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Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land




On May 12, 2015, Amtrak 188 derailed while speeding along the Frankford Curve section of track Philadelphia, PA. 8 people died in the crash along with 200+ injuries. At the time of the crash, the train was going in excess of 100 mph which was more than twice the sped limit of 50 mph for the Frankford Curve. This was why the train crashed. The engineer of the train was a man by the name of Brandon Bostian who by all accounts was a model employee. He was deeply involved in train safety and proper procedures, including long forums posts about the lack of safety technology installed on Amtrak routes. Amtrak 188/The Frankford Curve did not have Positive Train Control (PTC) or any sort of safety technology. Investigators have said that PTC would have prevented this accident as the train would have automatically slowed down upon entering the Frankford Curve. But because of budget cuts and general congressional douchebaggery, Amtrak never got around to this before the crash. This would prove to be a mistake.

But why was Bostian speeding at a notoriously dangerous section of the track? (The Frankford Curve was host to a 80 man fatality back in 1943) This is the confounding part of Amtrak 188. Bostian was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He was not sleeping nor using his cell phone. By all accounts, Bostian prioritized safety more than most people. He loved trains and Amtrak engineer was his dream job. So what happened? Bostian claims to have little memory of the events leading up to the crash, but the resulting investigation determined the most probable sequence of events

---Bostian received radio chatter of a nearby SEPTA train on the same track struck by rocks thrown by some punks
---Bostian was more concentrated on the radio chatter and determining if he was in danger than remembering his location at the moment
---Bostian forgot where he was in relation to the Frankford Curve and did not slow down as he thought he was farther away from the curve
---Crash

A lack of "situational awareness" was the cause of the accident as determined by the NTSB. For his part, Bostian claims he was struck by rocks as well, but no evidence has proven his claim. Amtrak settled with the victims to the tune of 265 million with the share to be decided later. But what of Bostian? Would he face criminal charges for his role in a true accident? As of Tuesday, the Philly DA office decided not to charge Bostian.

Seth Williams posted:

The evidence indicates that the derailment was caused by the engineer operating the train far in excess of the speed limit,” the DA’s office said in a written statement. “However, we cannot conclude that the evidence rises to the high level necessary to charge the engineer or anyone else with a criminal offense. We have no evidence that the engineer acted with criminal “intent” or criminal “knowledge” within the special meaning of those terms under Pennsylvania law for purposes of criminal charges. Nor do we believe there is sufficient evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, criminal recklessness, which would be the only other basis for criminal liability. Pennsylvania law specially states that one acts with criminal recklessness when a person “consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk.” Based on the available information, we do not have evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the engineer “consciously” disregarded the risk.

Prosecuting train derailments is hard if the engineer was proven to be driving in good faith (i.e. no drugs or cell phones).

https://billypenn.com/2017/05/09/why-phillys-da-wont-bring-charges-in-fatal-amtrak-188-train-derailment/ posted:

Experts question whether Williams or any district attorney would even know how to prosecute him. “By my guess nobody remotely associated with the local office of a district attorney has ever investigated a similar derailment,” said Bob Pottroff, a nationally-known train accident lawyer. “They have to be 100 percent dependent on federal authorities who are deeply embedded with the railroad industry.” Pottroff would be right. Though Amtrak accidents occur about five to 10 times a year in Philadelphia (the vast majority causing no deaths and few injuries), charges have not been brought forward against an engineer during Williams’ time in office and likely going back much farther. “It is basically a foreign language requirement for a prosecutor’s office on a local basis,” Pottroff said. “The expertise needed to prosecute those cases would be hard (to come by).”

...

With the Feds having halted their investigation last year, Bostian will walk from the accident without any criminal charges.

“I’m surprised only that our federal government didn’t dump all of it in his lap as they normally do,” Pottroff said. “This is a technology issue. You can’t equip somebody with substandard technology and expect them to behave perfectly every day. I’m tickled to know he’s not being charged.”

So that's that then. Bostian is cleared and this tragedy can be laid to rest? Well there was a pretty significant twist earlier today and what inspired me to make this thread. The lawyers representing the victims met with the Philly DA's office (more on that later) and begged them to reconsider not pressing charges. The DA office declined. So the victims's laywers got in front of a judge in order to force private criminal charges against Bostian. And well ...

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/law/Judge-orders-DA-to-charge-Amtrak-engineer.html posted:

Philadelphia Municipal Court President Judge Marsha Neifield on Thursday ordered the city District Attorney’s Office to reverse course and criminally charge Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian with involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

But to avoid a potential conflict of interest, the District Attorney's Office responded that it would refer the prosecution to the state attorney general.

