Oil spill ‘too much’ for skipper who committed suicide -- ‘We're helping cover up the lie’

[Forkboy]

(June 24) -- Two weeks after he was hired by BP to help with the oil spill cleanup, William Allen Kruse killed himself.

The 55-year-old charter boat captain shot himself in the head Wednesday morning as he prepared to spend another day skimming oil off the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, clearing the spill that threatened to destroy his livelihood and community.

snip

A deckhand who worked for Kruse said working as one of BP's "vessels of opportunity" was a stressful and confusing experience.

"We're helping cover up the lie," the 27-year-old told The Washington Post anonymously. "We're burying ourselves. We're helping them cover up the that's putting us out of work."

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2010/06/oil-spill-too-much-for-skipper-who.html

[mzmolly]

1. Beyond sad.

:(

[Oregone]

2. Why is cleaning up oil covering up?

Its not connecting here. Anyone? Did he know something others didn't? Or is he just super depressed and not thinking straight?

I mean, no matter what people do, if all life dies there in the next year, cleaning up the oil isn't covering up anything. Thatll be known.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SoCalDem]

5. By being "forced" to work FOR the people who destroyed your future.

It would tend to eat away at your soul.. To go from loving the sea, and making a living from the fish you catch or the tourists you take out, to trying to clean up the goo that's killing the sea and all the creatures in it..

Like having a court grant custody of you to a person who's molesting you.. You would depend on them for food & shelter..but at what personal expense:(

[Caretha]

52. Excellent analogy

[Hannah Bell]

74. isn't that what most of us do? our work expands their power & contracts ours.

one way or another, we're building our own prisons.

[SoCalDem]

75. If you work FOR someone else, yes..

:(

It's sad to see so many people who still think their "company" has their best interests at heart.. I think millions of people have had a very rude awakening:(

A guy my husband knows just lost his job. Granted, the guy could have retired years ago, but he LOVED that job, and had worked for the company for decades. there was nothing he did not know about their product. the owners of the company just up and sold it a few weeks ago..no warning to the employees, and last week John got his walking papers..along with 12 others..all who just happened to be over 45. These were the most experienced (and most costly) employees, and they have not been replaced, so there's really no lawsuit possible because business IS down, and the company could surely prove "necessity".. . This guy will be okay, since their house was paid off years ago, and he collects social security, but that company lost a valuable resource, and an "old guy" got cut out of a job he was very good at, and who probably would have stayed for less, if they had given him the courtesy of asking him:(

[swilton]

82. + 1

[eowyn_of_rohan]

7. They may have been retrieving bodies of dead wildlife

BP doesn't want people to know how many creatures are dying so they get rid of the evidence.

[Oregone]

9. See, thats what I was wondering about

Was this guy being totally irrational because his heart was broken (completely understandable), or is there more. Was he stacking up bodies of oily dead dolphins every day after cleaning out the skimmers

[Mimosa]

38. That's probably the case, Oregone

I've known people who were charter boat captains or captains of fishing vessels.(My stepfather had run a charter boat company on the Gulf long ago, out of the same area) It's hard work and these people and their families know and love the ocean and it's living creatures with a passion.

I can imagine how horrible it must be to take the boat out into the stinking vapours, seeing one's boat become fouled with oil. And seeing all the dead bloated carcasses of big fish and sea birds floating on the surface of what had been crystal clean waters. Waters which were blue, salty and bracing have become a filthy soup. Could the man imagine the ocean will someday clean itself or be cleaned?

I can't. And I've been in mourning for two months. And I no longer live near the coast.

[lark]

100. I'm wondering if he wasn't also using dispersants?

Dispersants certainly "hide" the damage in the immediate future - fuck us up worse in the long term.

[cwydro]

84. Certainly.

And who knows they might have these "little guys" spreading dispersant also.

I would shoot myself too, before I would spread dispersant.

[Goblinmonger]

97. I get your point about it being a tough job

but his job before this was retrieving bodies of live wildlife and killing it so that people could eat it. It's not like this is some Greenpeace vegan out there doing this job.

