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Oakland fire: Legal experts say criminal charges are a given
San Jose Mercury ^ | December 6, 2016 | Angela Ruggiero

Posted on 12/07/2016 6:01:08 AM PST by artichokegrower

As investigators in hazmat suits sort “bucket by bucket” through the charred debris of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in search of clues as to how and why 36 people’s lives were lost, legal experts say it’s almost certain someone will be criminally charged no matter what the cause.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: oakland
The city of Oakland, which has been criticized for a failure to act on safety and code enforcement complaints at the warehouse, won’t be held liable because of protections written into state law


Then some city employee or employees should be fired starting with the incompetent fire chief.

1 posted on 12/07/2016 6:01:08 AM PST by artichokegrower
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To: artichokegrower

0bama and Gov Moonbeam’s faults. Lock ‘em up Dano.


2 posted on 12/07/2016 6:02:31 AM PST by Paladin2 (No spellcheck. It's too much work to undo the auto wrong word substitution on mobile devices.)
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To: Paladin2

Brown lived in an Oakland loft building.


3 posted on 12/07/2016 6:04:25 AM PST by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors (at the time of election!)
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To: artichokegrower

Donald. We need your swamp draining machine way over here on the left coast.


4 posted on 12/07/2016 6:17:23 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: Paladin2

Ultimately, a lot of this comes from riding on blind Federal largesse.


5 posted on 12/07/2016 6:18:22 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: artichokegrower
Then some city employee or employees should be fired starting with the incompetent fire chief.

Now that's funny, imagine holding g0vt employees responsible for their actions or in-actions, what a novel but naive thought.

6 posted on 12/07/2016 6:19:51 AM PST by The_Republic_Of_Maine (politicians beware)
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To: artichokegrower

I think one place to look would be if someone was bribed to look the other way. If (and I say if) a government official took a bribe and did not investigate the tinder box that people were living in illegally, then that person should also be charged with (at minimum) man slaughter.

Their not doing the job they were being paid to do contributed to the tragedy.


7 posted on 12/07/2016 6:23:48 AM PST by CIB-173RDABN
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To: artichokegrower

That venue owner guy is toast.


8 posted on 12/07/2016 6:29:01 AM PST by SkyDancer (Ambtion Without Talent Is Sad - Talent Without Ambition Is Worse)
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To: artichokegrower
The charges should be placed agaunst those with the liberal attitude that CAUSED this disaster.

Those are people that don't believe that the law must be followed and that "anything goes" is the new norm.

This disaster is the result of not following the law, or disregard of the law. My indictment includes not just the owner, but also those who did not enforce the law and the victims that ignored the law and took the risk.

9 posted on 12/07/2016 6:30:28 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag ( Anything FREELY-GIVEN by the government was TAKEN from someone else.)
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To: artichokegrower; jimnm; Vermont Lt

Ping to the line quoted in artichokegrower’s comment.


10 posted on 12/07/2016 6:33:55 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Paladin2

Using the Flint water situation as a guide, the media with somehow, some way, find a way to blame this on ‘lack of funding’ for fire inspections, due to ‘state cuts’ that can be traced back to Schwarzenegger.


11 posted on 12/07/2016 6:53:21 AM PST by lacrew
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To: lacrew

That public employees are not to held responsible for their negligence is not just a California law it is in effect nationally

It is, therefore, a fact of law and of practical necessity that individuals are responsible for their own personal safety, and that of their loved ones. Police protection must be recognized for what it is: only an auxiliary general deterrent.

Because the police have no general duty to protect individuals, judicial remedies are not available for their failure to protect. In other words, if someone is injured because they expected but did not receive police protection, they cannot recover damages by suing (except in very special cases, explained below). Despite a long history of such failed attempts, however, many, people persist in believing the police are obligated to protect them, attempt to recover when no protection was forthcoming, and are emotionally demoralized when the recovery fails. Legal annals abound with such cases.

Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the leading cases of this type. Two women were upstairs in a townhouse when they heard their roommate, a third woman, being attacked downstairs by intruders. They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way. After about 30 minutes, when their roommate’s screams had stopped, they assumed the police had finally arrived. When the two women went downstairs they saw that in fact the police never came, but the intruders were still there. As the Warren court graphically states in the opinion: “For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual demands of their attackers.”

The three women sued the District of Columbia for failing to protect them, but D.C.’s highest court exonerated the District and its police, saying that it is a “fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen.” There are many similar cases with results to the same effect.

Similarly, people in various states have been unable to successfully sue over the following situations:

— When 911 systems have been shut down for maintenance

— When a known stalker kills someone

— When the police pull over but don’t arrest a drunk driver who runs over someone later that night

— When a cop known to be violently unstable shoots a driver he pulled over for an inadequate muffler

— When authorities know in advance of a plan to commit murder but do nothing to stop it

— When parole boards free violent psychotics, including child rapist-murderers

— When felons escape from prison and kill someone

— When houses burn down because the fire department didn’t respond promptly

— When children are beaten to death in foster homes


12 posted on 12/07/2016 7:29:10 AM PST by artichokegrower
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To: artichokegrower

I’m not sure why this post was directed at me. My post dealt with political blame being assigned for this...not legal.


13 posted on 12/07/2016 7:51:57 AM PST by lacrew
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