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posted by janrinok on Friday November 27 2015, @07:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the was-there-no-tv? dept.

In August 2014, Otis Johnson was released from prison after serving a 44-year sentence for the attempted murder of a police officer. He went to jail when he was 25 years old. By the time he came out, he was 69.

He's confused. Being completely removed from society since 1975, Johnson thinks he's entered a dystopia where everyone has become a secret agent wearing wires. The Steve Jobs era has completely passed him by.

Al Jazeera has an interesting video interview with the guy, talking about how modern world is full of surprises for him.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:55AM (#268566)

    Try some copy-editing on the headline? Jesus.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @08:21AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @08:21AM (#268573)

      44 year sentence for attempted murder? Jesus!

      • (Score: 2) by ledow on Friday November 27 2015, @08:42AM

        by ledow (5567) on Friday November 27 2015, @08:42AM (#268582) Homepage

        Why should attempted murder be punished any differently to murder?

        The *intent* is still there, or it would be manslaughter, you just happened not to be successful.

        And it was on a police officer, which automatically amplifies things.

        ("I know I tried to kill him, your honour, but he was able to overpower me / call for help before I could manage to finish the job"...).

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:42AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:42AM (#268595)

          Why should attempted murder be punished any differently to murder?

          It shouldn't but it is.

          And it was on a police officer, which automatically amplifies things.

          Ditto.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:57AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:57AM (#268602)

          but really, wouldn't parole make sense after 20 or 30 years?
          Since the guy is harmless enough to be interviewed about novel technology, it doesn't seem likely that he would have been any more of a danger to society ten years ago...

          • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday November 27 2015, @11:58AM

            by isostatic (365) on Friday November 27 2015, @11:58AM (#268623) Journal

            At which date did he change from being someone capable of murder to someone not capable of murder?

            • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:03PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:03PM (#268638)

              At which date did he change from being someone capable of murder to someone not capable of murder?

              On April 22, 1994 at 1351. Next question!

            • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:45PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:45PM (#268653)

              Someone not capable of murder would be an old crippled invalid with no money.

              Everyone else is quite capable of murder. American cops do it all the time.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Friday November 27 2015, @01:45PM

            by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 27 2015, @01:45PM (#268652)

            The age is kind of important, he can coast till death on medicare and various elder care handout programs.

            A decade ago (or earlier) the guy would have been 59 and the .gov would be like "F off pull your bootstraps up" and he'd have no choice to do anything other than a life of crime. So keeping him in obviously prevented at least one attempted crime at absolute best case.

            Its not like corporations are falling over themselves in hiring preference for convicted felons (well other than executive positions)

            • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:52PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:52PM (#268656)

              "F off pull your bootstraps up" and he'd have no choice to do anything other than a life of crime

              Isn't the American dream just wonderful! Put people in prison and keep them from gaining any useful skills that could possibly let them earn a living.

              • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday November 27 2015, @04:42PM

                by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday November 27 2015, @04:42PM (#268707)

                Don't forget that private corporations that own the prisons made more money off of him for 10 years as well. They stand to make a profit from not rehabing inmates.

                --
                "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
        • (Score: 5, Informative) by DNied on Friday November 27 2015, @10:48AM

          by DNied (3409) on Friday November 27 2015, @10:48AM (#268612)

          Why should attempted murder be punished any differently to murder?

          Err... because no-one got actually killed?

          The *intent* is still there

          That's laughably simplistic, given the existence of the subconscious, and how it can sabotage our plans.

          It's stuff that must be judged on a case-by-case basis.

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by CirclesInSand on Saturday November 28 2015, @04:01AM

            by CirclesInSand (2899) on Saturday November 28 2015, @04:01AM (#268972)

            It isn't laughably simplistic, it's practically simplistic. Intent, or "Mens Rea" is all that should be judged in a crime.

            The reason it isn't is because authoritarians want to outlaw so many things that don't actually harm anyone. Possession, morality, beliefs, etc. I wish anyone as naive as calling "mens rea" laughable would never be on a jury.

            No one is saying that things aren't judged on a case by case basis. But what is judged shouldn't be the outcome, but what the intended outcome was.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 27 2015, @04:02PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 27 2015, @04:02PM (#268691) Journal
          Because the harm didn't happen. Your punishment should reflect as well the harm that actually occurred. Now, an important point here is that we don't know the extent of the harm to the police officer, circumstances of the attack, or what other charges Otis Johnson was charged with. For example, if the police officer were permanently crippled as a result of the attack, if Mr. Johnson were trying to kill the police officer in a classroom, or whether the charge of attempted murder was merely the tip of a large iceberg of lesser crimes (say several dozen cases of burglary, for example, which the journalist neglected to tell us about). It is also possible he was guilty of crime while black.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:17AM (#268593)

      hey, I despise gods as much as anyone, but the title came from janrinok/ticho, not Jesus.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Friday November 27 2015, @08:22AM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Friday November 27 2015, @08:22AM (#268575) Homepage