That being said, it sucks that this guy found himself in such a terrible place that this was his only perceived way out.

[wtmusic]

10. Numerous anecdotal stories of BP clamping down on photographs

and blogs documenting the ecological horror of it all.

They probably made him sign all kinds of nasty papers first.

[KoKo]

95. I've been amazed at lack of airel views of the "cleanup." All the skimmers and Coast Guard vessels

plus tankers who are supposed to be recovering the oil from the tube or whatever they put down into the gusher.

That film they show of the gushing is all I see, plus some reporters on the beaches. But, no air surveillance. Maybe I've missed them...but the coverage seems incomplete somehow compared to other disasters.

[wtmusic]

104. Agree.

Especially dead animals. For all the reports, there are scant few photographs.

[CoffeeCat]

22. I think this man...

...sensed that he was hired to "clean up" but that it was a total exercise in futility.

The man lost his entire livelihood and was hired--as an object for perpetuating lies, by the very villains who
destroyed his life.

I imagine that was experience was a bottomless pit of emotional hell.

[Kalyke]

24. Because it's probably worse than we've been shown/told.

Hi Fructose's insensitivity and maligning aside.

[E_Olenska]

80. Yes it is worse than everyone's being told

My partner works for "a major oil company" in the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles away from the Deepwater Horizon. She said that there is oil as far as the eye can see....an orange slick. I'm terrified because will probably be a storm in the gulf by next week. I'm just now getting over losing everything to the levee collapse. I've finally rebuilt, and I thought we were finally past the worst. If you want to make God laugh...tell him your plans.

[Ticonderoga]

47. Beats me dude

But a tragic thing just the same.

[gauguin57]

101. His friends, interviewed on CNN last night, said he realized he was being used by BP.

The man who committed suicide went out to help with the cleanup with the best of intentions. He came to believe BP was using him and his fellow Gulf residents as window dressing to make the world THINK they're really handling the cleanup. He felt ashamed that he'd been used this way, according to his friends.

Whether that's true, I dunno. But that's what his friends were saying.

[TexasObserver]

4. recommend

[bobbolink]

6. We must honor his death. Its unclear from the link whether this story is in the corporate news

media, so I suggest we pick a news outlet and pressure them to cover this story.

I am also going to contact Salazar's office with this, as well as my senators. They need to investigate this, and add it to the toll that BP has cost this country.

His death must have meaning!

[maryf]

92. +1

all human deaths and all human lives deserve to have meaning, the lack of concern for human lives, including the quality of those lives, and the human need of dignity is incomprehensible!

[bobbolink]

96. Excellently said, and you would think this would be the prevailing attitude of "progressives".

Yet what we see in this thread is debating what was wrong with him.

:shrug: :cry:

[maryf]

111. yep...

guess he chose to be working in the wrong profession... :(

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

8. Sorry, I hit unrec by mistake. I figured I'd out myself and be a bit embarrassed in the process. nt

[ZombieHorde]

11. I recommended for you. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

25. Thx. nt

[reflection]

78. I rec'd for you as well.

Sad story.

[jobycom]

12. I don't know. I have trouble buying that.

The guy is a happy family man but after only two weeks he's so upset with the job that he shoots himself and leaves his 13 year old son and the rest of his family behind?

Maybe. Maybe the combination of the destruction of the area, the loss of business, and the job demands could have driven him to suicide in two weeks. But it's a stretch to me. I'd guess he had other issues, even if the job was one of the factors.

[Forkboy]

13. Being a family man doesn't make one immune from depression.

It may look sometimes like a person could have everything they want, but on the inside things could be entirely different for him. Even if he appeared happy to others he may have been suffering from depression. A lot of people do their damn best to not let on, especially with friends and family. Trust me on this one.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

18. Imagine how many in this country are depressed these days to some degree

How can one NOT be? Of course my perspective may be skewed due my own depression over this nightmare

[jobycom]

21. That's the point I was making. I don't buy that his suicide was the result of a two week job.

Someone who was genuinely happy isn't likely to have killed himself over a two week job. There was something deeper going on there. Like you, I suspect he was depressed for longer and over more than just the job.