Neifield issued the order following a request from lawyers for victims of the May 12, 2015, derailment of Amtrak train 188 that the case be reopened. On Tuesday, the DA's Office had said that, following a lengthy investigation, it had concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

The following day, lawyers with the office of Richard A. Sprague, a prominent city attorney and former first assistant district attorney, formally asked the DA's Office to accept a criminal complaint filed by the husband and father of Rachel Jacobs, a young mother who was killed in the crash.

But the DA’s Office declined, setting the stage for Thursday’s hearing before Neifield.

Plaintiffs lawyers Thomas R. Kline and Robert Mongeluzzi, who between them represented 32 victims in lawsuits against Amtrak, joined in the request for criminal charges against Bostian.

The lawyers asked that Bostian be charged with reckless endangerment and involuntary manslaughter. The statute of limitations for potential charges of reckless endangerment expires on Friday.

"To me it was a shock," Sprague said at a Thursday evening press conference, referring to the DA Office's decision not to prosecute. "Can you imagine someone driving down Market Street at 100 miles per hour, hitting people, killing people, and the DA saying we don't have a basis for prosecuting anybody?"

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Cameron L. Kline, communications director for the DA's Office, said, "President Judge Neifield has ordered the filing of two private criminal complaints as a result of the Amtrak train 188 derailment. In view of our earlier decision not to file charges, we have referred this prosecution to the Pennsylvania attorney general. We take this action to avoid the potential for any apparent conflict of interest, consistent with the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Attorney’s Act."

While it is unusual for a judge to order a prosecutor to file criminal charges, there is a basis in Pennsylvania law for the judiciary to step in and essentially take control of a criminal investigation, said Temple University law professor Jules Epstein.

The hurdles for such action typically are high, he said, because of the separation-of-powers doctrine, which grants each branch of government wide discretion within its own sphere of authority.

But Epstein said there is case law in Pennsylvania essentially laying down guidelines for when a judge can compel a prosecutor to accept a citizen’s criminal complaint, the scenario that played out before Judge Neifield on Thursday. Courts are more inclined to hear such requests when there is a dispute over the legal basis for bringing charges, Epstein said. The standard is more stringent when a prosecutor, as a matter of policy, declines to bring criminal charges.

For example, prosecutors may choose as a matter of policy to devote fewer resources to economic crimes, preferring instead to focus on public safety and prosecute violent criminal behavior.

“The law gives prosecutors tremendous discretion on whether to bring charges,” Epstein said.

I'll be honest, I had no idea private citizens could get a judge to force a DA to bring criminal charges against another private citizen. I thought civil court existed for that type of grievance and this development is intriguing. So I have two questions out of this story. Should Bostian have been charged with reckless endangerment and anything else for his role in the Amtrak 188 crash by the DA office? I think the victims are barking up the wrong tree. The real guilty parties are the idiots who threw rocks at the SEPTA train and the lack of PTC. it is well noted that driving trains and using cell phones simultaneously is a bad idea and is banned for a reason. But talking to people over the radio is no better yet is part of the engineer's job description. And what of the prosecutioral latitude given to the DA office in this case and all others? If private citizens feel the DA office is not doing its job, are they in the right to try and seek criminal (not civil) charges. For example, what if a watchdog group found a friendly judge that would force charges against the financial crisis perpetrators? The government clearly dropped the ball on finance and civil rights cases among others and there is little recourse to those aggrieved by the decision. the PA AG has until tomorrow to press charges before the statute of limitations expires.

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Speaking of the Philly DA office, they're in a load of poo poo right now. Mainly Seth Williams, the District Attorney. He has had his law license suspended as he awaits federal bribery charges for acceptance cash, gifts, etc for political and legal favors. He also got in lots of trouble for hiring Frank Fina, the main player in the Kathleen Kane debacle to his office. Not to mention his girlfriend was charged for several counts of B&E in a bizzare story. There is a clown car primary of candidates running to replace him. 7 Democrats and the token Republican are in the race. I live outside city limits so I haven't been paying much attention to the race

And you got the Bill Cosby trial out in MontCo. My prediction, Cosby will walk as that trial is a debacle.

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Pharohman777
Jan 14, 2012

by Fluffdaddy
Is the cosby trial debacle looking like the Oj simpson debacle?

Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land




In terms of the media circus and overall lawyering competence, there is still a long way to go until this trial reaches peak OJ. The issues is that Cosby's lawyers have sufficiency muddled the waters with delays, pre-trial motions, general posturing and have way more wins than losses in the scheme of things. Charges were filed in December 2015. The trial will finally start in June 2017. That's 18 months of legal bullshit in the main time

http://www.vulture.com/2017/05/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-trial-explained.html is a good overview of the whole situation.

