#Reckless endangerment

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from New Republic:

Our world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. One study recently found that extreme heat killed nearly 50,000 people in Europe last year. A single county in the United States—Maricopa County, in Arizona—reported 645 such deaths. Eye-popping sea surface temperatures are fueling a historically destructive hurricane season this summer, and lethal, record-breaking storms are lashing states from Texas to Vermont. In California, the climate-driven Park fire continues to burn a path of devastation that has left hundreds homeless, including numerous survivors of previous wildfires—people who have now lost their homes multiple times.

These aren’t “natural” disasters. 2023’s summer heat waves, for example, would have been “virtually impossible,” in one research team’s words, without human-caused climate change. That means these disasters are being driven by particular corporate actors—and particularly Big Oil companies. These companies, by generating a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that have warmed the planet, while simultaneously deceiving the public about the dangers of those emissions, have created a crisis that is putting millions of Americans at risk.

Existing laws are designed to protect us from such public safety threats. Recently, the victims of manmade climate disasters have started to demand that prosecutors use them.

Two weeks ago, over 1,000 survivors of climate disasters sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to “investigate the fossil fuel industry for climate-related crimes.” One of the signers, Allen Myers, said that the wildfire that burned down his family’s home “bore the fingerprints of the climate crisis” and stressed that the “fossil fuel industry knows that what they’re doing is dangerous.” Another, Jenny Sebold, a mother of three whose small business in Vermont was destroyed in climate-driven flooding, said, “I like to joke that I pay my bills in optimism” while “the rich oil execs get to keep making piles of money.”

I’ve previously written about how criminal law professors, former prosecutors, and climate advocates like me have begun arguing that Big Oil can and should be held accountable for some form of homicide—i.e., the deaths caused by climate disasters. But people who haven’t actually been killed, like Allen and Jenny, deserve justice too. And their experiences point toward another possibility: charging individual fossil fuel CEOs with reckless endangerment.

Reckless endangerment is an offense in most states. It criminalizes reckless conduct that “creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to another person.” The argument that Big Oil CEOs have committed this crime is pretty straightforward. The climate crisis, by intensifying and in many cases causing extreme weather events, including heat waves, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, is creating a substantial risk of serious injury for vast numbers of people in practically every state and county in the country.

Fossil fuel executives, in pursuing ever-expanding oil and gas production and spreading disinformation to block efforts that would have made climate change less catastrophic, have in very concrete and material ways contributed to this risk. And a growing body of internal documents shows they knew it was dangerous: that production of fossil fuels would cause, in their own words, “globally catastrophic” climate harms that would “submerge New York,” do “great irreversible harm to our planet,” “have serious consequences for man’s comfort and survival,” and cause “suffering and death due to thermal extremes.” Fossil fuel executives even raised the height of offshore drilling platforms to account for expected sea-level rise! Doing something when you know it’s dangerous is the legal definition of recklessness. So demonstrating that Big Oil execs acted with criminal recklessness seems eminently possible.

A reckless endangerment charge also gets around what is often considered the most significant burden in climate accountability litigation: causation. It can be difficult to connect the climate contributions of specific corporations to particular climate disasters. But reckless endangerment is a crime of conduct, not result. You don’t need to prove a defendant’s reckless conduct caused a particular injury but simply that it created the risk of doing so.

[gwenbrightly]

(Re)Building the Future chapter 5

“She called me a monster,” Roxy says, backing away from the unconscious child. How can she justify being anywhere near Cassie after that?

“Roxy, I'm sure she didn't mean it,” Eclipse tries to comfort her. She doesn't seem to hear him.

“I mean, I know I can be a little competitive and maybe I'm moody sometimes but…” the wolf trails off. The thought of frightening a kid that badly hurts more than she'd like to admit.

“Sometimes?” Helpy repeats sardonically. A glare at the monitor he's hanging out on from Eclipse is all it takes to shut him up.

