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<span class="post_date" title="2016-02-08"><font color="#ff0000"><i><b><big><big>2
Articles follow</big></big></b></i></font><br>
<br>
February 8, 2016</span>
<h1 class="headline" itemprop="headline"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/08/water-war-against-the-poor-flint-and-the-crimes-of-capital/"
rel="bookmark">Water War Against the Poor: Flint and the Crimes
of Capital</a></h1>
<p class="post_meta"> <span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/njtj6ft111/"
rel="nofollow">Mumia Abu-Jamal</a></span> </p>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/08/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/</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
<div class="post_content" itemprop="articleBody">
<p>If ever one wondered about the efficacy of a state government
agency imposing officials on local governments, Flint has
answered that question forever.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Flint is now a poisoned city, because of its toxic water.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The Michigan examples of the politics of austerity will cause
problems that will cost billions of dollars to resolve.</p>
<p>The politics of ignoring the problems of the poor erupt like
lava – demanding National attention.</p>
<p>Michigan, by the way, is named after the Chippewa words, <em><u>mici
gama,</u></em> meaning “Great Water.”</p>
<p>Michigan governor, Rick Snyder, will be remembered, not for
“Great Water” – but for toxic water.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<p>From the beginning of human communal time, people built cities
adjacent to rivers, for water, fresh water, was the source of
life.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Cities feed upon, and grow from, the waters beside them.</p>
<p>Flint, Michigan is named after the Flint River, for the hard,
dark flint stones that formed its river bed.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Thousands; tens of thousands of people, poisoned, for profit.</p>
<p>Why is that not a crime?</p>
<p>Why was it not a crime to poison a river in the first place?</p>
<p>For the same reason that it is not a crime today to order the
poisoning of thousands of people for corporate and state profit.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>When is a crime not a crime?</p>
<p>When corporations do it. When governments do it.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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)</p>
<p>In a capitalist society, only capital matters. It’s all about
the Benjamins – bucks over bodies. Profit. Period.</p>
<p>In Michigan’s prisons, there ain’t a single prisoner who
committed a more vicious crime than the Governor of that state.</p>
<p>Their crimes, no matter what, were retail. The government, for
a few bucks, committed crimes against thousands –wholesale.</p>
<p>But these are crimes of the powerful.</p>
<p>They don’t count.</p>
<p>These are crimes of capitalism.</p>
</div>
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<p class="author_description"> </p>
<p><em><strong>Mumia Abu-Jamal</strong> is the author of <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0872866750/counterpunchmaga">Writing
on the Wall</a><br>
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</em> </p>
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<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header">
<a
href="http://trofire.com/2016/02/05/police-in-flint-pretend-to-be-delivering-water-filters-to-residents-deliver-warrants-for-arrest-instead/"
id="reader-domain" class="domain">trofire.com</a>
<h1 id="reader-title">Cops In Flint Pretend To Deliver Water
Filters To Residents, Instead Deliver Arrest Warrants - The
Ring of Fire Network</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits"><b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trofire.com/2016/02/05/police-in-flint-pretend-to-be-delivering-water-filters-to-residents-deliver-warrants-for-arrest-instead/">http://trofire.com/2016/02/05/police-in-flint-pretend-to-be-delivering-water-filters-to-residents-deliver-warrants-for-arrest-instead/</a></small></small></small></b></div>
</div>
<div class="content">
<div style="display: block;" id="moz-reader-content">
<div
xml:base="http://trofire.com/2016/02/05/police-in-flint-pretend-to-be-delivering-water-filters-to-residents-deliver-warrants-for-arrest-instead/"
id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div class="td-post-content">
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/04/3746154/flint-inmates-forced-to-drink-tap-water/">warrants
for their arrest.</a> 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.</p>
<p>Inmate Jody Cramer reported this sad bait-and-switch:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Here’s your water filtration system. By the way,
you have a warrant for your arrest.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Many inmates made complaints, due to the fact that
the deputies would not drink from the faucets. They
all carried bottled water.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
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