Way back in 2005, noted wanker Bruce Castor dropped the initial charges for lack of evidence and agreed the DA's office would not prosecute Cosby for his civil suit testimony. Said civil suit was petty damming for Cosby. He basically copped to drugging many women with Quaaludes resulting in "consensual" sex with Constand and whoever else. However, for whatever reason, most of that civil deposition is inadmissible in his criminal trial. And of all the numerous other women who have accused Cosby, only one can testify besides Constant.

Local news also did poison the jury pool by airing most of Cosby's deposition on TV. So you got a jury from Pittsburgh for a trail in Norristown who will be sequestered in Philly. yeehaw

Rangpur
Dec 31, 2008

The smash hit comedy that is the Philadelphia DA's office keeps the hits rolling in by electing a former defense attorney to the position. (Technically Krasner only won the Democratic primary, but in Philly politics, that's the same as winning the election about 99% of the time. Reactions range from "there was a primary yesterday?" to OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE, CRIMINALS WILL BE CUTTING DOWN LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS IN THE STREETS, BRANDON BOSTIAN WILL BE GIVEN A TRAIN TO DRIVE DOWN BROAD STREET TO SATE HIS LUST FOR BLOOD WHILE KRASNER LUBES HIS ROD WITH WIDOWS' TEARS

For the uninformed, Christine Flowers is a columnist for the Daily News, which is to say she is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer whose parent company also owns (but no longer publishes) the Daily News in physical form. She is an immigration lawyer who harshly condemned Trumps attempted travel bans, and health care repeals, and the composure of the man himself. She's also a firm supporter of well-known bags of snakes plodding around in man-shaped skins Jeff Sessions and Neil Gosruch (and isn't it just awful the way Democrats played politics with his nomination the same way they did with that nice Robert Bork fellow). Although these may seem like contradictions they are in fact easily explained by today's column, and her staunchly anti-choice/pro-death penalty Catholicism. Basically, she's a law-and-order Democrat who doesn't understand why anyone would get so upset (and so rude!) about anything beyond her lived experience.

The worth of the arguments in the column itself are left to the judgment of the reader.

Rangpur fucked around with this message at 15:11 on May 18, 2017

donoteat
Sep 13, 2011

Loot at all this bullshit.
Who lets something like this happen?
Krasner seemed like by far the best man for the job, certainly better than Democratic machine-endorsed El Shabazz. I did my democratic duty and voted for Krasner yesterday. :patriot:

Since we finally have a Philly politics thread, how about the debacle that is the Philly Beverage Tax?

It's a 1.5 cent per ounce tax on beverages with artificial sweeteners -- soda, sweet tea, gatorade, etc. etc. with the proceeds going to fund pre-K for all Philadelphia children, and various improvements to libraries and recreation centers. It raises the price of a 2L bottle of soda by a whopping $1.01.

Since it was first levied on January 1st:

- Some stores uniformly raised prices on all drinks, including things like water, or even distilled water, and claimed the tax affected those drinks.
- Some stores uniformly raised prices on all goods, period, claiming that it was a "grocery tax" when no such tax existed or was proposed
- Harrisburg is trying to challenge the authority of City Council to levy the tax, meaning funds from the tax to improve libraries and rec centers are in limbo until the legal challenge is hopefully thrown out of court.
- Beverage distributors and grocers have lobbied extensively against the beverage tax (obviously) and threatened to lay off hundreds of people because consumers are going to Delco and Montco to buy soda for 35 cents cheaper
- Annoying posters at grocery stores, some places don't do free refills now, yadda yadda.
- The incumbent city controller (who lost yesterday) intended to do everything in his power to eliminate or obstruct the tax.

I don't drink sweetened beverages, since they're bad for me -- I stick with beer, an all-natural and healthy bread substitute, for which I pay a liquor tax, and a legacy Johnstown Flood Tax. Frankly I don't understand why everyone is up in arms about paying an extra dollar for a 2L of coke.

CAPS LOCK BROKEN
Feb 1, 2006

by Fluffdaddy
Can someone hook me up with a sweet IT job in philly, last time I visited I really enjoyed the outright hostility and contempt from the locals.

Rangpur
Dec 31, 2008

Peven Stan posted:

Can someone hook me up with a sweet IT job in philly, last time I visited I really enjoyed the outright hostility and contempt from the locals.
I hear enough people complaining about this that I really think the tourism office ought to publish a brochure or something. But the trick is, you need to find the local ward leader and inflate your neck pouches as large as you can. You don't have to make them bigger, just puff them up enough to look worthy of respect.

Or just apply to Penn's IT department, I guess? They probably need a lot of positions to keep their 5-year plan to own an entire city on schedule.

Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land




Rangpur posted:

I hear enough people complaining about this that I really think the tourism office ought to publish a brochure or something. But the trick is, you need to find the local ward leader and inflate your neck pouches as large as you can. You don't have to make them bigger, just puff them up enough to look worthy of respect.

My new gig as a Dizzy Gillespie impersonator will go great now




Rangpur posted:

The smash hit comedy that is the Philadelphia DA's office keeps the hits rolling in by electing a former defense attorney to the position. (Technically Krasner only won the Democratic primary, but in Philly politics, that's the same as winning the election about 99% of the time. Reactions range from "there was a primary yesterday?" to OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE, CRIMINALS WILL BE CUTTING DOWN LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS IN THE STREETS, BRANDON BOSTIAN WILL BE GIVEN A TRAIN TO DRIVE DOWN BROAD STREET TO SATE HIS LUST FOR BLOOD WHILE KRASNER LUBES HIS ROD WITH WIDOWS' TEARS

I didn't pay too much attention to the DA race because I live outside city limits, but Krasner seems like an alright dude. I liked his ad the best. Though I am a bit surprised he won by 20 points in a 7 man race. Going from noted Death Penalty Aficionado Lynne Abraham to Krasner in under a decade is one hell of (good) jump. My fondest Seth Williams memory is probably him telling the cops to gently caress off after the Shady McCoy barfight. Speaking of the trainman, Bostian surrendered to the charges filed by the State after a judge told them to do it. I want to see the defense call Seth Williams as a witness just for the irony.


donoteat posted:

Krasner seemed like by far the best man for the job, certainly better than Democratic machine-endorsed El Shabazz. I did my democratic duty and voted for Krasner yesterday. :patriot:

Since we finally have a Philly politics thread, how about the debacle that is the Philly Beverage Tax?

All the stores raisng prices and threatening layiffs is pretty blatant free market capitalistic bullshit and I hope more than enough people don't fall for it. As for the tax itself, I'm sure we could rehash the "sales tax are regressive" argument until we all resemble Dizzy. Though I'm not holding my breath the tax money will go to schools instead of funding the pensions for various PPA garbagemen

Nissin Cup Nudist fucked around with this message at 05:05 on May 19, 2017

Rangpur
Dec 31, 2008

Nissin Cup Nudist posted:

I didn't pay too much attention to the DA race because I live outside city limits, but Krasner seems like an alright dude. I liked his ad the best. Though I am a bit surprised he won by 20 points in a 7 man race. Going from noted Death Penalty Aficionado Lynne Abraham to Krasner in under a decade is one hell of (good) jump. My fondest Seth Williams memory is probably him telling the cops to gently caress off after the Shady McCoy barfight. Speaking of the trainman, Bostian surrendered to the charges filed by the State after a judge told them to do it. I want to see the defense call Seth Williams as a witness just for the irony.
Rich Negrin, who used to be a city managing director, was the candidate endorsed the by the Fraternal Order of Police. He came in 3rd. 2nd place was Joe Khan, while Tariq El-Shabazz placed 4th. El-Shabbaz was the 1st deputy DA under Williams, which would have ordinarily made him the favorite but considering how Seth Williams left office, the candidate's own financial questions likely cost him a lot of support. Krasner got a lot of his campaign funds for George Soros, to which I can only shrug and go "Well, yeah. Did the people bringing that up think Citizens United was somehow magically only going to benefit Republicans?" Speaking of, Beth Grossman, sole Republican candidate for the position garnered 99.54% of the Republican primary vote. I didn't see ads for any of them because I mostly watch Netfix but I definitely saw more signs for Krasner posted around the city.

As to what it all means, I suspect an awful lot of the people who pay attention and care enough to vote in a municipal DA primary cast their vote for the guy who looked like he'd piss off Trump/Sessions the most. The general election will probably see Grossman adopted by an ALEC sugar daddy of her own, and pick up cross-party support from Democrats who think Krasner is planning to just throw open the prison doors or something. I doubt either will overcome the massive difference in party registration.

Dr Jankenstein
Aug 6, 2009

Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers.

Being given a train to drive down broad street just means the trolley drivers are doing what they always do.

I know two people who have had their car nicked by trolleys. I kinda love them, but at the same time, SEPTA drivers are the epitome of philly.

That said, how is SEPTA fairing? I haven't lived in philly in a couple of years, but I try to follow what's going on since I'm considering moving back, (ok, probably moving back to the other side of the river, but within PATCO distance) last I checked in there was the ever present threat of a strike, since they apparently haven't completely ratified the deal, at least not when I heard, but honestly, it's probably my favorite public transport system.

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Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land




The triannual SEPTA strike was at the end of last year and lasted one whole week. They signed a 5 year deal, so that should last a while.

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