After Katrina there were a lot of suicides. They weren't usually the people who lost everything, they were people who felt hopeless about the recovery and overwhelmed by the grief and loss all around them. Some of them had previous depression, and some--one guy in particular whom some of my friends knew--even had health issues they just gave up on. It was about the weight of longterm depression and the hopelessness just overwhelmed them. This man may have been still suffering from that, and then from the relentless oil spill and the loss of so much of his life. The job was just the final straw.

That was my point. I suspect--though it's just a guess--that there was more to this man's suicide than a two week job and whatever he was asked to do.

[jberryhill]

28. You don't seem to understand - he ran fishing charter trips

His business was wiped out.

He was taking part in the skimming program because there is no fishing charter business and there is not going to be a fishing charter business.

His career went down the toilet that is now the Gulf of Mexico.

[jobycom]

31. Yeah, I get that, and that's what I was saying.

Maybe the long term impact of the spill helped to create his depression, but that still doesn't mean his two week job brought him from happy family man who loved his son to suicide. The OP's link makes it sound like the only thing bad that happened to him was his job with BP, and it was the cover-up of what he was doing for BP that made him kill himself. I'm saying I doubt that, that there was a bigger issue. The oil spill as a whole may have been part, or even all, of that, but that means it wasn't as simple or dramatic as the link makes it sound.

[jberryhill]

35. Oh I see.. /nt

[Forkboy]

41. Well then, glad I could help you out!

;)

[axollot]

85. As someone who has suffered with severe depression on and off -

this guy could have too (no body may have even known). To see that area (my family live in MS and I am in NE FL) destroyed - it CAN easily take less than 2 weeks for one to kill themselves.
Heck, even if he was given meds for depression they can sometimes make depression worse AND/OR take about 3-6 weeks to work.
Two weeks quite plausible. He was a charter fisherman - you think they will be going back out any time soon?
Cheers m8
Sandy
Edit to clarify also my brother is a fisherman cleaning/protecting MS Sound area that is near the oil but has not had oil...yet.

[1monster]

44. Living on the East Coast of Florida and somewhat out of the path of the Gulf Stream,

even I feel a terrible fear and dread that the Gulf Gusher is the end of life on this planet if it is not stopped very soon, and maybe even if it is. I've seen videos of rain bringing some kind of oil/chemical residue down with it, of a baby dolphin die despite the frantic efforts of those who tried to save it by scraping the quarter-inch layer of oil from its body, of formerly pristine white sand beaches, covered in a thick viscous oil. I've read about sea turtles being burned alive by BP. My neighbor told me about seeing a video where sea creatures that are natural enemies, predator and prey, were swimming together in a search to find water with sufficient oxygen for them to live. Every day the news from the Gulf is worse.

Now imagine being out there seeing your livelyhood destroyed, breathing in the horrible fumes, seeing evidence of the incredible damage done already and fearing, perhaps knowing that the Gulf is dying and will die completely even if the gusher and all the seapage from under the sea bed is stopped this minute.

One could easily come to the absolute depths of despair after two weeks of that. From what I've heard thus far, I can only conclued that the Gulf is doomed, the countries in or bordering the Gulf are in for many, many years/decades of hard times due to the lethal chemical cocktail BP has mixed in the Gulf. And a large portion of the world will also feel the consequenses of this unmitigated disaster.

It is despair, seeing no hope for the future, that leads to suicide.

[jberryhill]

26. Losing your business and career at 55 is devastating

The guy runs fishing charters. Worked his whole life to get where he was, and now has no future in that business.

That is a crippling blow. Nobody hires 55 year olds.

[jobycom]

33. Which means it was about his career and not about the two week job at BP

which is what I was saying.

[Mimosa]

43. Nobody kills himself for just one reason, Jobycom n/t

[jobycom]

69. Which was my point. nt

[WinkyDink]

45. Suicide does not have to stem from a long build-up of events.

[Bluenorthwest]

53. I just read what the man himself said before he shot himself

Thanks for correcting his last words, I did not even know they needed annotation. I would have just let his own reason for his own action stand as he wrote it, like a sap.

