My god, there's simply no accountability to be had anywhere

if you google up the stories on w.r. grace and libby, montana, you'll get over 29,000 hits and find a horrifying history of corporate arrogance and outright malfeasance... it's stunning to me that, given the trail of destruction wreaked on the workers at grace and the residents of libby, it would come to this...

A federal jury on Friday acquitted W.R. Grace & Co. and three of its former officials of charges that they knowingly exposed residents of Libby, Mont., to asbestos poisoning associated with a mining operation and conspired to hide it.

The verdict brings to an ignominious end one of the most significant criminal prosecutions the government had ever filed against a corporate polluter. The acquittals raise new questions about prosecutorial failings in the Justice Department, which already was reeling from the dismissal of its corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

In Libby, where an estimated 1,200 residents have died or developed cancer or lung disease, the judgment dashed hopes that someone would be held accountable for decades of suffering.

"We never expected restitution on this," said Libby resident Gayla Benefield, who has seen dozens of family members become sick from asbestos exposure. "How can you give someone restitution when you've taken their life? This was about closure, to finally say, 'Yes, this company did this to us, and we can finally get on with our lives.' But that didn't happen, did it?"

toss this right in there with the lack of accountability and the failure of the rule of law in bringing to justice those public officials who provided the bogus legal justification and those top elected officials who authorized the use of torture... but, we know, don't we, that if you or i stepped just an inch or two over the line, the full force of the law would be all over us like flies on shit...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet