Roger Ver does not really mention it, but he was of course not sent to prison and torture merely for selling firecrackers, but the real reason that he was attacked by the government is because he is a leader in Bitcoin, which many government types find a threat to their livelihood because blockchain reduces the need for government.
Roger Ver's story is now shockingly commonplace. The United States now has an extremely alarming number of people in prison (or dead) for political purposes, including: black panthers human rights activists since the 1960s, journalists, infomercial advertisers, best selling authors, medical writers, tech pioneers and other innovators, webmasters, white hat (good) hackers, tax advisors and anti-corruption whistleblowers. If we don't reverse this trend towards this scary China-style censorship and police state, we, our friends and family members will all be at risk of being jailed, tortured and even life sentences for political reasons. The government may now also torture and kill any of us and/or take our property at will. Nearly anyone in any political or government office is virtually immune from prosecution if they abuse your rights. As an example, if you are mistakenly arrested in Los Angeles, you, will likely receive no right to make a phone call, no access to an attorney for many days or weeks, no warm water, no soap, so paper towels, no toilet paper, cold showers / no shower, no clean clothes and little or no access to medical treatment, no outdoor exercise for days, weeks or months, solitary confinement for days, weeks or months. Federal prison is worse of course. Democrats and Republicans have led us to this unacceptable situation. It will take different thinking and action to reverse this loss of human rights in America. We have reached the point where we absolutely must vote only for politicians who loudly speak up for liberty, and who will strongly oppose this horrifying trend toward an Orwellian police state. Police don't like unpopular speech. They will oppose Steem and Steemit more and more. All Steemians are at risk of harassment or arrest, and we must act early or lose more power to defend ourselves from an omnipotent oppressive government that feels threaten by cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. We must stand up against tyranny now or it will eventually be too late.