{"id":176430,"date":"2020-06-18T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/06\/18\/so-sentence-them-to-prison\/"},"modified":"2020-06-18T18:14:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:14:00","slug":"so-sentence-them-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/06\/18\/so-sentence-them-to-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"So Sentence Them to Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Pacific Gas &amp; Electric (PG&amp;E) has <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2020\/06\/utility-pleads-guilty-to-84-counts-of-manslaughter-in-california-fire\/\">pled guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter in for their improperly maintained equipment causing the Camp Fire<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>I think that the judge should sentence the company to a few years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>If a flesh and blood person pled guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter, they would spend a significant amount of time in prison.<\/p>\n<p>I know that there are no corporation jails out there, but that&#8217;s not the judge&#8217;s job, he just needs to direct the Department of Corrections to take them into custody.<\/p>\n<p>Let them hash it out while PG&amp;E chills its heels in its cell:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">California utility firm Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&amp;E) pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that it was responsible for the deaths of more than 80 people in a massive 2018 wildfire caused by its equipment. <\/p>\n<p>The fire, known as the Camp Fire, began in November 2018 when <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2019\/05\/fire-officials-say-utilitys-power-lines-were-responsible-for-cas-deadliest-fire\/\">two PG&amp;E power lines<\/a> came into contact with nearby dry brush, sparking flames. Eighty-five people died in the fire, which also destroyed 18,800 structures. <\/p>\n<p>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p>PG&amp;E &#8220;had a legal duty to the public to avoid wildfires and failed to perform that legal duty by recklessly failing to maintain and operate its electrical lines and equipment in a manner that would minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfires posed by those electrical lines and equipment, resulting in the Camp Fire,&#8221; each of the 84 manslaughter counts reads. <\/p>\n<p>Company president and CEO Bill Johnson entered the guilty plea in court yesterday on behalf of the company. &#8220;Our equipment started the fire that destroyed the towns of Paradise and Concow and severely burned Magalia and other parts of Butte County,&#8221; Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pge.com\/en\/about\/newsroom\/newsdetails\/index.page?title=20200616_pge_statement_on_companys_guilty_plea_related_to_2018_camp_fire\">said<\/a>. &#8220;On behalf of PG&amp;E, I apologize for the pain we have caused.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>As part of its plea agreement, the company agreed to pay a $3.5 million dollar fine and an additional $500,000 to cover the costs of the investigation.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The deal has been cut with the prosecutor, and while the judge is expected to approve the deal, the judge can sentence the utility to prison.<\/p>\n<p>Please send them to prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pacific Gas &amp; Electric (PG&amp;E) has pled guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter in for their improperly maintained equipment causing the Camp Fire.&nbsp; I think that the judge should sentence the company to a few years in prison. If a flesh and blood person pled guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter, they would spend a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[365,368,435,457,364,407],"class_list":["post-176430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-business","tag-corruption","tag-crimes","tag-energy","tag-evil","tag-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}