WARNING>>SERIOUS QUESTION INSIDE>>>WARNING

[SwampG8r]

can someone here explain to me by what legal authority BP is allowed to: close public beaches,
supercede state elected officials,
take control of private property,
deny state and federal workers access to lands ?

this is a real question
what right does BP have to over ride both state and federal constitutions?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I think they're just making shit up as they go along...

I don't think they have any such right.

Dunno!

[ParkieDem]

2. Not sure where you're coming from

But I'm pretty sure all of that has been done in conjunction with federal, state and local governments.

I haven't heard about BP denying federal and state workers to land.

[zipplewrath]

3. Serious question

Do you have any support for your implied assertion?

Have they done any of these things? Or have various local, state, and federal officals willingly taken direction from BP and exercise those powers?

[ensho]

4. the Supreme Court gave them the right

nt

[eowyn_of_rohan]

21. have any more info on that decree?

[asdjrocky]

5. It's in the secret constitution,

the one they don't show, We The People.

[dgibby]

6. The govt, local, state, fed approves,

or it would have been stopped by now.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. They know

that it takes both time and money to challenge their actions in the court system.

[lpbk2713]

8. I don't know about the other states ...

... but I suspect Jindal told the crews working on BP's behalf that they essentially have
carte blanche and they can do whatever they want to do using permission granted by him.
He wouldn't, of course, put that down on paper but that scenario would not surprise me.

[kirby]

9. The Golden Rule...

He who has the gold, makes the rules.

[Angry Dragon]

10. It seems thatour government is not !!!!!!!!

[fascisthunter]

11. the government and corporate interests are one now

that's why

[breadandwine]

12. It's simple, SwampG8r, they don't like yer ugly librul face.

This is all about international capitalism superceding LAW.

Like, I been a sherrif in these parts fer a while, man an boy and you commie pinkos better git for I woomp you and lock you up fer threatenin' our right wing way o' life AND creatin' a NUISANCE. Round here, I AM the law. Ama have ta ARREST you fer not havin' a workin' tail blinker light indicator on yer car. Oh. It's workin'? SMASH! Now it's not.........

There are two things we don't like around here. Revenuers, environmenterlists and DERMACRITS!

And don't gimme none o' yer smart Aleck LIP about that countin' up ta THREE.


Libruls and Democrats need ta be rounded up and that's all the LAW I need ta deal with the likes o' YOU.


And another thing:


Drill baby drill!
Drill baby drill!
Drill baby drill!
Drill baby drill!
Drill baby drill!
Drill baby drill!
Drill baby drill!
Drill baby drill!
Drill baby drill!


Sometimes I WONDER if you lilly liver environmenterlists have that clearly in mind.......

This here is oil country, buddy. Get used to it......

[TheKentuckian]

13. Swamp, it has to be clear that the government is not only allowing

BP but facilitating them by now.

If government disapproved of these shenanigans then they'd stop them. Even the most mealy mouthed opposition to this stuff would file injunctions and publicly ask some tough questions.

[AnArmyVeteran]

17. If you were detained or assaulted by BP goons on a beach you'd win in a court

If BP assaulted you for trying to go on a public beach and even detained by them I would bring them to court. I believe any jury of twelve people would side with me and I'd sue the living hell out of them. Why haven't they been tested in this way yet? Of all the complaints I've read about I haven't heard of one person suing BP. Why not? Anyone who walks on a beach and is forcibly detained should sue BP. And to ensure you have a concrete court case I'd have someone following to videotape the entire encounter.

[TheKentuckian]

20. Maybe, maybe not but it would be years down the line before any justice was served

Money is a nearly worthless remedy when there is no price on the injuries.

A lawsuit settled many years down the line still allows the crimes.

[AnArmyVeteran]

22. Could they stop 100 people, or 1000, or 5000, or 50,000?

[TheKentuckian]

24. Maybe, but we have to hope there would be a nearly unimaginable cost

for playing like that.

Of course on a smaller scale, not out of memory the events of Kent State must have seemed almost equally improbable but we know the price, if any, wasn't near high enough to take similar actions completely off the table.

[walldude]

23. Here's some video of BP's "security" force trying to keep a reporter from interviewing

the clean-up crew...
http://consumerist.com/2010/06/bp-hires-mercs-to-keep-reporters-from-talking-to-beach-workers.html

[lib2DaBone]

14. BP belongs to the Sovereign Republic of Goldman Sachs.

They control the President, all of CONgress and the Military and have total authority.

They are well represented by the K-Street Lobby firm of Dewey Cheetum and Howe.