[northernlights]

61. you're so far off base I almost feel sorry for you

I cannot imagine spending a day in that sewer, seeing the end of everything, realizing that there is no cleaning that mess.

I'm sitting up here in Maine, and I leave my job and see the setting sun reflected off the shimmering harbor, the sound and sight of gulls, the salt air.

I cannot even begin to imagine the devastation of waiting for weeks for the oil to come, and then it does...and seeing everything I love the most destroyed for good. The stench of oil, the stench of death...and knowing that's what it will be for the rest of your life.

He spent every day out there knowing that whatever they did was nothing. There is no stopping it. The Gulf is dead, at least for our lifetimes.

[jobycom]

70. Wow. I'd love to see what you'd say if you actually read what I wrote.

Instead of staring off at your shimmering harbor, I mean. But it's more fun to insult me without reading what you are insulting me over than to take your eyes off that shimmer, eh?

[northernlights]

79. I actually did read what you wrote

through several replies.

So maybe your writing isn't as clear as you think it is. Or maybe you just don't get it.

What I *do* know is that if I was facing what that poor man was facing, and being around the same age he is, suicide would likely be on my list of options. :shrug:

[Mimosa]

39. Nobody hires 55 year olds.

That is so true in many fields. Real working people know it. :(

[treestar]

42. Why not?

And not strictly true. I know people in their 60s who have gotten jobs. Nobody seems a little much.

[jberryhill]

48. Yah... As gulf coast fishing charter owner/operators?

Sure. He can get hired as a Wal-Mart greeter.

The guy is a fishing charter boat captain. That's a business that takes a long time to build and doesn't exactly qualify you for much else in the booming gulf coast job market.

The point is, from his perspective, his life was over.

[treestar]

49. But there's going to be some government aid in his case, no?

And the pain is shared by the whole community, so that's got to make it easier in some way.

He must have been suffering from depression, no doubt this could have made that worse - but if he didn't already suffer from it - he might have been able to deal with it.

[Mimosa]

51. Government aid doesn't come through most of the time

Do you know what 'gov aid' the man would be eligible for? An SBA loan he'd have to pay back with no income to support it, probably, since the ocean has been killed. Have you ever tried living on 'gov aid' and supporting a household?

My partner and I got gov aid after Katrina. $1,700 dollars from Fema -which we had to pay back a year later- and a $5,000 SBA loan we're still paying back.

Re: the $1,700 from FEMA 2 weeks after Katrina. They told us at Red Cross it was a 'grant' then about a year later demanded repayment. We repaid because the gov can freeze bank accounts, etc. But we've met many people who didn't have to repay. The system was totally luck of the draw about who had to repay.

Nothing is certain in this situation.

[jberryhill]

57. Losing your livelihood in middle age is devastating

Yes there are thousands of them, and yes some are going to commit suicide over it.

That's just the way it is.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, those investor who jumped out of windows to their deaths were perfectly happy just days before.

[lark]

102. Know any 60 year old people getting jobs lately?

I sure don't.

[E_Olenska]

81. think about it.......

After losing everything in the levee collapse of katrina, a good friend of mine, an attorney, shot himself in his destroyed house. He had just lost too much....his house, his neighborhood, everything. A year later, almost to the day, his beautiful son shot himself on the levee by the house. Another friend, shot herself in her little trailer set up on her property where she was trying to rebuild. Yes, things can feel that bad.

[dotymed]

83. Not trying to be a conspiracy nut,

but have they checked all possibilities? Suicides are easy to fake. He may have learned (or guessed) too much. Maybe even decided to expose the truth. The ruthless, profits only, bastards have committed many crimes. They are currently murdering thousands, slowly, with their (proprietary formula...ha) dispersant. We know that most of the "clean-up crew" from the Valdez are already dead. I guess that "dispersant" really destroys peoples (animals) respiratory systems.
We must take our country back from corporate rule, non-violently would be best, but we must act now and do whatever is necessary for the survival of our species....if it is not too late.

