Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars aren't only required to pass emissions tests, they're required to have their emissions within the specified limits at all times. The purpose of the tests is to ensure compliance.
This is not the case. If it were the case, the regulations would say "No more than X NOX emitted per mile, even when climbing Mount Everest, even when 5 years old, even when poorly maintained, and even when used with low quality fuel, and in all other conditions anyone might put them in." That clearly isn't reasonable, so instead the rules are written to say "They must pass XYZ tests". As long as those tests are pass…
F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
81–90 of 161 posts
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
You fell for it.. this is US economic imperialism, and nothing to do about emissions.
Maybe, but it's also justice being served. When a poor black man in America is arrested for a rape, it's racism and classism because a rich white man is far more likely to get away with that crime. But it's also justice. I don't think you would argue that we should let poor black men get away with rape just to make things more fair.
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems to be game over for diesel cars in general, even if you ignore their eventual replacement with electric cars. They have been getting a lot of bad press lately. Their popularity was due to their higher fuel efficiency; But for diesels, it seems that there is trade-off between fuel efficiency and NOx emissions ( http://www.livescience.com/52284-volkswagen-scandal-clean-di... ). With many cities and countries t…
diesels are popular in europe for one reason that probably somebody from us will not understand. the price of fuel. because the price of fuel is so much bigger fuel efficiency is the biggest concern
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#84I wonder if the same would have happened to an American company in the USA. If so, what's the deal with the bankers that did orders of magnitude more damage?
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
You fell for it.. this is US economic imperialism, and nothing to do about emissions.
Maybe, but it's also justice being served. When a poor black man in America is arrested for a rape, it's racism and classism because a rich white man is far more likely to get away with that crime. But it's also justice. I don't think you would argue that we should let poor black men get away with rape just to make things more fair.
Ethically, were he to enforce the law to the letter with an egalitarian approach, the first person he saw as he got on shift exceeding 65 should have been pulled over. As soon as that ticket was issued, he should have done so for the next person, ad infinitum until he was off-duty.
In actuality, if every single arrested individual stopped one day and decided to exercise his or her constitutional right to see his day in court like that prep school[1] individual did, we'd see what would amount to be a DDoS on the system incapable of handling a caseload of such magnitude. Pragmatically, an ADA will use a very effective method - known colloquially as "charge stacking" - to intimidate the accused into pleaing out a charge he would likely beat[2].
Though I'm totally with you on the classist component - should Michael Jordan's son commit a crime, he'd be far less likely to be convicted than whitey-mc-Kentucky-Meth-Mouth Tim's son due to the same lack of resources afforded to him.
[1] RE: your rape scenario -- Compare this aggressive attorney http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/28/us/new-hampshire-prep-rape... vs these less fortunate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_jogger_case
[2] Even more compelling is the motion for dismissal those defense attorneys could raise in aggregate on 6th amendment grounds. In the state of California, the 45 day cap could be breached fairly easily if all of the defense attorneys concurrently suggested to their clients to enter a not-guilty plea. You'd also see a marked decline in arbitrary traffic stops, as arresting officers would be forced to spend the day in court rather than in speed traps.
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have not been closely following this scandal, so I was unaware that other car manufacturers have been indicted in emissions cheating. Could you share a source with more information about this?
I thought it's a common knowledge most/all are doing it in one way or the other. Same as professional athletes in many sports, ie cycling - you cannot be really successful without any hacks/borderline cheating, it's more a matter of being few steps ahead of doping tests and current rules, thriving in the gray area. I simply don't believe anymore there are any clean athletes in first 3 places in any sport where there…
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pollution is murder (statistically).
Making cars is "statistical murder". Bad schools are "statistical murder". Selling cheesecake is "statistical murder". Enforce the laws you have to help keeping honest people honest, but please do not selectively blow individual cases out of proportion with gut appeal tactics.
Yeah, the question is how much. Cheating on emissions tests is definitely more murder than selling cheesecake.
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#88I wonder if the same would have happened to an American company in the USA. If so, what's the deal with the bankers that did orders of magnitude more damage?
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#89Don't get me wrong. I find it interesting that the FBI will arrest anyone for conspiracy when they so clearly ignore it in numerous other cases (such as in banking, real estate). I doubt though that this will be an emerging pattern for the FBI. I'm sure many more horrible conspiracies against the American people will be ignored efficiently.
99 times out of 100, a Federal District Attorney (usually in the region where the company / person is headquartered) makes this decision and then the FBI (or other federal agency) acts, especially in major cases like this.
Many times there is a working relationship. An FBI agent might call a district attorney and "shop" his case: "Hey Jim, it's agent Bob, I have a slam dunk case for you here, call me." Other times the crime is serious enough its totally obvious that everyone is going to peruse it (murder, child exploitation, major drug stuff, etc.) And other times, the District Attorney calls the agent and says "Bob, these Volkswagen people need to pay for what they have done, lets throw the book at them, start investigating."
We will probably never know what happened in this Volkswagen case, but make no mistake that people inside the White House, FBI headquarters and Loretta Lynch's office all had to "thumbs up" a persecution on this level. One lowly agent doesn't make these decisions.
Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal
#90I wonder if the same would have happened to an American company in the USA. If so, what's the deal with the bankers that did orders of magnitude more damage?
Harley Davidson was caught doing the same emissions scam and no one seems to care. Granted there's less vehicles from them compared to the 11 million Volks but still.
This is very different from purposefully hiding your emissions levels from testers.
Whether that difference is material when meting out punishment is up to judgement. But calling it "no different" seems pretty wrong.