“Maybe she wasn't even talking to you. She could have been hallucinating. Those Moondrop candies are such powerful things and we did give her more than one serving size,” Eclipse suggests, frowning thoughtfully. Maybe giving Cassie the candies hadn't been such a good idea after all. One or two candies at nap time has never been a problem (for most kids, anyway). But they’ve given her way more than one or two. Probably more like one dozen. Or two. Suddenly, Eclipse finds himself wondering if they've given Cassie permanent brain damage on top of her damaged limbs… Oh Fizzy Faz, this poor kid!

“Honestly, I think you're both being over dramatic here,” Helpy announces with an eye roll. Okay, so maybe he’s being a bit harsh. But the constant panicking of everyone around him the past 24 hours has gotten old. Roxy looks like she’d like to strangle him (too bad), while Eclipse doesn’t look phased by his comment. Huh. Must be a theater thing…

“It’s not like this is the end of the world,” he continues.

“How would you know?” Roxy mutters, still offended. It does feel a little like the end of the world to her. All the Fazbear animatronics, herself included, are meant to bring joy to children, after all. Not strike fear into their hearts. Even if there has been the odd parent complaint in the past. Those are usually brought on by some Karen and her spoiled offspring not getting exactly what they want, when they want it, anyway. Oh, how she misses the days where the wrong flavor of birthday cake was their biggest worry. Everything has been so… broken lately…

“Easy. I see the bigger picture,” Helpy tells her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asks. Well, more like growls, but who’s keeping track of semantics?

“Roxy, Roxy, Roxy,” He says as though talking to a confused child, “think for a minute. Where did you get those horrifyingly outdated eyes from, again?”

“… oh…” Roxy brings her good hand up to her face in horror. Of course Cassie would remember the way it’s eyes looked in her first moments of consciousness. They had probably been one of the last things she’d seen before… How could she be so stupid?

“Now you’re getting it! Yeah, you should probably find some sunglasses or something,” Helpy suggests. He’s not cruel enough to suggest she remove the eyes just yet if there’s another (possibly more entertaining) solution.

“I’m sorry, can we back up for a second, please?” Eclipse interrupts, thoroughly confused by the direction this conversation has taken. “Where did Roxy get her new eyes? Am I missing something?”

“Oh, didn’t she tell you? Roxy stole em off of It during her epic battle royale earlier. No biggie!” Helpy explains casually. He’s actually pretty impressed by the way she had ripped them clean out of their sockets, truth be told.

“Roxy, did what?!”

/////

“Can’t this car go any faster?” Gregory asks, anxiously staring out the window. Usually he’s fine with the half hour drive between his new home and the Pizzaplex. Usually there’s no reason to go anywhere near it and having a bit of space from the place they almost died (multiple times!) is a good thing. Usually-

“Gregory, I’m already driving over the speed limit,” Vanessa tells him, making a sharp turn. There’s a bump as the car goes over the curb. “If I go any faster, we’ll get pulled over for sure, which will not help our situation!”

Gregory groans in disgust. Why does Vanessa have to be a responsible adult at a time like this? Cassie needs them!

“She has a point, Superstar,” Freddy observes apologetically.

Ugh. Two responsible adults are even worse than one.

“I bet if you let me drive, we could-” Gregory starts in innocently.

“There is no way I’m doing that. I’d like to live a little longer, thank you very much,” Vanessa cuts him off. The lack of faith in his driving abilities is so unfair. She has no proof that he’d get them all killed. Roxy being maimed the last time he ‘drove’ a vehicle wasn’t even really his fault (she’d had it coming)!

“Not to mention, you are far too short to legally sit in the front seat,” Freddy adds. Bold words for a bot that was built by a company with more OSHA violations than an oil spill.

“Freddy. Vanessa. Cmon, you guys… This is an emergency!” Gregory pleads. Vanessa ignores his puppy eyes, even though she can clearly see in the rear view mirror. Freddy doesn’t seem affected by it either. Can’t they hear Cassie’s screams ringing in their ears, too? Don’t they understand the gravity of the situation?

“We want to help Cassie just as much as you do,” Freddy tells him, sensing his rising fear, “but let’s save the reckless endangerment for once we’ve arrived at the Pizzaplex.”

