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Keller @ Large: Case Studies In Irresponsibility

BOSTON (CBS) - As you get ready to start your day, chances are you are reviewing your responsibilities - to your employer, to your family, to your community - and thinking about how you're going to fulfill them. Because that is what responsible people do.

Unfortunately, some people can't handle the acceptance and fulfillment of basic responsibilities.

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Michael McCarthy in Suffolk Superior Court as the verdict is read, June 26, 2017. (WBZ-TV)

That was certainly the case in the tragically-short life of Bella Bond. Not a single adult in her life lived up to their responsibility to care for and protect her. How fitting that the story should end with her drug-addled mother and the mother's boyfriend blaming each other for their own failures.

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Rachelle Bond in court June 7, 2017. (WBZ-TV)

We were also confronted Monday with the sorry sight of Barry Cadden, convicted of fraud and racketeering in the case where his compounding firm shipped deadly medicines to customers, killing dozens and sickening hundreds. Evidence during his trial showed Cadden joking about how clueless state regulators were, and ignoring warning signs of his firm's negligence.

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Barry Cadden enters federal court, June 26, 2017. (WBZ-TV)

And the trifecta of grotesque irresponsibility is completed by Monday's start of the fraud trial of Martin Shkreli, the so-called "pharma bro" who became famous for demanding huge price hikes for a life-saving drug. That's not what he's on trial for here - a higher power will likely hold him accountable for his irrresponsible greed.

Martin Shkreli
Martin Shkreli. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

These case studies in irresponsibility have a common denominator - for whatever reasons, some people just don't care whether or not they hurt others.

And it's our responsibility, when we catch them doing it, to put them away as a warning to others.

Share your thoughts with me via email at keller@wbztv.com, or you can reach out on Twitter, @kelleratlarge.

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