved to be punished

i am pretty sure the punished themselves would rather be doing something constructive than rotting in a prison cell

would it be better for this convict to be in jail for the rest of his life? better for society? better for himself?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Problem with plea deal

[CanadianMacFan]

Doing something constructive is better than being in prison but I object to it taking away a paid job. The police have the resources to pay for someone to consult on computer crimes. The do it know. I'd prefer to see the plea bargain include so many hours teaching computers at a volunteer program for disadvantaged persons or something similar. By having the deal include the consulting for the police it means that the person currently consulting for the police has now lost that work. While probably it wasn't their only income it certainly isn't fair for them.

2nd Amendment, crippled?

[Anonymous Coward]

... I do have a custom build ar that works great for cqc. It's not quite mp5 great, but it's the best I'm going to legally get ...

Man ... the States is getting more and more pathetic!

What the fuck happened to the 2nd Amendment?

Why are you guys willingly letting the authority to cripple the 2nd Amendment??

Re:2nd Amendment, crippled?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah! I'd have a couple of A-10s circling my house with clusterbombs at the ready, that way, when someone breaks in, I'LL GET THE FUCKER!

You should hear yourself. You sound like a fucking moron.

Which means it'll never work as money

[Sycraft-fu]

Seriously, people who think that sustained deflation is workable in a currency need to go and take ECON 200 again and l2money.

Good principle

[Anonymous Coward]

... 20 sessions of law enforcement training in Bitcoin ...

While I agree with the principle of criminals teaching police how to catch other criminals; and the police getting training from experienced 'operatives', I feel a slippery slope nearby. This can only end badly.

Utter nonsense

[edittard]

Florida Bitcoin trader Pascal Reid, who was arrested in a February 2014 sting operation as part of his plea agreement, promised to...

Why did he agree to be arrested? It makes no sense. Surely if he was at the plea bargain stage that had already happened?

Now if you meant "Florida Bitcoin trader Pascal Reid, who was arrested in a February 2014 sting operation, promised as part of his plea agreement to ..." then there's a way to write that.

Facepalm

[Chas]

So. He gets to con ANOTHER group of suckers into believing that Bitcoin is a Good Thing? Right?

Pfft.

And his crime was...

[morgauxo]

An uninformed person reading that summary could be forgiven for thinking that trading in Bitcoins was his crime! I'm sure the words 'money laundering' could have been worked in there somewhere.

Re:"justice"

[hackwrench]

I don't believe in justice, you insensitive clod!

Gun activists beware

[Anonymous Coward]

When you point a gun at an intruder and pull the trigger you may be looking at spending everything you and your families have on lawyers. Even with castle doctrine and the circumstances on your side it doesn't always work out like you think it will.