Originally posted by davebo
You've missed Benderbot's point.
Yes, we've all missed Benderbot's point. The point is we all have approached this in retrospect as a "means-to-an-end" story. Hey, a bad guy was caught, so it doesn't matter what had to happen to crack the case. Right? Maybe - Maybe not.
Benderbot is questioning the fact that we all blindly followed what we read based on one persons story of one incident. Here is my response-
I did not know Eric, but I saw something in him that I see in myself. A genuine person. I did do research before I decided to help, and thats why I didnt chime in to help until the very last days when he already had almost all of the pieces together. Seeing as how Eric has been pretty involved in the Mac community over the years, I did searches for his posts on the Internet over the last few years. I read his words; I got a feel for him. I saw that he was in fact a real person, with a few email addresses, and documented history that preceded him as an honest kind of guy. I then contacted other people who posted notes on the message boards that had said, hey this happened to me too. I made sure they were involved and told similar stories. Only then did I decide to believe this could possibly be true and offered to help.
Next, I echo Benderbot's statement that Vigilantism is wrong. As defined, vigilantism is taking of law enforcement into one's own hands. However, nothing that anyone did to help was a means to enforce a law. All the information gathered for free on the Internet, the information gathered from reverse-lookup services, and the information gathered in Markham via photographs was nothing more than an exchange of information. All the information exchanged WAS legally available. In terms of Watching And Besetting laws, my photographs were all of public view from public property on one occasion without persistence. Personally, I would not mind someone photographing my neighborhood. But thats just because my pacifist ways lend me to have a belief in the general good will and intentions of individuals.
But anyways
getting back off your point
As a means-to-an-end kind of guy, I am damn proud of what everyone did to help Eric. And Ill be there to help the next person.
Benderbot, you should be proud to see that although the motives were not grounded in fact, the thoughts of the collective (involving baseball bats and the such) and the actions of the few more involved (peaceful research) were radically different. Eric found a way to have a legally entitled Law Enforcement Official actual enforce the law. This was the point of contact in which the rights of the accused person became violated and this was when a law officer was properly involved.
Oh yah, and I would gladly help you walk across the street without genuine proof from the police that you actually needed it. I think its sad that you have such low hope for humanity and such distanced distrust in the genuine nature of people. I fear society is tearing itself apart in an endless circle of isolation and fear with attitudes like that. It seems you believe in a world where perfect justice may be attained by a righteous legal system of justice, laws, and enforcement. This however isn't how it is out here. Please look at the issues we face today around the world. There are many ugly situations and usually more gray solutions than black and white outcomes. Everything cannot be controlled.
Put yourself in Erics shoes. After three failed attempts to get assistance from different law enforcement agencies from multiple states, living a thousand miles away, and being in the red for $3000
. What would you YOURSELF do if you KNEW that there was someone scamming ebay sellers at a rate of almost once per week for thousands of dollars each?
