If Corporations Are People, Do They Taste Like Chicken?

Furthermore, can they be tried and executed?

The BP Gulf disaster is the worst environment catastrophe in American history. Millions of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, coastlines, wetlands, and beaches fouled for what may be years, businesses destroyed, and a massive die-off of sea life in the Gulf. If an individual committed destruction on this scale, they'd surely be arrested, and, with their admission of guilt, tried, convicted, and (depending on the state in which the crimes happened) executed.

So why can't we do the same with BP? Nationalize their American assets, freeze every bank account we can reach here and abroad, arrest BP's executives, and liquidate the company? After all, the Supreme Court says that corporations now have the right of freedom of speech!

Nationalize BP. Arrest CEO Tony Hayward, Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, and any and all managers that had any responsibility for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Sell the company's assets on the open market, or take over as the new management. But $20 billion is not enough. Not for a disaster that has the potential to change the face of the Gulf forever.

They shoot murderers, don't they? Nationalize BP.