Hounded to death by the corrupt - Aaron Swartz a warning to future coders

The government has decided to re-haul our education system and as well as banning a lot of US authors from the English syllabus (what the hell?) they have also decreed that all school kids should be able to write computer code.  This, of course, is in the hope that, like Estonia, a bunch of these youngsters will come up with something like Skype and bring riches to the nation’s coffers.  Their present attempts to get their hands on the pensions of so many workers (See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2326105/Teachers-NHS-staff-pension-income-slashed-third.html) continues unabated but such tinkering with the education system has not a good history.  Educational reforms usually end badly.  Throwing away phonetics eventually spelt illiteracy (forgive my pun), not requiring times tables left innumeracy in its wake.  So what about code writing?  Would creating a generation of programming geniuses end well? 

Jonathan James was an exceptional programmer and became a hacker.  He was caught up in a raid by the US secret service involved in an identity theft scam of TJX.  It is unsure if he had any involvement but probably, some of his older acquaintances did.  Being raided was a big thing, as was the threat of prosecution.  Suddenly, the cool skills he’d cultivated got him in deep trouble.  It seems, behind a console, hackers like so many of us, feel that the boundaries between make believe and real life blur.  Most of us would never dream of stealing but a high percentage of us will happily download a favourite series/film and feel secretly smug and not as guilty as we should.  This weird virtual world of the web has its own laws but the general public has yet to register that this ‘anything goes’ frontier has no go areas.  Downloading the wrong images can lead to imprisonment at a time when most of the public has a naïve attitude to kids and friends using their computers, fail to install effective firewalls and have loads of unsolicited files on their hard drives they are totally unaware of.

Back to Jonathan, two weeks after that raid by the secret service, he took his own life and left a suicide note which read,

“I honestly, honestly had nothing to do with TJX.  I have no faith in the justice system.  Perhaps my actions today will send a stronger message to the public.  Either way, I have lost control over this situation and this is my only way to gain control.”

Of course Massachusetts Assistant US Attorney Stephan Heyman, who pursued Jonathan, was also the one who hounded Aaron Swartz until he too took his own life on Jan 11 in 2013.

Aaron, like Jonathan, was a technological genius.  At the age of 14 he authored the RSS web syndication, at 19 he co programmed the social news and entertainment website Reddit.  He founded Demand Progress, a group advocating against Internet censorship bills.  By the age of 24, Swartz was a Harvard research fellow conducting studies on political corruption.  One colleague spoke of Aaron’s motivation,

“What kind of millionaire founder of a tech website chooses to spend time sitting in a congressional office (as Aaron did) to really understand the work flow?  No one.  That doesn't happen.  He was a basic technocratic liberal who thought that if you worked really hard and approached a problem with openness and curiosity, then it was possible you could make life better for people.”

It was in pursuance of that goal that he downloaded academic journals from a JSTOR database in MIT.  This crime, and it is undoubtedly a crime, did not justify the 35 years and 1 million dollar fine that the US Attorney Stephen Heyman sought.

Aaron Swartz once he knew imprisonment was inevitable took his own life.  To be frank MIT/JSTOR are left tainted along with the US Justice system.  Another young coder dead, at the hands of a system that needs honest self-examination.  As long as governments enthuse about the possibility of young coders they should also be honest about the deadly big stick awaiting brilliant nerds that step out of line.  The ‘over the top’ reaction becomes even more obscene when one realises, in hindsight, that these institutions are often frighteningly more corrupt than those they hound to death. http://www.boston.com/news/politics/gallery/massachusetts_indicted_politicians/

Ewald - Knight of Justice of the Order of St John

Generally, I am not keen on political types.  Having long been of the persuasion that by the time an individual has been elected they invariably have unencumbered themselves of basic human morals.  Ewald Von Kleist-Schmenzin was a lawyer and a conservative politician in what was then Germany but which is now part of Poland.  He was from a distinguished family (2 Field Marshalls etc) and was virulently anti-Nazi even before Hitler came to power in 1933.  He stubbornly refused to fly the Nazi flag from his castle (Schloss Schmenzin) and the only insignia he embraced was the white Maltese cross of the Order of St John.  He was made a Knight of Justice of this order in 1935. 

Schloss Schenzin

After Hitler came to power a refusal to offer the German greeting (Heil Hitler) could cost you your life.  Even an ambiguous remark like “The war was not going well” could be interpreted as opposition behaviour and lead to dire consequences.  Not contributing to a Nazi fund drive was another easy way to be identified as disloyal to the Führer.  So when in 1933 a Nazi Party District leader visited Ewald he must have been rather flummoxed  by Ewald’s emphatic responses, that

1. he was indeed an enemy of the Nazi Party
2. he would never say Heil Hitler
3. he would always refuse to fly the Nazi flag over his castle, Schloss Schmenzin
4. and finally that he would give nothing to the Nazi party not even ten pennies!

Tack was not his strong point.  He held to his loathing and hatred of the Nazi party for ten years during which fear made good men compromise their principles.  In 1944 his son was asked to take part in a suicide attempt on Hitler’s life.  Hesitating on the implications of this mission the son turned to his father almost hoping that his father would object.  Ewald responded with a short silence and then said this memorable line to his son,

Ewald's son

“A man who doesn’t take such a chance will never again be happy in life.”

His son actually twice agreed to carry explosives to detonate near Hitler but both plots failed.  When a briefcase exploded near Hitler in another attempt the consequences were severe and the very next day Ewald was arrested.  He was tried in the Peoples Court by Roland Freisler.

Ronald Freisler

Freisler chaired the First Senate of the People's Court, and acted as judge, jury and prosecution in these show trials.  90% of all these proceedings ended with sentences of death or life imprisonment, the sentences frequently having been determined before the trial.  Freisler introduced the concept of 'precocious juvenile criminal' in the "Juvenile Felons Decree". This decree "provided the legal basis for imposing the death penalty and penitentiary terms on juveniles for the first time in German legal history.

 Over a period of a few short years Fresier’s court resulted in 5000 executions including 72 juveniles (one 16 year old boy was executed for handing out anti-fascist texts).  In the court facing Freisler’s questions Ewald was as blunt and belligerent as usual and was in no way intimidated by the proceedings.  He announced

“Yes, I have pursued high treason since 30 Jan 1933 always and with every means.  I made no secret of my struggle against Hitler and National Socialism.  I regard this struggle as a commandment from God.  God alone will be my judge.”

It was a very timely comment.  An American bomb flattened the courthouse, halting proceedings and killing Freisler. 

Despite this seemingly divine intervention Ewald was nevertheless guillotined at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin on 9 April 1945 (69 years ago exactly to this day) — one month before the end of the war.  Ewald did not go quietly into that dark night and his words written shortly before his execution echo yet.

Schloss Schenzin

“We believe that faith in God and obedience to His Word must permeate our public life…..Who is the greater, who has achieved more for humanity, Caesar, or a simple, conscientious genuine working man, whose whole life has been an example of faith? I think it is the working man.”

PS In March 2013 Ewald's son died at the age of 90 having amazingly survived the war.