DETROIT – Former Inkster, Highland Park, and Detroit police officer William “Robocop” Melendez finally faces trial beginning Mon. Nov. 2, in the near-fatal beating of Black Detroit autoworker Floyd Dent, 57, during an Inkster traffic stop Jan. 28. Dent was unarmed.
The dashcam video of the beating (at top of story) went viral, sparking four major protests in Inkster, Highland Park, and Detroit after Channel Four’s Kevin Dietz first aired it. Dietz also aired other videos showing Melendez planting drugs in Dent’s car, and one showing Melendez and his crew taunting the bleeding Dent and ignoring his requests for medical attention, during his booking on charges which were later dismissed.
“I went to the ground, [and Melendez] started choking me,” Dent said at Melendez’ preliminary hearing in August. “He choked me so hard that I couldn’t breathe. … Then he started, he started beating me in the right side of my head.”
Dent and his attorney Gregory Rohl have said he sustained permanent injuries from the beating, including broken ribs and memory loss from bleeding on the brain.
Floyd Dent and his grandchildren on stage after march in Inkster supporting him April 2, 2015.
Melendez faces charges of “Assault with Intent to Do Great Bodily Harm Less than Murder, Common Law Offenses, and Assault by Strangulation.” The charges, brought by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, carry a total of 25 years in prison. None of the other cops shown in the videos kicking, tasing and taunting Dent were charged.
Melendez’ defense attorney James C. Thomas, who previously represented former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, plans to call 25-35 witnesses, while Asst. Prosecutor Robert Donaldson said he plans to call only 5-6 witnesses, along with any rebuttal witnesses.
Judge Evans earlier ruled that testimony regarding Dent’s alleged arrest record and drug use would be allowed, likely accounting for the number of defense witnesses. However, there are no crimes or arrests on Dent’s State Police ICHAT record, or in Wayne County Third Judicial Circuit Court records.
“They need to allow testimony from all the people who have been killed, mangled, shot, assaulted and framed by Melendez, or from their families,” Cornell Squires, of We the People for the People, said.
Cornell Squires
“Detroit paid out millions of dollars for his conduct when he should have been charged long ago. Numerous people went to jail because of his conduct. They need to be compensated for their loss. Hopefully this time, the jury pool will see the truth of the charges. They should bring up everything good and bad—let the jury weigh it out. I would love for my son to testify that Melendez lied on him, and he served time in jail as a result and still has a record. Once a liar, always a liar.”
Squires’ son was tried in 1999 before then Judge Kym Worthy, who refused to allow key defense evidence to be considered.
A state statute does allow evidence of “similar acts,” to be used under certain circumstances, but evidently has not been invoked by the prosecution. It reads:
MCL 768.27 Evidence; proof of intent or motive by similar acts.
“In any criminal case where the defendant’s motive, intent, the absence of, mistake or accident on his part, or the defendant’s scheme, plan or system in doing an act, is material, any like acts or other acts of the defendant which may tend to show his motive, intent, the absence of, mistake or accident on his part, or the defendant’s scheme, plan or system in doing the act, in question, may be proved . . . .”
During his long-term tenure with the Detroit Police Department, Melendez helped shoot to death two unarmed Detroiters, Lou Adkins, during a traffic stop in 1996, and Ernest Crutchfield, in his own kitchen in 2003. “Robocop” has been sued a total of 12 times in federal court, costing Detroit over $1.2 million. The City of Inkster paid $1.3 million to settle Dent’s case.
Melendez and Detroit cop Matthew Zani were the ringleaders of a group of 18 cops who carried out an “L.A. Ramparts”-style campaign of assaults, sexual abuse, frame-ups, and death threats, according to charges brought to trial by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2004. Circuit court judges dropped charges against several of the witnesses after the officers were indicted.
But the first eight cops, including Melendez, were acquitted in what prosecutors called a “jury nullification verdict,” despite the fact that the witnesses against Melendez et. al. included 17 Black Detroit police officers.
