Readers respond: 10-years for improper asbestos removal

An article headlined “Illinois contractor gets 10-year sentence for asbestos violation” generated the following reader comments:

“All contractors should be licensed.  Part of the licensing process should be environmental awareness and the process associated with it.  I get more and more angry everyday seeing dishonest, unscrupulous contractors putting customers at risks while driving down prices so that capable honorable contractors cannot compete.

“As you can tell, I have little sympathy for people that willingly violate any laws, environmental or otherwise.  I may not agree with all the laws but if it is the law then we should be accountable to them.  Too often now days people are not held responsible for their actions.  This case did not appear to be about someone caught up in a situation of which they were unaware but more of an intent to subvert the law.  His unethical action put unknowing workers and the public at risk.

“However, I do feel that our courts have lost sight of fairness in penalties of certain crimes.  If crimes concerning murder, rape and assaults were dealt with this harshly I think we would be living in a safer environment.  It seems if you kill someone the penalty for killing them would not be as severe as dumping their body in a river and being convicted for polluting the river.”

-- Joe Patton

"10 years is absolutely ludicrous! A violation of this sort warrants a fine, not a jail term. Child abuse, rape, murder, multi-billion dollar mortgage/bank frauds warrant jail time. How could a justice system give a contractor jail time while bank  executives who basically trashed the entire American financial system are not even taken to court? (Oh, that’s right -- they got bailouts instead of jail time.)  

-- Chuck Crocker

Winnipeg, Canada