[opihimoimoi]

14. BP should be tried for MURDER

[WeDidIt]

15. Most BP executives

And dozens of mid-level managers belong in prison at least.

[opihimoimoi]

16. Them KEYSTONE DRILLERS HAVE INITIATED THE DEATH SPIRAL

I hope we can stop the well before its too late....this has a good potential to disturb global climate to the extent of increasing odds for large FAMINE

[WeDidIt]

20. I think it will have to gush considerably longer to have that effect

Nowhere near as much oil has been dumped into the GoM as was dumped into the Persian Gulf in '92.

If it's still gushing in six months though....

[opihimoimoi]

40. Persian Gulf small compared with GoM and its connection to open Atlantic

Very scarey scenario looming....long term adjustments needed asap to address

[WinkyDink]

46. It will be.

[TheKentuckian]

90. All bodies of water and habitats are not created equal. Nor are the mitigation efforts.

I hope you are right but just on wetlands alone, I think we have a deeper problem here.

[Politics_Guy25]

66. I agree-n/t

[lunatica]

17. There's also the possibility that the fumes made his thinking very fuzzy

Rachel Maddow said that just a couple of hours breathing those fumes when she was there made her very fuzzy headed.

[liberation]

36. For real now...

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. how horrible!!!!!!!!!!!

[Odin2005]

23. There are no words.

[Swamp Rat]

27. .

:cry:

[Uncle Joe]

29. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Forkboy.

[Dystopian]

30. KandR

Tragic.


peace~

[SemperEadem]

32. that is starting to become the developing consensus out of the Gulf

that BP is not cleaning up, they're covering up.

[earth mom]

34. I'm still wearing my tinfoil hat on this one.

:tinfoilhat:

Where are the witnesses that prove he shot himself?

[walldude]

56. I read a few articles with interviews of friends who claim he was not "depressed"

at all. That there were no warning signs and no red flags. Now I'm not one for the funny hats but this seems a bit odd. He just doesn't sound like the kind of guy to quit on his kids like that. Somethings... fishy.

[SocialistLez]

62. Like many people, it could have just been a mask.

I've heard of people killing themselves after a dinner with friends.

It was a shock to everyone but you never know the inner workings of someone's mind.

[dotymed]

86. I'm 50,

and the loss of my health, career, home, etc..has made me consider suicide more than once. I have two beautiful children. One would receive SS benefits (that I have been denied), but the thought of not being here to be around them, changes the whole scenario.
The majority of people recognize that we have become a corporate nation (Fascist), and the lack of an "uprising" to stop these events is amazing.

[lark]

108. Media is fascist too

They brain wash a lot of folks and I disagree that most know we are a fascist nation. Do you think regular FAUX watchers know this? They almost 100% do not. Do you think the fundamentalist know this - NO to that one too. That's a big chunk of Americans.

[Political_Junkie]

37. So very sad.

.

[fishbulb703]

50. Rec with a heavy heart. nt

[defendandprotect]

54. "We burned the village in order to save it ..." -- !!! BP lies and coverup ...

and I imagine they are able to hide much of this --

what are we going to find out eventually -- anyone's guess.

Will they ever be able to shut this thing down?

Will we be saying that government should have called in their own oil experts

and not relied on this murderous/criminal company?

Will we be saying that our instincts should have been to seize BP immediately?

Can we even imagine how expansive this pollution and harm to the Gulf could become?

When we deal with criminal corporations -- and we have many, many of them --

can we really expect honest dealing?