“I’d be good with avoiding it there, too,” Vanessa mutters. What a killjoy. She slams on the brakes to avoid going through the red light up ahead, making Gregory momentarily grateful Vanessa made sure he was wearing his seatbelt before they left (for about five seconds before remembering that he’s supposed to be annoyed with her).

The light takes forever to change back to green, and by the time it does, Gregory has begun anxiously doodling with his fingers on the window. The Fazcraft logo, a cow being abducted by aliens, Freddy in a cowboy hat, a duck with a clump of grapes, a FizzyFazz soda can, a frowny face. He’ll probably be stuck cleaning the marks off the windows later, but at least it gives him something to do besides worrying. Another frowny face. And another. Okay, maybe this isn’t working so good.

“Hey, look. It'll only be a few more minutes. Just hang in there,” Vanessa says when she notices his poor attempt to distract himself.

“Thank goodness. I’m running out of things to draw,” Gregory admits. And draws another frowny face. Because that feels easier than mentioning that every second he’s stuck in this car is another second that Cassie could be laying somewhere dying. Or dead. No- bad idea. Definitely don’t think about it like that. Giving up on his window art, Gregory stares out the window at the darkening sky for the rest of the drive. He’s out of his seat before Vanessa has even parked the car.

He races over to the entrance. It’s not looking so hot. The light of the full moon illuminates boarded up windows and scaffolding. The obnoxiously bright neon lights and signs he remembers from previous visits are all gone now. Broken glass litters the ground in more than one place. If the inside looks as bad as the outside, it’s a miracle that Cassie didn’t get taken down by tetanus long before it got to her. Freddy and Vanessa come to a stop next to him, similarly taken in by the scene.

“Well, I think I know how Cassie got in,” Vanessa muses just as Gregory is about to suggest using Freddy as a battering ram (there isn’t an obvious entry point at the moment and it’s not like it would hurt Freddy). She points a flashlight towards a child sized opening in the newspapered glass on one of the upper levels of scaffolding.

“Guess we better get climbing, then,” Gregory announces, one foot already on a ladder rung.

——

Footnote: If you have never watched a 350 pound animatronic bear try to climb construction scaffolding, you should know that it is simultaneously hilarious and painful to do so.

Freddy’s efforts are valiant, but it’s safe to say that if Fazbear Entertainment ever decides to finish repairing the Pizzaplex (which, let’s face it, they won’t), they’re going to need a whole new set of ladders, platforms, and railings. Flat surfaces? Haven’t heard of them. Dents and awkward slants are totally in now. Also, that hole in the glass has always been that size… why do you ask?

Gregory and Vanessa try to hide their entertainment at Freddy’s suffering, they really do. But in the end, they can’t help but share a moment of laughter as he clatters down the final ladder and onto the floor inside the Pizzaplex. Freddy pauses to glare at the contraption before joining them, acting as though it was placed there specifically to inconvenience him.

“Take this before we go any further,” Vanessa says, handing Gregory one of the flashlights she’d packed before they left (along with a first aid kit and several other items she thought they might end up needing). She isn’t too worried about Freddy, what with him still having Roxy’s upgraded eyes, but Gregory is already a tad accident prone without blindly stumbling through a pitch black space filled with deadly objects. She’d really appreciate it if they make it through the rest of the evening (or however long they end up stuck in this hell hole) without anyone else getting hurt and/or trapped somewhere.

Gregory waves the flashlight around like a lightsaber, nearly blinding Vanessa. She briefly considers legally changing his middle name to ‘Distractible’, but decides that it’s not worth the effort. The flashlight beam bounces off an assortment of debris, construction equipment, deactivated floor bots, cleaning supplies, and several spray paint messages left behind by previous trespassers.

“Wow…” Gregory comments, looking around the ruined lobby, “they’ve really let this place go.”

“You can say that again,” Vanessa agrees.

“They have really let this place go,” Freddy repeats, taking her literally. “I am a bit disappointed that Corporate would neglect things like this.”

