Occupy Lawyer Stuck With $35K Bill After ‘Homeless Hacker’ Jumps Bail

[MADem]

No good deeds go unpunished, I guess--I feel sorry for this lawyer. He seems to be taking it in stride, though.

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/occupy-lawyer-stuck-with-35k-bill-after-homeless-hacker-jumps-bail.php

RYAN J. REILLY MARCH 8, 2012, 4:20 PM 5053 53
Federal prosecutors have moved to collect $35,000 from a California lawyer who signed an unsecured bond on behalf of Christopher Doyon, the homeless Anonymous hacker who called himself “Commander X,” after Doyon reportedly fled to Canada.

Doyon was arrested by the FBI back in September and charged with taking part in a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the city of Santa Cruz’s computer servers in protest of an anti-camping law. “Commander X” put out a press release on Feb. 11 claiming he used an “underground railroad and network of safe houses” to reach the Canadian border where he hiked through the forest to the “relative safety of the nation of Canada.” The letter demanded that the U.S. drop charges against the other Anonymous defendants and that President Obama “immediately grant a full executive pardon to Bradley Manning, and order an end to the investigation of Julian Assange.”

Ed Fry, a lawyer who has been involved in the the Occupy movement in Santa Cruz, told TPM he met Doyon during the summer of 2010 and put up the bond to help out a friend. He doesn’t think the law will catch up to Doyon, who joined up with the Occupy movement after being released.

“I don’t expect him to be caught. He’s pretty Wile E. Coyote,” said Fry, adding that he last talked to Doyon around Christmas. He said signing the bond was a risk he had to take....

[starroute]

1. Saying "no good deed goes unpunished" puts an uneecessarily negative spin on it

You make it sound as though the hacker conned the lawyer and took advantage of his good nature. But the article doesn't support that interpretation at all.

For example, it has Fry saying, “It goes with the territory. I’m doing a lot of things above and beyond the call for lawyers, and I don’t expect any great rewards.”

That's not somebody who's just "taking it in stride." It's somebody who's dedicated to a cause and is glad to accept the risks.

It also seems as though both Fry and Doyon's own lawyer are pretty much on Doyon's side when it comes to seeing his DDOS attack as a form of civil disobedience, regard the government's attempt to ban Doyon from Twitter and IRC as an unwarranted infringement of his First Amendment rights, and are sympathetic to Doyon's decision to duck out rather than attempting to fight the charges.

There are a lot of moral complexities arising from the government's attempt to use the full weight of the law to crush both Occupy and Anonymous -- but trying to label good guys and bad guys within the movement is far too simplistic a response.

[MADem]

2. Well, you can interpret my comment any way you'd like.

I can't control how you think, you see. I can't control how my few words "sound" to you, either.

My opinions are my own, I don't insist that you share them.

You've done more "opining" and "labeling" than I have, at any rate--and I'm not going to characterize your comments like you did mine.

[starroute]

3. You did say you felt "sorry" for the lawyer

And to me it looked more like the lawyer knew exactly what he was doing and was proud of it.

I thought I was taking your words at face value, not interpreting them, labeling them, or twisting them in any way.

But if you think I have, perhaps you could explain what you did mean and how I distorted that?