Let's arrest some corporations and put them in prison

[Ardent15]

After all, they have the same rights as people.

Can you imagine Exxon being read its Miranda rights?

[obliviously]

1. Or maybe just close them down

How about that job market!

[FreakinDJ]

2. Every time the arrest Corp Criminals the Stock Market RISES

Riddle me that

[Orrex]

3. Before someone mocks your idea, I'd propose the following:

Instead of incarcerating the corporation, place it under direct government control for the full term of the sentence and seize its profits during that time. After all, a corporation shouldn't be permitted to profit from its crimes, should it?

I would also suggest that the board of directors be incarcerated, since they embody "the corporation," and they're the ones making (or responsible for) the criminal decisions in the first place. At the very least, they're guilty of conspiracy to commit a crime, which is no misdemeanor!

[suede1]

6. Hear hear!

[JCMach1]

4. No! They kill, they get the death penalty in America!

[harkadog]

5. Corporations are charged with crimes all of the time

This is just one example of hundreds. http://www.wvgazette.com/News/BeyondSago/200812230591 This couldn't legally happen if they didn't have personhood status. And yes the corporation is read its Miranda rights when an indictment is given. Sorry you didn't know that.

[SergeStorms]

7. No one ever serves jail time........

they fine them, the fines are appealed, appealed again, then again, and in the end the corporation ends up paying virtually nothing for their crimes. They have the money and time to tie up the legal system for years. The average person (other than the average "corporate person") does not.
If you're trying to convince me that corporations are meted out justice on par with other individuals you've failed. :shrug:

[Orrex]

10. Additionally, they tend to reach settlements "with no admission of wrong-doing"

When's the last time an actual person was able to get a deal like that?

[harkadog]

12. Yes they do get jail time.

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/reprint/90/4/535.pdf It is not common but that is because prosecutors are not aggressive in this area. Not because there is some legal restriction preventing them from doing it.

[gratuitous]

14. One isolated incident from 25 years ago

And the crime was charged against the corporation's managers, not the corporation itself. Film Recovery, the corporation, never served a day in prison. This article is also a review solely of employers that injure or kill their employees; it doesn't touch on corporations that create toxic environments, or manufacture lethally defective products, or any of the other corporate misdeeds that would land an individual in the dock, but for which corporations are never criminally charged (which is to say, put in peril not just of property but liberty and life).

[harkadog]

15. You are wrong

http://www.epa.gov/oecaerth/basics/criminal.html The EPA brings criminal actions against corporations. But the facts don't fit your meme so believe what you want.

[gratuitous]

18. Don't blame me

I was commenting specifically on the article you linked to, which didn't say what your post said. The article was solely concerned about company employers injuring or killing their workers. Now you want to talk about EPA? Sorry I can't read your mind, but only your post.

In regard to the EPA, who goes to jail when a company poisons the environment? Does the company go to jail, or do its principals? Because I know that if I dumped a load of toxic waste into a river or a lake, I'd be facing prison time. But how does Exxon get punished for spoiling Prince William Sound? A fine or cash penalty equivalent to a week's profits? The information in your latest link is simply an EPA statement that criminal penalties are available to the EPA to prosecute violations, but it doesn't say a thing about any cases where criminal sanctions were levied against corporations, and doesn't state that any corporations have been deprived of life or liberty.

Okay, that's two links and no substantiation of your thesis that corporations are subject to the same criminal penalties that individuals are. Would you like to try a third? You're not building a very persuasive argument. "Belief" has nothing to do with this.

[harkadog]

20. BS

I not going to do a FOIA request of the EPA to satisfy you and that wouldn't anyway. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2318563/Environmental-Crime-UpdateWhat-Is-The-State-Of-Federal This demonstrates many many criminal charges against corporations. But I know you will find something wrong about that. You have an agenda and the facts don't fit it.

[gratuitous]

21. Just say you got nothing

Because you can't demonstrate that corporations are subject to the same criminal penalties as individuals: Corporations might get fined, but they don't go to jail, they aren't subject to the death penalty, and they are free to go merrily on their way, regardless of the heinousness of their crimes. The worst case scenario for the likes of Exxon in killing Prince William Sound or WR Grace in poisoning Libby, Montana is being relieved of a couple weeks' worth of profits. The equivalent individual penalty for me for killing thousands of aquatic animals or bumping off hundreds of Montanans would be to pungle up about $2,000.

Exxon or WR Grace don't go on parole or probation. Their crimes don't dog their days or their dealings. These corporations can and go right back to their life of crime without risk of life or liberty whatsoever. Dress it up any way you want, and tell yourself there's some kind of equivalency of punishment between corporate crime and individual crime in this, but it exists solely in your own mind.

[harkadog]

22. In my posts I never said corporations face the exact same

criminal liability as individuals. I was responding to posters who claim corporations faced NO criminal liabilities. That is false. Prosecutors don't go after corporations with the same aggression they go after individuals. But that is not because there are legal restrictions stopping them.

[change_notfinetuning]

8. The time has definitely come for CAPITALISM punishment. So far, even when

a corporation is convicted of criminal statutes, it simply pays a fine and promises (wink-wink) not to do it again. It may also be required to set up a monitoring procedure and/or distribute a pamphlet to its employees, with a title such as "Ethics for the Honesty Impaired".

Justice is served and we all live happily ever after. Right?

WRONG! In reality, it's business as usual. They continue to get government contracts, raise prices on us to compensate for any fines they've paid and, eventually, commit similar wrongdoings. Oh, but they live happily ever after - bigger, more powerful, more abusive, and more profitable.

[zbdent]

9. hey ... if I dumped oil in a lake, I'd get arrested ...

[harkadog]

13. Corporations get charged with environmental crimes also

http://www.epa.gov/oecaerth/basics/criminal.html No legal restrictions against it.

[timtom]

11. I totally love this idea.

Especially if ALL the members of that organization were put through the legal system. Can you imagine?
"But, I just work there."
"Sorry, but your are an accessory to a crime. 15 years. Next!"

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

16. Indeed. "But I'm a janitor! I'm just trying to feed my family!"

Doesn't matter. JAIL!

[Echo In Light]

17. K&R

[Jack Rabbit]

19. For artificial persons we have an artificial guillotine

It's called a paper shredder.

Just take the corporate charter for ExxonMoble, Monsanto, AIG, United Healthcare or any other "to big to either fail or behave responsibly" corporation and insert it into the shredder.

Capital offenses include pollution, lying about environmental damage (such as climate change denial), frivolous law suits aimed against public participation, denial of services (especially health care coverage), wholesale violation of OSHA ordinances, conspiracy to disrupt union organizing, conspiracy to disrupt political events such as town hall meetings, taking tax payer money and turning around and using it in a manner contrary to the public good (to include lobbying Congress or otherwise buying a politician) and impersonating a "person".

That should take of those artificial bastards.