    Man Released From Prison After 44 Years React to Today'S Technology

    The first thing that confused him was how we don't put an s on the end of our verbs any more, and capitalise the ones that come after apostrophes.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk
    • (Score: 2) by ticho on Friday November 27 2015, @02:32PM

      by ticho (89) on Friday November 27 2015, @02:32PM (#268664) Homepage Journal

      Yeah, the "react" is my fault, the original wording was "watch man ... react" and I later removed the first word. How the second 's' got capitalized, I've no clue. It already got fixed anyway. :-)

    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday November 27 2015, @03:07PM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 27 2015, @03:07PM (#268672) Journal
      The second 's' in '"Today's" got changed by a script that is frequently used when we are editing. We usually spot it, but this time I didn't. Apologies.
  • (Score: 4, Touché) by jimtheowl on Friday November 27 2015, @08:37AM

    by jimtheowl (5929) on Friday November 27 2015, @08:37AM (#268579)

    I feel that I've entered a dystopia where everyone else is wearing a wireless camera and microphone devices, unwittingly collecting information about everybody else's life.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by patrick on Friday November 27 2015, @10:55AM

      by patrick (3990) on Friday November 27 2015, @10:55AM (#268613)

      Except he doesn't think it's a dystopia, nor does he think "everyone has become a secret agent wearing wires". Either the guy writing TFS is making things up or is slightly autistic (unable to read Otis' body language / intonation).

      Otis thinks things seem crazy and different, but his smile and amicable tone imply interest, not fear. He also says he likes to try out the different things, like colored drinks, because they're "crazy". He also talks about liking freedom. Hardly anything implying "dystopia".

      He originally made the association between people talking on their phones with earphones and the CIA, because, as he says, "That's the only thing I can think of. Somebody walking around with wires in their ears." But the focus was clearly on the oddity (ie: people talking to themselves and walking around without looking where they're going).

      • (Score: 1) by jimtheowl on Friday November 27 2015, @11:15AM

        by jimtheowl (5929) on Friday November 27 2015, @11:15AM (#268616)

        That changes absolutely nothing to my observation.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by Nerdfest on Friday November 27 2015, @11:32AM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Friday November 27 2015, @11:32AM (#268619)

        He's probably just happy he missed the "Steve Jobs era". At some point in time I guess there was a point where *everyone* was a douchebag.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:34PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:34PM (#268627)

          He's probably just happy he missed the "Steve Jobs era". At some point in time I guess *everyone* became a douchebag. Welcome back!

          There. FTFY.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:46PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:46PM (#268632)

            He's probably just happy he missed the "Steve Jobs era". At some point in time I guess *everyone* became a douchebag. Welcome back!

            There. FTFY.

            He's probably just happy he missed the "Steve Jobs became a douchebag era".

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:51PM (#268636)

    WTF is the Steve Jobs era?
    I've heard of the guy but what events and what time period is he responsible for that he is attributed sole ownership of?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:00PM (#268637)

      WTF is the Steve Jobs era?
      I've heard of the guy but what events and what time period is he responsible for that he is attributed sole ownership of?

      Perhaps this [facebook.com]?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by iwoloschin on Friday November 27 2015, @03:31PM

      by iwoloschin (3863) on Friday November 27 2015, @03:31PM (#268684)

      Reality distortion.

      And hipsters.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @11:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @11:23PM (#268866)

      You must be a troll. Steve Jobs created the MP3 format used for digital audio, the cellphone, and e-mail.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by number6 on Friday November 27 2015, @03:13PM

    by number6 (1831) on Friday November 27 2015, @03:13PM (#268675) Journal

    The Al Jazeera site layout is biased to mobile device ass-raping/browsing ; Massive billboard-sized images taking up the full width of the screen forcing you to scroll way down to find a scrap of text.
    It looks and behaves like a pile of shit on my desktop browser (Pale Moon + Addons: Adblock Edge, Request Policy).
     
    It pops up a gray overlay with error message, and the page never finishes loading, amd it disables your context menu and all other controls.
     
    The popup error message say's:

    Some files on the server may be missing or incorrect. Clear browser cache and try again...

     
    So I create a new blocking filter in Adblock Edge--  ||interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/shorts/life-after-prison/scripts/*  --and I reload the page
     
    and the popup error message has changed to this:

    MuseJSAssert: Error calling selector function:[Exception... "prompt aborted by user" nsresult: "0x80040111 (NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE)" location: "JS frame :: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Pale%20Moon/.../.../components/nsPrompter.js :: openTabPrompt :: line 425" data: no]

     
    Mmmm ......
     
    So then I have a look at the list of third-party domains being blocked by 'Request Policy' addon:

    creativecloud.com | google-analytics.com | facebook.net | youtube.com | businesscatalyst.com | twitter.com | chartbeat.com

     
    Mmmm ......
     
    So then I said "FUCK THIS SHIT !!"
     
    and I opened a new browser tab and went to:   _https://duckduckgo.com/html/   (no-JS light version)
    and I searched for:   Otis Johnson prison 44-year text transcript
     
    and I found the article as I would like it presented to me, here:    Prisoner who was in jail for 44 YEARS re-enters society - and is left totally bewildered by... [dailymail.co.uk]
    A very nice article and page layout, full text summary blended with a full gallery of images in sane proportions all on one page .....well done DAILY MAIL +++++
     
    ......and FUCK YOU AL JAZEERA, I'M NEVER VISITING YOU AGAIN!

