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posted by n1 on Monday May 15 2017, @09:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the free-room-and-board dept.

The World Socialist Web Site reports

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship was released from prison [May 10] after serving a one year sentence in connection with the April 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, which killed 29 coal miners. The Upper Big Branch blast was the worst US mine disaster in 40 years.

Blankenship served the first ten months of his sentence at the Taft Correctional Institution in Southern California. The facility, which houses many white collar criminals, boasts baseball diamonds and soccer fields along with tennis and racquetball courts. Blankenship was then moved to a halfway house for a month and spent the last month prior to his official release at his home in Las Vegas.

In tweets [that] Blankenship posted after his release, the millionaire coal boss showed no remorse for the deaths of 29 miners. He complained that at Taft he had to return to his room several times a day to be counted and could not choose what to watch on TV.

[...] In 2015, Blankenship was convicted on a single misdemeanor count of violating federal safety laws at the mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. The disaster occurred when a spark from a longwall machine ignited a pocket of methane gas, which, in turn, set off a massive coal dust explosion throughout the mine.

Multiple and grave safety violations occurred at the mine when Blankenship issued an order to "run coal", flouting regulations designed to prevent explosions. In an October 2005 memo to the company's deep mine superintendents, Blankenship outlined his priorities. "If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers, or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e., build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever), you need to ignore them and run coal", he wrote.

[...] Four investigations of the disaster found that bits on the longwall machine were broken and worn out, causing sparking. Water nozzles meant to keep the bits cool and prevent sparks were also broken. Proper ventilation to prevent the buildup of methane gas was lacking. Explosive coal dust was allowed to accumulate throughout the mine.

Previous: Massey CEO Indicted for Acts Resulting in Coal Mine Explosion that Killed 29


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Monday May 15 2017, @10:54PM (8 children)

    by edIII (791) on Monday May 15 2017, @10:54PM (#510277)

    Sympathy here has nothing to do with JUSTICE. This was not justice served to the American people, and especially, the victim's families.

    The man deliberately, and knowingly, created an environment in which 29 PEOPLE lost their lives. He cannot claim ignorance either, as the regulations were there. Those regulations came from other people that knew what the consequences were to his continued behavior. He didn't give two shits, and his answer was "Run Coal!".

    Intent and foreknowledge should've raised the sentencing MUCH higher. But, some animals are more equal than others right? ;)

    This piece of shit should be drawn, hung, and quartered in front of the miners.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:12AM (5 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:12AM (#510320)

    He should, but again, the coal miners like to elect people who think regulations shouldn't be followed and fines are just a "cost of doing business". They've most recently elected people who really want to reduce or eliminate regulations and enforcement. I don't think the miners would like seeing this guy drawn, hung, and quartered in front of them, because people of that political persuasion tend to believe that rich people are rich because they worked hard for their money and deserve all of it, and are generally better people. Their churches tell them this, and they vote for politicians who tell them that rich people are wonderful and should have lower taxes.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:54AM (3 children)

      by edIII (791) on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:54AM (#510343)

      Miners have struck before over safe working conditions. If you read why the explosion happened, it was tools that were knowingly in disrepair. No self respecting miner wants to die because the mine owner wants you to use dangerous tools that are visibly broken and/or about to fail. Not to mention, giving off sparks simply because the tool wasn't properly maintained and the water nozzles were not performing correctly (visibly).

      The miners lives were worth less than the costs of repair for a bunch of mining tools. We're not even talking about shoring up tunnels or anything, just tools.

      Regulations play a part in this, if only to illustrate how many people and how much science and common-fucking-sense were telling that a-hole to fix the tools and create safer working conditions. Mining is a dangerous occupation. Plenty of unknowns. It wasn't unknown that poorly maintained drill bits and malfunctioning water nozzles could ignite a methane pocket. The miners knew. He knew. The regulators knew.

      Regardless of regulations, there needs to be strong laws and sentencing for any individual in charge of dangerous projects that knowingly and willfully disregards known risks to people working in the project and somebody dies. Obviously not all risk can be avoided, so it would be limited to risks with standard and acceptable mitigation methods that are available on the market. In other words, this abhorrent shit heap could've spent the bare minuscule fraction of his own salary to fix, perhaps with a tool available from Home Depot.

      It's wrong, and it's ludicrous that I would need to explain why people like that need to be separated from society, or at the very least, separated from such management positions and held civilly liable for the deaths.

      One year is a massive, massive, insult to the miners when some black dude can get 15 years for cooking himself a burger after breaking into a food joint. Thank God, he didn't make the fries or we would be talking about the death penalty.

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      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 16 2017, @04:39PM (2 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 16 2017, @04:39PM (#510577) Journal

        Maybe instead of striking, miners should be thinking about their voting.

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        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday May 16 2017, @08:04PM (1 child)

          by edIII (791) on Tuesday May 16 2017, @08:04PM (#510715)

          Voting never solved anything. Strikes, especially Massive NATIONAL strikes in dozens and dozens of cities, have been proven historically to bring positive change to the Middle Class.

          In fact, there are some that argue that all of the positive gains we've had (the 8-hour day--no child labor) came explicitly from great strife, misery, riots, and the sea change that comes along with it.

          Voting did not get black people their civil rights. Marches, riots, people being lynched, churches burned, sit ins, boycotts, and Dr. King being murdered are what brought them their civil rights.

          Voting did not get people their 8-hour day. That took women and children being murdered in front of their husbands, the husbands soon following them in death, people standing up to the Coal Police (mercenaries hired to keep the workers in line), and indeed, massive national strikes.

          I could go on, but voting is only good on paper. In reality, the Owning Class just laughs their fucking asses off every time we get all upset and head to the voting booths. They shit their fucking pants when somebody actually starts a strike or any effective kind of movement where people interrupt their money flow sufficiently and the scum suckers in government get scared about the people actually rising up and replacing government. In other words, until you start running around screaming in pain, they don't let up on you in the context of their oppression.

          At this point, voting isn't saving us either. Voter suppression, fake news (rigged media), and the general corruption of the government have delivered us into the hands of people that are making protests illegal. The very acts by which we've gained increases in standards of living, and income inequality reduced, are being characterized as "economic terrorism". They're doing everything they can make sure we can't rise up in the future.

          Voting doesn't mean shit. Resistance is everything.

          RESIST! STRIKE! BOYCOTT! Or in other words..... POWER BACK TO THE PEOPLE

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          • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 16 2017, @08:34PM

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 16 2017, @08:34PM (#510735) Journal

            Sadly it sounds almost like violent uprising is the only thing that works instead of voting.

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            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday May 16 2017, @03:11AM

      by sjames (2882) on Tuesday May 16 2017, @03:11AM (#510370) Journal

      You have no idea how any of the dead miners have voted.

      That's OK though since this is about a criminal act of negligent homicide, not a regulatory fine. Had there been no regulations of any kind, it would still be 29 counts of negligent homicide.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:48AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:48AM (#510338)

    Intent and foreknowledge should've raised the sentencing MUCH higher.

    He was just giving orders.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:04AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:04AM (#510408)

      People have been hanged for following orders... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders [wikipedia.org]