In memorandum: Ian Murdock - Debian Founder
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Holy carp…
They killed him?
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Been using debian os for many years, never even knew who the founder was. Sad way to find out…
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WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?
Supposed tweets right before his death:
Ian Murdock @imurdock · 9h
I am a white male, make a lot money, pay a lot of money in taxes, and yet
their abuse is equally doned out. DO NOT CROSS THEM!
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 9h
This was right after the female officer ripped
off my underwear… I guess that’s not
considered rape if you’re not a woman being
raped.
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 9h
“We’re the police, we can do whatever the
**** we want…”
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 9h
What does one have to get education wise to become a police officer…
asking for a friend.
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 9h
The rest of my life is to fight against the
police… they are NOT friends, so don’t ever
ever believe otherwise.
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
The police are uneducated, evil, and
sadistic. Do not trust them.
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
(2/2) They are uneducated, bitter, and and
only interested in power for its own sake.
Contact me imurdock@imurdock.com if you
can help. -ian
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
(1/2) The rest of my life will be devoted to
fighting against police abuse… I’m white, I
made $1.4 million last year,
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
i’m hoping coming from a successful white guy it will help everyone
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
i’m going to post my case on my blog… if
anyone can post it on hacker news or
wherever i would apprieciate it
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
@jacksormwriter wants me dead
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
Writing up my experience for others to
hopefully prevent others from police abuse
then you won’t hear from me again
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
where they put you in a cell with absolutely no instructions whatever aside
from the spell on the floor in piss?
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 10h
shall i post pictures for all my bruises from my against the police officers?
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 11h
they said no
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 11h
i asked if they had cameras
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 11h
then followed my home from there
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 11h
i had to have swtitches
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 11h
then they pulled me out of my house and did
it again
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Ian Murdock @imurdock · 11h
they followed me home
What is this business about threatening suicide? What was the actual nature of his death? What was “his case” that he was going to post? This really bugs because FOSS equals transparency and transparency means no puppets or monarchs. Is the regime feeling extra threatened and trying to send a message? Are FOSS people like the new Civil Rights leaders and true Labor Leaders to be bumped off at will? Funny thing is that real transparency (which includes dissemination) can stop that cold and reverse it on the perpetrators. What happened?
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We don’t know how he died but I guess he followed through since the cause of death is not public.
When I read his twitter stream it struck me he had personal or mental health issues that may well have lead him into this situation and contributed to events rather than him being targeted. He was divorced with two daughters, and very identified with his career and said that this was now ruined - potentially very difficult things for a man to handle, and he was 42 which also can be difficult. If he was alone in that state, which he seems to have been, and had access to a gun, very likely in the USA, that’s a very high risk situation.
There’s no obvious reason to target him - he recently joined Docker.
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Something about this feels very Aaron Swartz-esque
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RIP Ian Murdock 
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@Warren Can you link to the actual source for all that? It would be good for developing a credible report on what happened.
I can confirm that those exact posts were on his twitter account. It was shut down yesterday by twitter. Those on pastebin (as well as others on wayback and other archive sites) are accurate.
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I got it off the twitter feed. In the context of what Happybeing posted my subtext seemed a bit excessive. But still it just really bugs because the guy apparently made a massive contribution to FOSS and he ends up dead at 42 under possibly suspicious circumstances. I think Debian is the form of Linux that SAFE favors. And that bit implying rape by the police and wanting to post his case to help others- that’s kind of a marker. Was it suicide or was he offed because of systematic targeting. On the other hand there may be something remotely hopeful in the negative scenarios for this tragedy. If they are starting to ruff people up that means they are feeling back to the wall despite new quantum AI toys etc., that they don’t see a pay for it way out. Maybe they even see their windows of opportunity for power consolidation evaporating.
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Whatever the reason, the current internet and security atmosphere likely didn’t help his mental stability. I have little doubt that he had at least a little pressure from some three letter organizations to steer his software into a more favorable state. Couple that with strong anxiety and untreated depression and you have a recipe for disaster. These organizations gather massive amounts of personal data, create a profile and potentially proceed to carry out psychological operations that could result in self elimination. Convenient. Even if that weren’t the case, this capability must be tightly controlled by wide public interest. We need to make this happen. This is the right community and this the right time. We need to bring to light the incumbents in a direct and engrossing informative manner. 
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or just errrase em
Social justice warriors have already initiated a proposal to remove the name of the white supremacist from the distro name. That is hilarious!
There’s Devuan, so they already have that. But that’s not enough, the underprivileged masses want to witness more dramatic changes.
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