“I’ve been a civil rights attorney for 14 years, and never in that time have I seen a police officer testify against another officer, because of the blue code of silence,” Attorney Kevin Ernst told this reporter then. “When you have other officers testifying, it’s hard to believe that it’s not true.” He represented chief witness Clifton White, who had been subjected to constant criminal acts by Melendez and other Third and Fourth precinct cops over a period of 10 years.
But Melendez’ attorney David Lee rejoiced.
“I really do feel that this jury sent a message to Detroit police officers that they can go out and do their jobs without having the federal government looking over their shoulders,” he said. “One juror, a Detroit resident, personally told me to make sure that these young men get back on the street because we need their protection.”
After the verdict, the number of killings by Detroit police spiked dramatically, but Worthy, who took office in January, 2004, refused to bring charges against any Detroit cops in the killings, until Joseph Weekley and a Detroit SWAT-style crew killed seven-year-old Aiyana Jones May 16, 2010.
Sign for Aiyana Jones (center) was carried at every march in support of Floyd Dent. Ron Hereford, whose son was framed by Southfield cops, is at right.
Weekley, charged with involuntary manslaughter, walked free after three trials during which it was clear that the prosecution conspired with the defense and Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway. Instead, the little girl’s father and uncle, Charles Jones and Chauncey Owens, were sent to prison for 40-60 years and life, respectively, based on testimony secured largely from jail-house snitches about the killing of Je’Rean Blake, 17.
The NYPD violently arrested a peaceful protester holding his two-year-old child on his shoulders Saturday, Oct. 24, allegedly for standing on a park bench as well as 10 other peaceful protesters at a demonstration against police violence.
Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Jones, 7, killed by Detroit police May 16, 2010, speaks at #RiseUpOctober “Say Their Names” rally.
The rally and march, organized by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network was permitted for a rally in Washington Square North, a march up 6th Avenue in one lane of traffic, and another rally on 6th Avenue along Bryant Park. Despite the fact that organizers of the protest jumped through the arduous hoops of obtaining a parade permit, New York City police showed up for the event as if they were prepared for a riot, and deployed numerous questionable tactics, trampling on the demonstrators Constitutional rights to free speech and to peaceably gather.
Staffed almost exclusively by their new protest-specific unit, which has civil libertarians concerned, the NYPD carried and used military-grade sound cannons, which can cause permanent hearing damage, filmed peaceful protesters, which is a violation of a federal decree, and over-reacted to minor and even non-existent offenses, arresting nearly a dozen protests, some brutally (videos below).
First arrest by NYPD, Twitter photo by Keegan Stephan
The rally in Washington Square went unmolested by the police, but as soon as it left the square, the NYPD began shoving metal barricades into protesters as they turned onto 6th Avenue.
As the march proceeded up 6th Avenue, anytime a protester so much as stepped over the line of the far right lane, the NYPD mobilized their fleet of scooters, threatened arrests, and even blared dispersal orders over their ear-shattering sound cannon.
When the march reached Bryant Park, a contingent turned right on 42nd Street toward 5th Avenue, apparently unsure of the final destination. Some protesters crossed 5th Avenue, but others realized they had passed the destination and turned down 5th to circle the block back to the second rallying point.
Protesters in march/Photo by Yvette Johnson, stepmother of Terrance Kellom, killed by Detroit police.
The NYPD, which had been holding back traffic until this point, suddenly instructed traffic to cross 42nd Street and drive behind the protest, creating a dangerous situation for everyone involved and, with barricades along both sidewalks, seeming trapping the protesters in an arrestable position. Indeed, they then immediately began arresting protesters for “obstructing vehicular traffic.”
Journalist Russell Johnson waited for an ambulance for 40 minutes after police arrested him.
The NYPD arrested five protesters on 5th Avenue and shoved the rest onto the sidewalk, injuring at least one person – a member of the press named Russell Johnson, who told PINAC News that the NYPD shoved him over their metal barricades, hurting his back to the point he feared standing up without an ambulance.
While the NYPD was able to maneuver multiple vehicles down the block to arrest the protesters, an ambulance did not arrive for Johnson for more than 40 minutes.
