(CLP) Selective Prosecution

There are far more people arrested than the courts can ever try, and prosecutors have broad discretion about whom to prosecute, and how harshly to charge them. We've seen the effects of (legislatively enacted) disparities between powder and crack cocaine sentencing, an example of how apparent due process can get far out of step with justice. In this article on so-called Hacktivism, the philosopher Peter Ludlow discusses some of the odd prosecutorial choices in internet misuse cases. An excerpt:

"In a world in which nearly everyone is technically a felon, we rely on the good judgment of prosecutors to decide who should be targets and how hard the law should come down on them. We have thus entered a legal reality not so different from that faced by Socrates when the Thirty Tyrants ruled Athens, and it is a dangerous one. When everyone is guilty of something, those most harshly prosecuted tend to be the ones that are challenging the established order, poking fun at the authorities, speaking truth to power — in other words, the gadflies of our society."

Here's the whole article:  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/hacktivists-as-gadflies/?smid=tw-share