His company does surveillance tech for the criminal justice system, meaning they handle sensitive data and are involved in areas with high risk of racial bias and important privacy and ethics questions. If I was contracting with him, I'd be concerned about why his criminal history wasnt communicated sooner given how relevant it is to the nature of his business (especially with concerns about racial discrimination in the criminal justice system), and I'd be curious why I only found out about it through a news report. He isn't owed societies trust with something so sensitive, delicate, and important. I'm glad he's reformed as a person from his getaway driver for a racially motivated drive by shooting days, but I don't feel sad at all that government is taking the background history of their contractors very seriously and that he is responding by stepping down to signal to people impacted by the criminal justice system the values of Banjo and to alleviate concerns people will have if their police force is contracting with an ex KKK member.
> If I was contracting with him, I'd be concerned about why his criminal history wasnt communicated sooner given how relevant it is to the nature of his business (especially with concerns about racial discrimination in the criminal justice system) and I'd be curious why I only found out about it through a news report.
Why is this concerning? Do you expect people to post their criminal histories on their LinkedIn? Even if said crimes occurred as a minor and the person has spent their whole adult lives as a law abiding person?
I don't find it curious at all as to why he didn't go around announcing his past criminal connections: because it would hamper his career prospects, and because he doesn't want people to portray the actions he took as a homeless teenager as reflecting his character as an adult. This whole thread demonstrates why not highlighting his past history was a wise decision.
Looking at the original article, it looks like he continued associating with skinhead groups in his time in the military[0], and that the reason it didn't come up in background searches is because his name was misspelled.
Yes, I absolutely expect someone entrusted with enormous responsibility in the criminal justice realm to be upfront and open about their past and be held to a far higher, far more stringent standard. And it doesn't help that his company hasn't been the most morally upright company in recent times either[1].
Also, he did state that he had been involved in gangs, as per your own source:
> “We all have a personal story,” Patton told an audience at the Domopalooza tech conference in Salt Lake City in March 2019. “It’s probably what drives you every day to do what you do. Drives your family life, your work life. It’s no different from me.”
> “I came out of an abusive household,” he told the crowd. “When I was a young kid. And I left. And I was a homeless kid living on the streets, under the underpass of the freeway in Los Angeles, eating out of the dumpster. Never finished high school, belonged to street gangs,” he said. “Was up to no good.”
> Looking at the original article, it looks like he continued associating with skinhead groups in his time in the military
He refers to associating with these groups in the past tense, in his 1992 testimony (at which time he was 19). As I stated, the evidence corroborates Patton's explanations that these activities were limited to his teenage years.
I would be more concerned about the government spying and their programs with private companies like this as an end run around several Constitutional limits on government power