Things remained calm through the rest of the second rally, after which a smaller group took the sidewalks toward Times Square. Many police followed.
When the splinter march reached Times Square, several protesters, including one man with his two-year-old child on his shoulders, stood on the benches around the statue of George M. Cohen in the pedestrian plaza to read the facts of police brutality to the crowd in Times Square.
Police mob protester as arrest is made. Photo: George Joseph
The NYPD vastly over-reacted to this minor infraction (if it even is one) and violently arrested all of the protesters on the statue’s structure, six in total. I was present for the arrest and heard no dispersal order, just saw the police suddenly grabbing the demonstrators, throwing them to the ground, cuffing them, and dragging them away to police vehicles.
Below is video of the NYPD arresting the man who had his child on his shoulders, throwing him to the ground and stomping on him.
The NYPD took all of the protesters arrested at Rise Up October to the 7th Precinct, just south of Delancey Street, some 60 blocks south of where they were arrested, past at least five other precincts. While they did not transfer the protesters again, as they have done without alerting jail support at recent protests, they did take them to a precinct distant enough to prohibit many people from joining jail support who wanted to.
At the time of the writing of this piece, of the 11 people arrested at #RiseUpOctober, seven had been released from the precinct with minor charges. The other four had been taken to Central Booking where the NYPD said they would be held overnight and arraigned in the morning on charges of “resisting arrest” in addition to other charges.
First four protesters to be released/Photo Keegan Stephan
As readers of this site are well aware, charges of “resisting arrest” are generally cover for the cops roughing you up while they arrest you. Last night was not exception. Video of the one person who was arrested on Broadway and charged with “resisting” can be seen below. The NYPD’s protest-specific Strategic Response Group seems particularly well trained at the age old tactic of yelling “stop resisting” for the cameras, when no one is actually resisting.
Rise Up October NYC Police Brutality Protest Results In Multiple Arrests: Report
Activists and concerned citizens marched the streets of Manhattan in New York City Saturday as part of “Rise Up October,” a mass demonstration to protest police brutality in the United States. A number of protesters were reportedly arrested, but it wasn’t immediately clear what the charges were.
Police with dogs confronted Rise Up protesters. Photo: James from the Internet.
According to a tweet, a police officer allegedly smacked the cell phone out of the hand of the first woman arrested. It was not immediately clear how many protesters marched the streets, which were filled with chants of “justice now” and signs saying “Stop police terror!” and “Which side are you on.”
Demonstrators gathered in Washington Square Park Saturday morning and marched to a closing rally at Bryant Park near Times Square, according to the group’s website. Activists predicted in August that Saturday’s Rise Up October event could attract about 100,000 people.
Lead banner shows some of 960 people killed by law enforcement in 2015 alone.
“What I see it accomplishing is radically transforming the way people look at this question [which side are you on] getting them to go from sympathy with people who are suffering this to actively siding with them and acting together with them, and then getting other sections of people to go from, ‘This doesn’t have any effect on me. It’s not my problem,’ to seeing that it is all of our problem,” Carl Dix, a Rise Up October co-founder, said in a radio interview in August.
Saturday’s event came one day after demonstrators gathered in Queens to protest Rikers Island, saying it should be shut down, according to a Bronx news station. About a dozen protesters were arrested outside the jail’s entrance Friday.
Among those in the crowd Saturday were prominent civil rights activist and scholar Cornel West, who along with Dix founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, a national protest group. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was also marching.
Tears glistened in the eyes of some protesters and others gave voice to the dissatisfaction many have felt in the past two years over police tactics and use of force, according to the TeleSUR news network. Deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police across the country have led many to call into question how the police do their job.
#RISEUPOCTOBER DEMANDS DIRECT ACTION TO COMBAT POLICE VIOLENCE
TeleSUR
October 24, 2015
Protester at #RiseUpOctober: “I will shoot back.” This photo was used to decry rally in mainstream media, in wake of a cop being shot. What other choice is there?
Centering the narratives of family members of the victims of police violence, protesters are calling for a radical change in U.S. policing and are creating a diverse coalition.