This man had a conscience -- and a message for us --

[axollot]

87. It'll be shut down - it takes about 3-4 months for it. Something they

didnt want to announce when this first happened. It's taken aprox 3 months for other leaks too. The after math regardless of when the oil is stopped is the main problem. Even saving coastal areas just isnt enough. I've learned a lot just in my short time in the Tortugas. Life under the sea is so delicate. :cry:

cheers m8
Sandy

[defendandprotect]

113. So ... you're predicting LONGER than what BP has said on the relief wells?

[dotymed]

89. Did you watch Rachel last night?

It is a clear message that BP (or most corporations) could care less about our people or planet. They demand to "drill baby drill", deep water, even though there are absolutely no more ships or technology available to use (anywhere in the world) if there is another disaster. There would be no way to clean up another ocean spill.
They do not care...more profits are all any of them care about. They are not willing to wait until (if) some progress is made in the Gulf and clean-up vessels are available.
My God, do we have to be stabbed before we and "our" government wake up and say "no more."
It is obvious that "our" government is corporate owned. They plan to destroy America for profits (the banksters are in it too) and move on. Just like they have been doing to third world countries (America is now a third world country with enormous military strength) for centuries. We have to stand up. Each and every one of us, must (at least) demonstrate (in our own communities, nation-wide) until our government is returned and real, people saving, job creating) regulations are placed on these industries.
Fuck it. I've tried this too often. It just makes me physically ill and everyone stays on their couch. We deserve whatever we get unless we fight for real change.
I just want to move to a real civilized nation...there doesn't seem to be any will left in Americans.

[Maru Kitteh]

55. K & R with a heavy heart.

[Skittles]

58. K&R for Mr. Kruse

:cry:

[KoKo]

59. Think About Haiti (Horrible Devastation) or Tusanmi years ago (Horrible Devastation) would The Gulf

Disaster get Better Press Coverage?

So far our MSM seems to be covering The Gulf Devastation in less time than they did "O.J. Simpson's Bronko Ride and his Subsequent Trial with all the HOOPLAH!"

Why is the Gulf mentioned as if it's just a "Tornado or Hurrican or even just a "Tropical Wave" and it's acted like only the "Weather Channel" should talk about it.

I must have missed a bunch of coverage...because I don't watch the Cable Channels Much...but I'm not seeing the kind of coverage for other people suffering compared to the little coverage about the Gulf Disaster. Or, Maybe I should say: "There doesn't seem to be a HUGE PASSION about the SUFFERING GOING ON IN THE GULF...that WARRENTS coverage other than it's just a "Flub Up by Big Oil" and we need "Big Oil" so lets just do what we can but not trash a sponsor? :shrug:

It's also, probably that Americans in the Gulf States are not forced to live in tents that are flooding away like the Haitians and that Rock Stars aren't doing "Gulf Relief Concerts" all over the world to help us out.

I guess it just comes down to...How bad off you are to get a ROCK CONCERT with SUPER STARTS from ENVIRO MOVEMENT to come and get Money to Help You.

There's some BIG DISCONNECT GOING ON OUT THERE...these days!

Anyone else think so?

[Mimosa]

63. Yes. People don't realise.

They'll forget about it. And pay more for nasty farmed shrimp from the coasts of South Asia.

The Gulf Coast is -was- a jewel which America in general never knew.

[Politics_Guy25]

65. This post really got to me:(

The magnitude of the tragedy unfolding is horrifying and heartbreaking. Damn BP to all hell.

[axollot]

88. so very true!! but not all farmed prawns are rubbish!! & farmed is better than removing from sea -

IMHO

[burnsei sensei]

60. If any more people feel guilty

about "covering up the lie," then please take this advice.
If you are covering up the lie, stop doing so by telling the truth.
To commit suicide sends a message, but the truth has to be sent even more strongly.
If you have made a commitment to be silent, and your silence is killing or hurting people or the environment, BREAK THAT COMMITMENT.

[OwnedByFerrets]

64. K and R

[Barack_America]

67. "vessels of opportunity"??

Holy fuck.

:vomit:

First BP takes away their livelihoods, then they go for the dignity.

[applegrove]

68. How awful for his family that he had a gun at the ready when he went into a funk.

This is why I hate guns. People die really easily.

[Lindsey]

71. The lady who spoke (on the front page of DU) was very

compelling. We've known for a very long time that all that matters to corporations is money - way more important than human life (most of us have probably seen the documentary "The Corporation") Maybe the masses will start to wake up and see things how they really are. How tragic that this young many saw no other way out.

