Accountablity: is the death penalty too severe punishment for BP's management?

reply to post by C11H17N2NaO2S


I guess you are late to the party, because a ton of evidence has emerged that shows deliberate negligence on BP's part. Perhaps you missed the part where BP has been convicted of some 760 egregious violations of safety and environmental laws. Most likely you don't recall the deaths of the refinery workers at Port Arthur where BP was convicted and paid fines for causing their deaths. Perhaps you missed the part about BP overriding TransOcean's rep on safety just before the blowout.

How many facts do you need?

None of the fines changed their behavior.

Something has to be severe enough to get and keep their attention.

Try doing your homework before defending the indefensible.

If I would have been a marketing director at BP, I had the management in a video cleaning birds like they were their own children pets.

Sadly these people only care about their image to the stockholders.

This is an oil stain on BP's image so big that no amount of the so called "biodegradable" Corexit can wash away.

Originally posted by apacheman

Probably the only real question in my mind is exactly how and where to execute them.

Given that a number of the directors are British, I suspect the US would have to engage in drone strikes on the UK to execute these guys... (my silly comment)

But that is a side issue, I will bring to your attention the Piper Alpha Disaster, in the North Sea in which 167 died due to an Oil companies poor safety protocols (yes an US Corporate)

The Cullen enquiry was critical of Piper Alpha's operator, Occidental, which was found guilty of having inadequate maintenance and safety procedures.

The enquiry made 106 recommendations for changes to North Sea safety procedures, all of which were accepted by industry.

Most significant of these recommendations was that the responsibility for enforcing safety in the North Sea should be moved from the Department of Energy to the Health and Safety Executive, as having both production and safety overseen by the same agency was a conflict of interest.

I'm keen to know if any conflict of interests have occured here.. and who else is complicit in the disaster, what lessons we can learn to ensure nothing likes this happens again.. and fining those responsible to the hilt.

In the meanwhile, fixing the problem, and cleaning up every inch of the Gulf should be a priority.

In all honesty, all this type of approach (i.e execution) will do is ensure no CEO/Director operates on US soil.. they'll all take a hands off approach, and operate through surrogates.. All this approach will do is ensure not one of them will ever take ownership of the problems they create.

Edit to fix typo

[edit on 13/6/10 by thoughtsfull]

no. Ive been saying for a long time, especially when it comes to government atleast, that the head positions should be subject to death penalties because you shouldnt be in charge unless you are willing to suffer consequences.
there needs to be risk to high profile positions because that would make it easier for good people to do good things.

[edit on 13-6-2010 by Sri Oracle]

If and when this does rise to the point of being an extinction level event and people become aware of it.

There will be no place in the world where those people can hide. For the rest of us the struggle will be to stay alive long enough to see the final curtain on this play. It will make "Mad Max" look like a Sunday School game.