Celebrities, university students, religious congregations, activists, and community housing projects commenced the final day of the Rise Up October campaign against police brutality marching to the heart of Manhattan on Saturday morning, defiantly condemning “police terror” against U.S. citizens just a day after protesters were arrested for trying to shut down New York’s notorious Rikers prison.
#RiseUpOctober march in NYC.
Local and international media followed protesters as they chanted slogans like “Justice Now!” and “The Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell!.” While, quiet tears and sometimes painful screams could be heard among the crowd as mothers who lost their children lamented the lack of justice in the United States when it comes to police brutality.
Tensions and emotions of pain and anger were clearly high as the protests unfolded. One young Black woman activist on a megaphone condemned the Black police officers on patrol at the protest, calling one officer a “House Negro.” The emotions reflect how many communities of color in the United States are “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Cornel West marches with families of police terror victims.
The march is the culmination of a three-day action in New York that sought to keep the focus on police harassment and brutality that activists say targets the most vulnerable in United States, especially economically marginalized communities of color, leading to a culture of impunity for police violence.
“Millions of people all across the country and around the world will hear our powerful cry – WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Millions more are gonna say, okay, I gotta choose sides and many of them will decide they have to be with the ones trying to STOP this,” read a statement by organizers of the protest on The Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s Facebook page.
Speaking out against police murders; national movement began in Ferguson after the police murder of Michael Brown.
The group also said the action would be supported in various cities across the United States, including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, New Orleans and Mississippi. On Friday, at least 10 people were arrested in protests calling for the closure New York prison facility Rikers, sources told teleSUR, as part of a three-day demonstration across the United States against police brutality.
Under the #RiseUpOctober banner, around 200 protesters gathered in Queens to disrupt the detention center by lying on the ground outside. Critics say detainees are systematically abused at the center. Eyewitnesses said that demonstrators were then zip-tied and dragged away to a prison bus by waiting police.
“They went for the front gate to the prison and police deployed officers wearing gas masks with dogs,” independent video journalist James Woods told teleSUR.
Kimberly Griffin (r) speaks about her son’s death after a high-speed police chase in Ohio, at the Detroit March for Justice Oct 3. Mertilla Jones (l), grandmother of Aiyana Jones, and Monica Lewis-Patrick (center) listen. Photo: Detroit People’s Platform
DETROIT – Kimberly Griffin of Detroit will be among hundreds traveling to New York City this week-end to protest the deaths of their loved ones at the hands of law enforcement, during #RiseUpOctober events Oct. 22-24. She and Mertilla Jones, whose granddaughter Aiyana Jones, 7, was killed by Detroit police May 16, 2010, left together Oct. 20.
Kevin Kellom, father of Terrance Kellom, killed by police in Detroit April 27, was also going, Griffin told VOD.
Mrs. Griffin’s son Kimoni Calvon “Kodak” Davis, 19, died June 29, 2015, a day after a 20-mile high-speed police chase on US 52 in Ohio, initiated by Damon J. Caruso, 24, a Hanging Rock Village, Ohio cop who has conducted four such chases.
Kimoni “Kodak” Davis and son. Facebook
“When you have a baby, you tend to protect your child from dangers that you know, like gangs, drugs, and ill-minded people,” Mrs. Griffin said on the #RiseUpOctober website. “The question is, when your baby is killed by law enforcement, those who took an oath to protect and serve, who protects you when the proposed protector is the one causing the harm?”
Davis had a young son who will not grow up under his dad’s protection either.
Airshaan Warren of Nitro, VA, 17, a passenger in the car, also died in the chase, his body cruelly crumpled after the car allegedly became airborne and flew down a steep embankment outside Chesapeake, Ohio. Davis died the next day in a Virginia hospital.
Christie Snow, mother of Airshaan Warren/Facebook
Warren’s mother, Christie Snow, said of her son, “Airshaan was a good kid. He played football, basketball, he was excellent in sports. He kept his grades to a certain level so he could play. He would have been playing for the school football team this year.”