“It is kinda sad,” Gregory agrees. The Pizzaplex used to be so impressive (Fazbear Entertainment had clearly put a lot of time and money into the place) and now it looks like the setting for a post apocalyptic thriller. He remembers being a little in awe the first time he saw the giant golden statue in the lobby. But now, especially after everything he’s been through, the place gives him the creeps. The things that have happened here are not worthy of any awe. Probably just anger and disgust, along with a healthy dose of fear.

“So, uh, question,” he says, not wanting to dwell on his lingering trauma, “how exactly do we get,well, anywhere in this mess?” There’s a gaping hole in the floor directly in front of them. Shipping crates and safety barriers block off another hole on the left side of the lobby.

Vanessa carefully picks her way around bits of debris and caved in flooring. It’s a shame Gregory hasn’t started watching the security footage a little bit earlier so they’d have a better idea of how Cassie had navigated this mess. Deciding the areas with the biggest holes aren’t worth exploring, Vanessa wanders towards the area that used to house the final set of turnstiles before the entry pass display. Somehow, this area has significantly less damage done to it. If you ignore the headless staffbot in the distance and the spray painted warning that says ‘Danger’. How very welcoming and not foreboding in the slightest!

“The floor seems a little more stable over this way,” Vanessa calls to the others against her better judgement.

“Time for some reckless endangerment,” Gregory announces, leading the way into what’s left of one of the gift shops.

[professionalscrublord]

31: Fire "We're gonna take control of this dumpster and we're gonna 9/11 it." This is a follow up page after this other one back during mid-inktober:

Did I forget there was an Oct 31st during Inktober? No, I got busy, put the drawing idea off for one day, then all of a sudden it was 2 months later. Here you go.

I think the last panel is unintentionally hilarious. The tungsten dumpster and shitty building codes only exist to set up the massive dropping gut punch on the poor guy.

[bulletines-news]

Morgan Wallen Charged with Reckless Endangerment on Broadway: A Closer Look

Introduction Country music has always been a stage for both triumphs and tribulations. From chart-topping hits to personal struggles, artists navigate a complex landscape. Enter Morgan Wallen, a name synonymous with raw talent and controversy. On a fateful night in Nashville’s vibrant Broadway district, Wallen’s actions catapulted him into the headlines once again. The Incident happened with…

[svalleynow]

Marion County Man Found Guilty of Murdering His Wife and Other Charges

John Wesley Smith A Marion County man was booked into Grundy County Jail on September 23, 2018, charged with murdering his wife in front of their children. John Wesley Smith and estranged wife Nicole shared four children. Their kids are among the six children police say were inside the residence in Grundy County at the time of the shooting. Smith then shot Nicole’s father, Jerone Powell, and Gary…

[giovannigiorgio666]

I always think of tons of things I want to post when I’m driving but when I get someplace I can post from I forget.

[filosofablogger]

Maybe A Sticky Question?

Maybe A Sticky Question?

Parental responsibilities … to what degree are parents responsible for the actions of their children? You all remember the mass shooting in the Highland Park suburb north of Chicago on July 4th?  Seven people were killed and 48 more injured by a gunman shooting into the crowd from a rooftop.  The shooter used a high-powered rifle and ultimately fired no less than 83 rounds of ammunition.  The…

[reportwire]

3 ex-officers plead to lesser charges in girl's shooting

3 ex-officers plead to lesser charges in girl’s shooting

PHILADELPHIA — Three former police officers who were charged with killing an 8-year-old girl after they opened fire in the direction of a crowd leaving a high school football game in suburban Philadelphia pleaded guilty Thursday to 10 counts each of reckless endangerment. The negotiated pleas included a dismissal of manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter charges against the three former Sharon…

[theusviral]

Man arrested for tossing cinder blocks off roof near NYC Marathon

Man arrested for tossing cinder blocks off roof near NYC Marathon

A man was busted for tossing cinder blocks Sunday off a Greenpoint roof – a block away from the New York City Marathon, cops said. The 38-year-old suspect threw four blocks off the top of 236 Newell St. in Brooklyn around 12:30 p.m., striking and damaging three unoccupied vehicles, cops said.   Cops arrested a 38-year-old man who threw cinder blocks off a building.Google Maps The man was taken…

[crimeronan]

why get stressed about online discourse when you can instead google the current wildfire situation in your area and discover that hikers keep fuckin' walking onto trails that are specifically closed..... Because The Woods Are On Fire.

you will experience the same sharp rise in blood pressure. with none of the queer infighting!

anyway. this warning SHOULD be even less necessary than the one i gave a few weeks back about checking the summit conditions when you hike unfamiliar mountains, BUT:

IF you live in fire country.

please. Please.

do not.... go hiking.

on a trail.

that is actively on fire.