[applegrove]

114. And how tragic that at the very momment he had access to a gun.

[laughingliberal]

72. Very sad and disturbing. nt

[Major Hogwash]

73. They've become BP slaves. Forced to work for the ones responsible for the disaster.

The pressure must have been tremendous on him.

[kgnu_fan]

76. so much pain

[h9socialist]

77. A tragedy that keeps on taking!

[Beam Me Up]

91. "There is Something Very Wrong with the “Suicide” of William Kruse"

There is Something Very Wrong with the “Suicide” of William Kruse

Posted on June 24, 2010 by willyloman
by Scott Creighton

UPDATE – (H/T to an old friend) - http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=willyloman.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmotherjones.com%2Frights-stuff%2F2010%2F06%2FBP-louisiana-police-stop-activist&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fwillyloman.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F06%2F24%2Fthere-is-something-very-wrong-with-the-suicide-of-william-kruse%2F">Go here to read about how the local county officials in various areas affected by all this BP made disaster are being co-opted by BP, the new Masters of the Gulf, and are harassing the residents with impunity just like any third-world corporate tyranny would. BP’s head of security riding around in the taxpayer’s county patrol cars pulling over citizens and interrogating them because they filmed something, stealing their identification, intimidating them… while the deputy sits back and says nothing. This is Coca-Cola and Columbia right here in America.

MSNBC has tried to redeem themselves. Yesterday they scrubbed out any mention of Capt. William Kruse’s death from their early morning article (which I pointed out), so today they are running with a Washington Post article devoted entirely to the subject. The Washington Post article calls Kruse’s death an “apparent” suicide. I don’t think so.

Here are the facts as I know them thus far…

• Kruse showed up in the morning to meet with his deck-hands as usual.
• Kruse sent them to the local store to get ice and other supplies for the day’s work helping clean the oil out of the Gulf.
• When they left Kruse was supposed to start-up his boat and meet them at the store where he would fuel it for the day.
• As they were walking toward the store they heard a “pop” but thought it was nothing more than a firecracker.
• After Kruse didn’t show at the store, they went back and found him in the wheel-house.
• There is no suicide note.
• BP owed Kruse $70,000 and Kruse was very angry about not being paid on time.
• Kruse was an extremely vocal and outgoing man. He was a community leader who all the other captain’s “looked up to“
• Kruse was on the board of the Orange Beach Fishing Association.
• Other fishing boat captains came to him for advice.
• Kruse had recently told one of them that the entire clean-up effort was a scam, it was “hopeless”, and that they had to just shut up and just do as they were told… that it was like living in “prison”.

Does that sound like a suicide to you?

More at source: http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/there-is-something-very-wrong-with-the-suicide-of-william-kruse/

[Poboy]

115. intrigue. -nt

Thank you for posting.

[ck4829]

93. Very tragic.

[Child_Of_Isis]

94. Toxic body, toxic mind.

It wouldn't surprise me if the chemicals had an effect on his thinking.

[newtothegame]

98. WTF? Cleaning the oil is a cover-up? We'd rather keep it in the water to make a political statement?

:shrug: WTF is this site coming to?

[Forkboy]

103. Leave it to you to get that out the story.

[LeftyFingerPop]

99. He may have decided that he wanted no part of a world in which this horror could happen.

Just speculation of course, like most of the people in this thread are speculating. The fact is, we don't know. And another fact is: Suicide sometimes knows no reason.

[Forkboy]

105. I posted another thread a little bit ago that goes into his life's details more.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/mentalhealth/la-na-oil-spill-grief-20100625,0,6183365.story?page=1

[LeftyFingerPop]

110. Thanks for this, Forkboy. n/t

[Forkboy]

112. You're welcome. n/t

[Name removed]

106. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[flamingdem]

107. It comes to mind that humans are spiritually tied to their natural environment

and to some that is their literal church. To see it defiled is a destruction that goes beyond concepts like income and career and BP payouts.

[Judi Lynn]

109. Thank you, Forkboy. What a sad, sad shame. Rec.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

Anyone who wouldn't have been overwhelmingly affected by this needless unending nightmare is already dead inwardly.