However, she said, Warren ran away from home due to threats from a gang at his school.
“He was a lost kid,” she said. “He didn’t know what he wanted to do, but he didn’t want anyone telling him what to do. He wanted his freedom. Ever since he left, he’s texted me often, telling me ‘It’s me, I’m OK.” He has four brothers and two sisters. The community here has been very supportive of me. My Facebook friends tell me they will do anything for me at the drop of a hat.”
She said she stays in contact with Davis’ mother Kimberly Griffin.
Caruso said in his report that he started chasing Davis and Warren because they were traveling 77 mph in a 60 mph zone.
Airshaan Warren, 17, dead in Ohio chase.
Airshaan Warren after crash.
Hanging Rock Village, just west of the Ohio/W. Virginia state line, is nationally known as a speed trap where motorists are arrested and taken before a local “mayor’s court” instead of just being ticketed. Hanging Rock’s population is 221, 98.6 percent white.
No drugs or weapons were found in the car or at the scene, and there were no warrants outstanding for the two youths, according to police reports.
“Kimoni was not a drug dealer, thug, or a menace to society, he didn’t have a record!” Patricia Edison said on the “Voice for Kimoni” Facebook page, which has 630 supporters.
Hanging Rock Village cop Damon Caruso, 24 (Facebook).
“He was a son, father, brother, nephew, cousin and friend to many. The story in the media doesn’t add up for it is full of holes and unanswered questions. Two young lives were lost in yet another uncalled for police chase. Please don’t forget about Kimoni. Be his voice and demand Justice for him, his son, family, friends, and our community.”
Caruso claimed that he never came closer to the car than 100 ft., and was pursuing it at 80-90 mph to try to get its license plate number, solely because it was exceeding the speed limit by 17 miles.
Photos obtained from the Ohio State Highway Patrol tell a different story, showing TWO SETS of tire tracks going up the embankment next to the ramp, raising the possibility that Caruso hit Davis’ car during the pursuit, sending it out of control and airborne.
Ohio Highway patrol investigators reported that no drugs or weapons were found in or around the car, which landed in a thickly wooded area after, incredibly, flying over four lanes of traffic and dropping over a steep embankment on the other side.
Davis car after it was brought up from downhill. OHP photo
“When we arrived on the scene, we could not identify the front of the vehicle from the back of the vehicle,” Chesapeake, Ohio Fire Chief Ed Webb told WSAV TV of Charleston, W. Virginia on the day of the crash (video at top of story).
The station reported that Warren was dead at the scene, but that Davis was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in Huntington, W. VA. He died the next day, in his mother’s arms.
Caruso’s report, given to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, says in part:
The Highway Patrol report (at Kimoni Davis full OHP crash report) adds details that are not in Caruso’s version, including the assertion that the car went airborne.
Rectangular dirt “gouge” in embankment from which Davis car allegedly went airborne. OHP photo.
According to Highway Patrol officer Darrin Webb, the 2004 Ford Explorer Davis was driving “lost control trying to exit into West Virginia, going off the left side of the roadway, striking an embankment and going airborne. While in the air, unit 1 (Davis’ car) struck the top of a guard rail post. Unit 1 then struck the roadway, hitting a guard rail and a light post, causing it to turn over a steep embankment.”
VOD obtained a CD of numerous photos of the scene taken immediately after the crash from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. One shows a perfectly rectangular plot of dirt in the grassy embankment, which is called a “gouge” in the report. The report says that this was the point from which the car went airborne, although the area appears relatively level.
Two sets of tire tracks leading up embankment. Was one made by Caruso car? OHP photo.
It is unclear how such a perfect rectangle of dirt could have been produced by the chase, unless it was raked over afterwards in a cover-up.
A photo taken from the top of the guardrail looking downward toward the rectangle shows TWO setsof tire tracks in the grass leading up to it.
Did Caruso’s car actually hit Davis’ car, causing it to go airborne?
An editorial published June 30 in the Herald Dispatch of Huntington, VA after the deaths of Davis and Wallace, said such high speed police chases are a danger. It said many states are setting limits on them, such as requiring “reasonable suspicion that the person fleeing has committed or is attempting to commit a violent felony.”