🙏🙏🙏

[morrigan-sims]

And I forget sometimes I'm just flesh and bone.

As he stands in the ruined bathroom, all Rook can think is, At least now I can breathe.

[marc--chilton]

kutner will be in a scene, looking like he's trying to catch up to the conversation bc he keeps getting distracted thinking about other stuff tangentially related to the topic at hand, then just drop some Real Ass Observation that leaves me snapping my fingers in applause

[turtleations]

KUMA: Never Ending Bond, Chapter 2, Part 5 (Translation)

Preface & Prologue Chapter 1, Part 1 & 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 Chapter 2, Part 1 & 2, Part 3 & 4

A few memorable events from when I accompanied them on tour

X had their major debut on 21 April 1989.

The “BLUE BLOOD TOUR” started on 13 March ‘89, before the release of their debut album, but…

One of the things I did for them was sell tickets when there was a concert on Kyûshû.

It must have been the live at the Kumamoto Postal Savings Hall on 28 April ’89, when the band members told me, “Since Kumamoto is your home area, let your friends know about X’s existence.” Thinking about it now, I had already done similar events by that time.

Still, I didn’t sell a lot of tickets.

No one had heard of the band called X yet, and Kumamoto especially was known around Kyûshû as an area where you didn’t get much of an audience.

On top of that, my friends were all students who had no money.

At any rate, the sales were terrible, I sold 20 tickets at most…

They had found a hall that could fit 800 – 900 people, but in the end, I think there were only about 300 in the audience when the concert began.

That’s the X that can now fill the Tokyo Dome three days in a row.

There was a time when they only had enough of an audience for the front rows.

Looking back… it’s a true story that makes me feel nostalgic.

The “BLUE BLOOD TOUR” ended on 13 June at the Niigata Industrial and Cultural Center, and on 30 July, the band participated in the summer event called “POP ROCKETS ‘89” at Niigata’s Echigo Yuzawa Central Stadium for the first time.

X, who had only just debuted at that time, were the new guys among Unicorn, JUN SKY WALKER(S), as well as ZIGGY, Kinniku Shojo Tai and so on, but on the 29th, the day before the concert, a major incident occurred at the hotel hosting the event…

29 July.

The members of X all arrived ahead of time and stayed at the same hotel as the other bands that were to perform.

At night, they wanted to drink, and since they couldn’t leave the hotel, they mingled with the other bands at the lounge on the hotel’s first floor (the lobby).

The X-members who were there were YOSHIKI-san, HIDE-san, PATA-san.

They started drinking and some time passed… And then some kind of trouble started.

At that point, PATA-san was calmly talking to the staff at the distant counter, I was talking to a member of ZIGGY I was on good terms with, and HIDE-san was also hanging out with members of JUSTY NASTY.

In all that, I didn’t catch the details of YOSHIKI-san’s conversation because we were sitting apart, but his mood was gradually turning grim…

The same moment I heard an enraged YOSHIKI-san yell “You don’t understand! You don’t understand, do you?”, I could hear the sound of breaking glass.

YOSHIKI-san was fighting with a member from another band he had been drinking with.

It’s fortunate that there were no normal guests at the place, but members of the other bands were injured by splinters of the broken glass… Someone stepped in with “There’s the event and the concert tomorrow, so stop it already,” and for the moment, YOSHIKI-san acknowledged that and relented.

However…

Since the rooms where the members of X and the members of the other bands were staying were all on the same floor, soon it was passed on that “After the bar (in the lobby) closes, let’s keep drinking in the hallway on the _th floor.” After that, everyone went up in the elevator one after another.

