Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 02:48:00 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Organizers of Charlottesville fined $25 million in damages

Started by Retinend, November 24, 2021, 07:22:44 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Retinend

After the Rittenhouse trial, this should be welcome news:

New York Times: "Jury Finds Rally Organizers Responsible for Charlottesville Violence"

"The most prominent defendants included Richard Spencer, once seen as the leader of the alt-right in the United States; Jason Kessler, who organized the event; and Christopher Cantwell, a vocal neo-Nazi podcaster who is already serving 41 months in federal prison in a separate threats and extortion case.





"James Fields, already serving multiple life sentences for murdering the counterprotester with his car,  was found liable for $12 million in punitive damages, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars for medical expenses stemming from assault, battery and emotional distress.

"Lawyers for the far-right organizers said they would seek to reduce those amounts, and there was little chance that their clients could pay in any event. "The defendants in this case are destitute, none of them have any money,"  said Joshua Smith, who represented Matthew Heimbach, Matthew Parrott and the Traditionalist Worker Party, modeled on the Germany's Nazi Party."

...

"The federal charges related to whether the rally organizers had engaged in a race-based violent conspiracy, which is illegal under an 1871 federal law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act that was designed to prevent vigilantes from denying newly freed slaves their civil rights. "

"The trial brought to life the hatred and anger espoused by the far-right groups, especially on the streets of Charlottesville. A torch-lit march on the eve of the rally, with hundreds of men chanting racist slogans, evoked Ku Klux Klan and Nazi marches. The testimony as well as the many videos and social media posts introduced were awash in the iconography of hate, with Nazi symbols and stiff-armed salutes, with admiration for Hitler and claims that nonwhite races were inferior."



"Supporters of the far-right maintained a cheering section online full of expletive-laced rants against Black and Jewish people, while the defendants themselves weighed in with commentary. In an online interview, Michael Hill, 69, president of the League of the South, which seeks to establish a white ethno-state, called the courtroom a "front line" in the battle.

While testifying, Mr. Hill was asked to read part of a pledge that he had posted online. "I pledge to be a white supremacist, racist, antisemite, homophobe, a xenophobe, an Islamophobe and any other sort of phobe that benefits my people, so help me God," he read with apparent enthusiasm. He added: "I still hold those views.""


shoulders


madhair60


Icehaven

Quote"The defendants in this case are destitute, none of them have any money,"  said Joshua Smith,

So what happens in cases like this if the damages are awarded but the defendants have no/little means to pay? Is it just tough on the victims and they either don't get any money or get five quid a week for the next 675 years or is there some government/state fund that pays out then theoretically seeks to reclaim it from the defendants?

Retinend

The good news is that the Richard Spencer estate is definitely NOT destitute. The other guys will probably be happy to declare bankruptcy and live a low-income life, but Spencer will now have to defend his family's (literal) erstwhile-slave planation from being stripped for assets 🥂

It's a good question though - I am always curious what it meant for those Napster users when Sony BMG (or whoever) slapped a million dollar lawsuit on them to make examples of them. Do they just have to arrange some sort of payment plan - 200 dollars a month for 400 years?

idunnosomename

Quote from: Retinend on November 24, 2021, 10:41:07 AMThe good news is that the Richard Spencer estate is definitely NOT destitute. The other guys will probably be happy to declare bankruptcy and live a low-income life, but Spencer will now have to defend his family's (literal) erstwhile-slave planation from being stripped for assets 🥂

It's a good question though - I am always curious what it meant for those Napster users when Sony BMG (or whoever) slapped a million dollar lawsuit on them to make examples of them. Do they just have to arrange some sort of payment plan - 200 dollars a month for 400 years?

They usually settled for a few thousand, often as much as was in their bank account.

https://www.eff.org/wp/riaa-v-people-five-years-later

You can't sue people for money they don't have. And they cant go to prison because it's not a criminal case. Still ruined some people's lives and they're still suffering from it I'm sure, but only indirectly

shoulders

Surely the cruel and unusual punishments judges mete out in the US would be more appropriate here? Have them fix up tenements in majority black areas while wearing the name badge 'Hello, I am Richard Spencer, the Nazi'

Paul Calf

Bankrupting someone while they're in prison is pretty harsh, I think. Without access to commissary their lives would be pretty bleak, and if they're on a life sentence, that's quite a severe punishment.

Retinend

Quote from: shoulders on November 24, 2021, 11:25:53 AMSurely the cruel and unusual punishments judges mete out in the US would be more appropriate here? Have them fix up tenements in majority black areas while wearing the name badge 'Hello, I am Richard Spencer, the Nazi'


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/01/judge-orders-rightwing-extremist-to-read-classic-literature-or-face-prison

madhair60


Butchers Blind