[News] Mumia Abu Jamal on Flint & Cops In Flint Pretend To Deliver Water Filters To Residents, Instead Deliver Arrest Warrants

[Anti-Imperialist News]

/*2 Articles follow*/

February 8, 2016


  Water War Against the Poor: Flint and the Crimes of Capital
  <http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/08/water-war-against-the-poor-flint-and-the-crimes-of-capital/>

by Mumia Abu-Jamal <http://www.counterpunch.org/author/njtj6ft111/>

*http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/08/water-war-against-the-poor-flint-and-the-crimes-of-capital/*

If ever one wondered about the efficacy of a state government agency 
imposing officials on local governments, Flint has answered that 
question forever.

In April, 2014, the state-appointed emergency manager, in order to save 
money, ordered that the city’s water source be changed from Lake Huron 
to the notoriously polluted Flint River.

The switch unleashed a citywide disaster of disease, destruction, and 
death. Flint was a toxic river, rich in lead, a major pollutant that has 
devastating effects on brain development, speech and I.Q. levels in 
children. As soon as it was pumped into municipal water systems, the 
corrosive waters leached lead from the old pipes, and sped it to some 
90,000 homes into the city.

Flint is now a poisoned city, because of its toxic water.

It also illustrates how officials from afar can cause a catastrophe at 
home. Now, tens of thousands of children who drank the water, and were 
bathed in the water, may suffer life-long problems – skin diseases, 
cognitive impairments, speech deficits and more.

The state, being penny-wise and pound foolish, has created a problem 
that may last for generations. The state’s emergency manager created an 
emergency.

The Michigan examples of the politics of austerity will cause problems 
that will cost billions of dollars to resolve.

The politics of ignoring the problems of the poor erupt like lava – 
demanding National attention.

Michigan, by the way, is named after the Chippewa words, /_mici 
gama,_/ meaning “Great Water.”

Michigan governor, Rick Snyder, will be remembered, not for “Great 
Water” – but for toxic water.

***

 From the beginning of human communal time, people built cities adjacent 
to rivers, for water, fresh water, was the source of life.

Cairo (and before it grew into Cairo, Fustat), relied on the Nile; 
London (and before that, the Roman colonial city of Londinium) was built 
upon the banks of the Thames; Paris (originally known as Par-Isis, or 
the House of Isis) grew from the flow of the Seine; Rome rose to become 
an empire along the banks of the River Tiber.

Cities feed upon, and grow from, the waters beside them.

Flint, Michigan is named after the Flint River, for the hard, dark flint 
stones that formed its river bed.

For decades, General Motors drew from it, and then poured into it, its 
chemical wastes and effluvium, until it became the corrosive, toxic brew 
that it is now. Indeed, after the waters became so acidic that it 
damaged automobile parts, GM bailed out, closing their operations there.

These are the waters that Michigan officials, under so-called emergency 
management powers, to save money, routed into Flint homes: waters that 
damaged and dissolved metals, were found fine enough to feed the 
population of human beings in a modern American city.

Thousands; tens of thousands of people, poisoned, for profit.

Why is that not a crime?

Why was it not a crime to poison a river in the first place?

For the same reason that it is not a crime today to order the poisoning 
of thousands of people for corporate and state profit.

Thousands of people – many of them children – poisoned in their brains, 
their livers, their kidneys, their lungs, their bones – for life, in 
many cases, and even the talking heads on corporate media outlets are 
speaking of lawsuits and civil damages – more money – that can’t cure.

When is a crime not a crime?

When corporations do it. When governments do it.

The U.S. government, through its military, committed genocide in Iraq, 
destroying one of the oldest civilizations on earth, based on lies, 
ignorance and arrogance. It tortured Iraqis in American-run hellholes, 
and busted a few low-life guards.

It opened up a torture chamber in Cuba, and suspended the Constitution – 
and called it justice. (Theirs’s actually a joint called Camp Justice in 
Guantanamo Bay – I kid you not)

In a capitalist society, only capital matters. It’s all about the 
Benjamins – bucks over bodies. Profit. Period.

In Michigan’s prisons, there ain’t a single prisoner who committed a 
more vicious crime than the Governor of that state.

Their crimes, no matter what, were retail. The government, for a few 
bucks, committed crimes against thousands –wholesale.

But these are crimes of the powerful.

They don’t count.

These are crimes of capitalism.

/*Mumia Abu-Jamal* is the author of Writing on the Wall 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0872866750/counterpunchmaga>
*********************************************************
/

trofire.com 
<http://trofire.com/2016/02/05/police-in-flint-pretend-to-be-delivering-water-filters-to-residents-deliver-warrants-for-arrest-instead/> 



  Cops In Flint Pretend To Deliver Water Filters To Residents, Instead
  Deliver Arrest Warrants - The Ring of Fire Network

*http://trofire.com/2016/02/05/police-in-flint-pretend-to-be-delivering-water-filters-to-residents-deliver-warrants-for-arrest-instead/*

It’s hard to believe that the situation in Flint, Michigan could get any 
worse, or any more embarrassing for government officials in the area, 
but you’d better believe it.

Flint inmates are now reporting that police have been approaching the 
homes of citizens under the guise of delivering government-issued water 
filters to combat the deadly levels of lead in the water, but when 
residents answer their doors, they are instead being served warrants for 
their arrest. 
<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/04/3746154/flint-inmates-forced-to-drink-tap-water/> To 
be clear, we do not know whether or not the warrants are associated with 
the crisis itself, officers are just using the emergency situation to 
catch individuals unaware.

Inmate Jody Cramer reported this sad bait-and-switch:

    “Here’s your water filtration system. By the way, you have a warrant
    for your arrest.”

The lack of compassion these officers are showing in using a major heath 
crisis in order to serve arrest warrants is disgusting, particularly 
because the Genesee County Jail in Flint has not been giving inmates 
bottled water for months, instead claiming they have a filtration 
process in place (but of course jail employees continue to drink bottled).

    “Many inmates made complaints, due to the fact that the deputies
    would not drink from the faucets. They all carried bottled water.”

Of course, with the government failing to adequately take care of 
law-abiding citizens in Michigan, it is no real surprise that inmates 
are being neglected and taken advantage of. This story is just another 
illustrated example of the selfishness and one-sided nature of those in 
charge in Flint. These residents have been devastated by this blatant 
violation of their human rights, and the police in the town are only 
making the violation worse.


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