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Justin Case on Friday November 27 2015, @03:51PM

      by Justin Case (4239) on Friday November 27 2015, @03:51PM (#268688) Journal

      it disables your context menu and all other controls.

      Funny, it did no such thing to me.

      Oh, I get it now. You probably chose the browser configuration that says "allow random asshats like Al Jazeera to fuck with my browser".

      (Your browser may have a different name for the setting, like perhaps "Enable JavaScript".)

      Anyway, if that's the reason, you are an idiot who got what he deserved, and will continue to do so, until you wise up and understand that the Internet is not a nice place, and your computer belongs to you, not to Al Jazeera.

      • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by number6 on Friday November 27 2015, @04:15PM

        by number6 (1831) on Friday November 27 2015, @04:15PM (#268696) Journal

        You like sucking Al Jazeera's cock. Carry on then.

        • (Score: 2) by number6 on Friday November 27 2015, @04:28PM

          by number6 (1831) on Friday November 27 2015, @04:28PM (#268702) Journal

          I read your message for a third time and eventually realized you are not an Al Jazeera shill, but are questioning my security configuration.
          I go to the darkest most dangerous parts of the internet with this browser and I'm still here talking...and my browser handles all of it.
          My browser and operating system are locked down hard and I have 100% confidence in the config; save your breath and pass your chest-beating lecture to somebody else.
          What I described in my previous reply is unique abnormal behaviour as seen from my end.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:23PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @07:23PM (#268759)

            He's right: a web site cannot fiddle with your context menu, that is unless you allow it. And JavaScript is the avenue.

            No chest beating or anything else. Just the facts.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @12:37AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @12:37AM (#268892)

              He's right: a web site cannot fiddle with your context menu, that is unless you allow it. And JavaScript is the avenue.

              No chest beating or anything else. Just the facts.

              True enough, but Justin ignored Wheaton's Law [knowyourmeme.com] when he said:

              ...you are an idiot who got what he deserved, and will continue to do so, until you wise up and understand that the Internet is not a nice place...

              Which just goes to prove the GIFT [penny-arcade.com].

              He could just (actually, more easily) as easily have pointed out the dangers of enabling javascript without the nastiness. That sort of thing is *why* we can't have anything nice.

    • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday November 27 2015, @06:38PM

      by vux984 (5045) on Friday November 27 2015, @06:38PM (#268742)

      The page worked fine for me, my context menu wasn't adjusted. I've got adblock and ghostery running.

      creativecloud.com | google-analytics.com | facebook.net | youtube.com | businesscatalyst.com | twitter.com | chartbeat.com

      googleanalytics - blocked by ghostery
      facebook - blocked by ghostery
      chartbeat - blocked by ghostery
      twitter - blocked by ghostery

      youtube.com -- well you clicked that link knowing even the soylent summary mentioned had an interview to watch.
      creativecloud -- webfonts; because like it or not, most website designers today think the default web fonts are too limiting.

      And... musecdn.businesscatalyst -- is a website authoring tool
      http://www.businesscatalyst.com/faqs/adobe-muse [businesscatalyst.com]
      And what are they actually loading from business catalyst? jquery-1.8.3.min.js

      FUCK YOU AL JAZEERA, I'M NEVER VISITING YOU AGAIN!

      Honestly. You are welcome to browse the web with whatever settings you like; but the al jazeera page is pretty reasonable in my books for that kind of site; and worked fine with the usual adblock and ghostery settings I use to keep the most onerous stuff at bay.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Daiv on Friday November 27 2015, @03:42PM

    by Daiv (3940) on Friday November 27 2015, @03:42PM (#268687)

    I thought televisions were still allowed in prison. And visitors. And a constant churn of new inmates and guards. Was he in solitary for 44 years?

    No, I'm not watching the video. This stuff could, however, be placed in the summary.

    • (Score: 2) by umafuckitt on Friday November 27 2015, @11:02PM

      by umafuckitt (20) on Friday November 27 2015, @11:02PM (#268850)

      He spends most of his time talking about stuff other than technology. The summary is maybe a little skewed.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:01PM (#268802)

    Even if he didn't miss out on the last 40 years, his age alone would cause some confusion with 'modern tech'. Most of the "older generation" has issues with it, and they lived thru it..

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Justin Case on Friday November 27 2015, @09:04PM

      by Justin Case (4239) on Friday November 27 2015, @09:04PM (#268803) Journal

      The "issues" I have are that a lot of "modern tech" sucks and does obvious damage. The "issues" are not that I don't understand it.

  • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Saturday November 28 2015, @01:04AM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Saturday November 28 2015, @01:04AM (#268920) Journal

    'The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry'

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @05:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @05:06AM (#268990)

    1975 to 2014 is 39 years. Not a lot of win in this article. :|

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @06:38AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @06:38AM (#269016)
      Apparently he aged 44 years in prison though. US prison life is harsh.