Two immigrants dead

Today, the Boston Globe juxtaposed two stories on the front page:

• the indictment of the smallest player in the Big Dig ceiling collapse that killed Milena Del Valle
• the death in Federal custody and promised investigation of Edmar Alves Araujo from easily prevented epileptic seizure

I've met Martha Coakley, and two friends know her well both personally and professionally and trust her. Still, I can't help believing that Powers Fasteners, the epoxy manufacturer, is not the culprit in the Big Dig fiasco. As reported, the criminal indictment says that Powers didn't warn loudly enough about the characteristics of an epoxy that the company claims they didn't think was being used because they assumed their apparently too quiet warnings had been heeded. This is an indictment for manslaughter based on a thin rationale:

"They had the opportunity to make clear the distinction in the products and raise the red flag at that time and possibly change the course of events; they did not do so," Paul F. Ware Jr., the special prosecutor overseeing the Big Dig investigation, said...

I hope that the Powers indictment is merely the first of several indictments. It could be a public threat to Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, Gannett Fleming, and Modern Continental.

Araujo's death in custody by comparison looks like a simple case of the police reflexively saying, "No. You can't help. Get out of my lock-up." Cops are used to dealing with people who are trying to put one over on them, especially related to drugs, so it takes some way to set yourself apart to get prescription drugs to someone who has been arrested. This immigrant family apparently did not have any pull.

I suspect that the Feds will investigate by interviewing a few people. They'll hold a press conference, tsk-tsk sadly, and say that these things unfortunately happen. Then they'll close the books without doing anything.

This matters to me beyond simple human empathy because I have family members who rely on or have relied on insulin, thyroid, and anti-seizure medication to live normally. I would use every bit of pull I have to get them their medications, but then I'm a white male affluent suburbanite with an elite education and useful connections in politics and law. On the other hand, I also have a relative whose every approach to law enforcement would be a scam, whose arrests provide the only tracking data we get, so I'm not claiming this is easy to get right 100% of the time.