They are wrapped in the Americian Flag, carry a bible in the left hand, and their goal is to make sure America maintains its usefull purpose as a cheap, obedient labor pool.





I apologize in advance for the sarcasm. I know it is not a good way to communicate and I have been trying to avoid its use. But some days... what else can you do?

[AnArmyVeteran]

15. I don't know about you, but if I went to the beach & they tried to stop me they would have a fight.

I would just walk past them and if they tried to physically stop me using force I'd sue them. The beaches belong to the people, not corporations. And as far as I know, there have been no laws passed to authorize them to detain anyone.

[notesdev]

16. No controlling legal authority

both corps and gov are doing whatever the hell they want, the law is only for the small people.

[librechik]

18. the legal authority of I'm rubber you're glue

and if I say so then you can't. Boy o boy, if they did that to me, I would raise a stink heard round the world.

[Catherina]

19. It's called Capitalism SwampG8r. Compare us to Nigeria and there is your answer

He who has the most capital wins.

Honestly, it gets no simpler than that. What we're up against with BP right now is what third world countries have been up against for decades. As long as this was happening in Nigeria, we kept our eyes shut. We're not at Nigeria's level yet but we're not we're we used to be.

2 books for you:
Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Right and Oil, and its sequel, When Citizens Revolt: Nigerian Elites, Big Oil and the Ogoni Struggle.

There's more oil spilled in Nigeria every year than has been lost in the Gulf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7xumdcz_vw&feature=player_embedded

And old culture, way of life and some of the most beautiful landscapes were destroyed and no one could fight the bastards. Sound familiar?

The model in the third world we exploited is what the globalists want for everyone.

They want to be able to do whatever the fuck they want, when they want and to whom they want.

And if they can't just buy their way to get what they want for stealing resources and killing people, they will do it at the point of a gun.

What you see in the Gulf is capitalism taken to its logical conclusion.

And the sad beauty of it is that they can get working class people not very versed in thought to march in the streets for their right to profit at any cost.

Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore itThe Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades

We reached the edge of the oil spill near the Nigerian village of Otuegwe after a long hike through cassava plantations. Ahead of us lay swamp. We waded into the warm tropical water and began swimming, cameras and notebooks held above our heads. We could smell the oil long before we saw it – the stench of garage forecourts and rotting vegetation hanging thickly in the air.

The farther we travelled, the more nauseous it became. Soon we were swimming in pools of light Nigerian crude, the best-quality oil in the world. One of the many hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that crisscross the Niger delta had corroded and spewed oil for several months.

Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked. "We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots," said Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. "This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months."

That was the Niger delta a few years ago, where, according to Nigerian academics, writers and environment groups, oil companies have acted with such impunity and recklessness that much of the region has been devastated by leaks.

...

There is an overwhelming sense that the big oil companies act as if they are beyond the law. Bassey said: "What we conclude from the Gulf of Mexico pollution incident is that the oil companies are out of control.

"It is clear that BP has been blocking progressive legislation, both in the US and here. In Nigeria, they have been living above the law. They are now clearly a danger to the planet. The dangers of this happening again and again are high. They must be taken to the international court of justice."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

[xchrom]

25. recommend

[unblock]

26. they did not close any public beaches

it's a neat trick private companies do. they exercise their free speech rights by dressing up as rent-a-cops, carrying guns, and TELLING you the beach is closed. the beach, in fact, is NOT closed, but they have every right to be wrong and tell you otherwise.

from a legal perspective, if you believe them and turn away, you VOLUNTARILY chose not to enter an open beach.

only if you walk past them and they initiate violence against you, or if you are arrested, THEN you have an argument. but a lot of the times the rent-a-cop relies on you simply not calling the bluff.



now, if an arm of the government (police, e.g.) shuts down a beach or arrests you illegally, then you have a case. regarding bp, they might have decided that the worst that can happen is that they'll have to drop the trespassing or disorderly conduct charge, but they achieved their goal of keeping you off the beach. that, similarly, is something police departments do all the time, e.g., at political rallies.

but actually winning a case against bp or the police where you have a meaningful victory beyond getting charges against you dropped is very much against the odds. shouldn't be that way, but it is. best possible outcome is, if it goes on long enough, a court orders the police to permit access to the beach. usually after a few months have passed.

[Scuba]

27. Makes you wonder who' in charge, doesn't it?

[eppur_se_muova]

28. Hey, it's their oil!

They don't want people walking all over it and getting it dirty, I guess. :shrug:

[BzaDem]

29. It sounds ridiculous, but this was their ACTUAL justification to one of the reporters.

Unbelievable.