Before HIDE-san, who had been drinking with the members of JUSTY NASTY the entire time, went up, he said to me, “Kumamoto, I’ll go up ahead. Just bring us some alcohol, we’ll keep drinking in the room,” and I replied, “Got it,” and went to bring up some bourbon and ice.

But since YOSHIKI-san was still in the lobby, I thought, why not go up together, and let one elevator pass me by.

When the next cabin came down, I called out, “YOSHIKI-san, are you coming?”

Then, suddenly, the guy YOSHIKI-san had been arguing with showed up, and the three of us got into the elevator together.

The moment the elevator began to move, for no reason that I can remember and without having said more than a few words, a massive fight broke out between them, and I, stuck in the middle of it, could only think, “What is happening?”

The elevator only went up a few floors, but never had a span of time felt so long…

The bottles I was holding were smashed with a bursting sound, the elevator cabin shook terribly. I, a student in the first year of high school at that time, could only cower down and say, “Uh, let’s not do that.”

The moment the elevator arrived at its destination and its doors opened, the two who had started the fight took it outside…  That was already a terrible situation.

It’s not like X, having only just debuted, had a lot of staff, and not knowing who to turn to, I went to HIDE-san’s room and cried, “YOSHIKI-san!! It’s YOSHIKI-san!!”

And HIDE-san in the room said, “What? What’s going on?” and came out at once.

The unity between the X-members was so ridiculously strong at that time that the moment HIDE-san saw YOSHIKI-san fight, he joined in… Goin berserk while wielding the flowerpots and ashtrays that were in the hallway… That time was truly terrifying.

After the uproar had been going on for a while, people from the hotel appeared and sternly said, “Everyone, please go to your rooms at once.”... YOSHIKI-san, having somewhat calmed down at that point, complied and the other members all also returned to their rooms.

But, the fight was not yet over…

There was a large public bath on the top floor of the hotel, and when the people of another office and the members of the bands attached to them all said, “Let’s get in the bath,” the members of the bands not going once again started drinking in the hallway in no time.

In the beginning, everyone was cheerfully getting along as they drank, but… As they got increasingly drunk, they started flipping out at a loud volume.

Consequently, the people from the hotel summoned the production staff and the managers, and everyone was angry at everyone.

Even though they earnestly apologized, HIDE-san and YOSHIKI-san were called out in particular, and in the meantime, it was HIDE-san who got into another fight with the people at the front desk.

Seeing this, the staff decided that “It seems like the members shouldn’t be in this place,” and YOSHIKI-san and HIDE-san left right through the front office.

When the fans who had been waiting outside the hotel saw them, they rushed forward until the entire glass front of the hotel shattered.

With no idea what was happening anymore, I and the other associated people were endlessly apologizing to the people from the hotel… According to what I heard later, when YOSHIKI-san and HIDE-san left the office, they were swiftly taken to some place in someone’s car.

It seems like the members of the bands that had nothing to do with all that kept drinking until morning without worrying about the fuss…

Due to these circumstances, all the staff were completely exhausted before the “POP ROCKETS ‘89” performance. I remember them saying, “It’s sooo hard,” while making the outdoor preparations under the blazing sun.

Be that as it may, the fee for the destruction at that hotel was staggeringly high.

It seems like the carpet on the floor they went berserk on had to be replaced completely, even the parts that weren’t stained… Switched out on the entire floor.

Since that happened at a time when X was not yet making a lot of money, HIDE-san reported in shock, “I was charged several times my salary.”

Chapter 2, Part 6 & 7

[infamouslydorky]

Unpopular take perhaps but Fishman island was such an important arc because it forced Luffy to have his remaining two braincells huddle together for warmth in the vast, harsh wasteland that is his empty cranium to produce a singular thought and actually consider that perhaps his actions have consequences and should he act so rash, people will die. Was it a fully successful thought process from him? No, he had to outsource that to Jimbei, but still, he certainly didn't learn better from marineford despite his loss and grief