
The Rogue World of New York’s Major Trash Haulers - prostoalex
https://features.propublica.org/sanitation-salvage/sanitation-salvage-accidents-new-york-city-commercial-carting-garbage/
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stefan_
Remember why these guys were so eager to say their dead colleague was some
homeless. Nobody investigates or is legally held responsible for killing
unrelated pedestrians with motorized vehicles. But kill a worker and it's a
whole work safety thing.

~~~
e40
_Nobody investigates or is legally held responsible for killing unrelated
pedestrians with motorized vehicles._

Reminds me of the Freakonomics podcast "how to get away with murder"... it was
all about how killing a pedestrian is prosecuted so seldom, it's absurd. Even
in cases where the drivers are negligent (by their own admission!) are rarely
prosecuted.

~~~
Latteland
It's another way poor people lose their rights. Why didn't the family, who
must have know what the poor guy was doing, didn't prosecute or appeal?
Because they were immigrants, didn't want attention on them, whether they were
legally here there were probably people around them. These poor people are
almost like slaves. They can leave, but they don't have civil rights, they
can't safely tell the police about mistreatment.

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onedognight
The Long Form Podcast did great interview[0] with the author of this story
Kiera Feldman.

[0] [https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-277-kiera-
feldma...](https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-277-kiera-feldman)

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walshemj
Well anyone with even a casual knowledge of city politics in the USA would
have said DUH - it still abit /lot like that.

Mafia involvement in this industry and local politics is not exactly news :-)

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nimbius
I take umbrage with the articles borderline clickbait points.

>Fatal accidents nationally, garbage collection is often more dangerous than
police work. [http://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/jobs/2014/09/11/most-
dangero...](http://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/jobs/2014/09/11/most-dangerous-
jobs/5.html)

>off-the-books workers Yawn. Maybe this was sensational 40 years ago but now
nearly every industry in america is staffed to some degree with undocumented
workers. to think otherwise is fooling yourself into believing your italian
restaurant experience wasnt fulfilled at great personal effort by a team of
central or south american chefs.

>a union once run by a mobster James Bernardone was sentenced to two years in
prison for mob kickbacks relating to the construction industry, but his
connection with the mafia is arguable and he is often seen as the government
pounding any nail they can find to "send a message" to organized crime in New
York. Many other industries require kickbacks. Lawyers, politicians, and
certainly the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries all partake in and
benefit from lucrative kickbacks that are simply never discussed because
"business" is somehow more credible than "mafia" in the context of illicit
gains.

Bernardone still receies a pension. Shocking in this day and age we've
identified an industry that isnt complicit in grinding men to dust at the
command of societies lust for biblical retribution after having served their
prison sentence. most reformed criminals exiting the penal system are stripped
of their voting right, barred from employment, and relegated to relapsing into
the criminal system they were ostensibly rehabilitated from.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
> most reformed criminals exiting the penal system are stripped of their
> voting right

Actually, most states let felons vote after completing their sentences[0], but
in general our penal system makes reintegration into normal society hard.

[0]: [http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-
campaigns/felon-v...](http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-
campaigns/felon-voting-rights.aspx)