OHP map shows Davis vehicle flying over four lanes of highway traffic before landing down a steep drop-off at right.
“One study showed about 75 percent of chases begin with traffic violations, stolen vehicles or drunk driving and only about 9 percent involved a violent felony,” the Herald Dispatch reported. “Apparently, a large percentage of those fleeing are young male drivers with bad driving records. . . . A National Institute of Justice report found that once the pursuit is abandoned, most offenders quickly return to a normal driving speed, reducing the risk to themselves and other motorists.”
In fact, South Point, Ohio police officers who joined the chase reported that they stopped their pursuit due to its dangerously high rate of speed.
Officers from Coal Grove, Ohio continued, following Caruso’s lead. Caruso is on a football team in that town. State troopers arrived at the scene shortly after the crash.
Caruso was allegedly put on administrative leave after the crash. VOD left a message with the Hanging Rock Village city office inquiring whether he has returned to active duty, but received no response before press time. That office includes the police department, the court, and other administrative units.
James Crowder with ticket in hand heads into mayor’s court in Hanging Rock May 17, 2012. James planned to hire a attorney to fight the ticket.(Dispatch photo by Eric Albrecht)
VOD has sent detailed Ohio Open Records requests to all police, fire and EMT agencies involved with the chase. Mrs. Griffin told VOD earlier that police told Attorney David Robinson, who is considering whether to file suit, that the dash-cam video from Caruso’s car was “lost.”
However, dash-cam videos from South Point and Coal Grove should be available, as well as a more detailed analysis from the Ohio State Highway Patrol of tire tracks, the condition of Caruso’s car, which was not included in the photographs released, and other evidence.
Michaelangelo, 6, and Makiah Jackson, 3, died June 24, 2014 as result of high speed Detroit “Special Ops” chase.
Four days before this chase, on June 24 on Detroit’s east side, a similar chase ended with the tragic deaths of children Michaelangelo and Makiah Jackson, 6 and 3 years old, respectively, as they played outside their home.
Detroit Special Ops officers Steven Feltz, Richard Billingslea, and Hakeem Patterson chased a Camaro driven by Lorenzo Harris over a lengthy route, according to VOD’s investigation. His car nearly hit other children near Nottingham and Mack, with the police car directly on its tail, witnesses told VOD.
The chase proceeded north past E. Warren and Nottingham. There, a witness told VOD said she saw the police car bump the Camaro, sending it out of control into the Jackson children after it hit a large rock in the street, and then into three other children in the next block who were injured.
Some of hundreds of Detroit-area people dead at the hands of law enforcement.
The alleged bump may have been a “Precision Immobilization Technique,” or PIT, as described by Michigan State Police in another report (see video at end of story).
After the Jackson children’s death, USA Today reported that “More than 5,000 bystanders and passengers have been killed in police car chases since 1979, and tens of thousands more were injured as officers repeatedly pursued drivers at high speeds and in hazardous conditions, often for minor infractions . . . .Police across the USA chase tens of thousands of people each year — usually for traffic violations or misdemeanors — often causing drivers to speed away recklessly. Recent cases show the danger of the longstanding police practice of chasing minor offenders.” See: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/30/police-pursuits-fatal-injuries/30187827/
Meanwhile, the families of Aiyana Jones, 7, Terrance Kellom, 19, and Kimoni “Kodak” Davis, 19 are pledging to continue the battle for justice for their loved ones. They are to report back to VOD next week after their return from #RiseUpOctober in New York.
Kevin Kellom and wife Yvette Johnson, Kimberly Griffin and Mertilla Jones heading out for New York City’s #RiseUpOctober events. Photo: Fred Engels.
65 percent of UAW members at Chrysler voted no on the first deal, which they felt did not do enough to eliminate the two-tier system or protect jobs. This time around, the UAW International has hired PR firm BerlinRosen to sell the tentative agreement to members via social media. The UAW represents 40,000 workers at Chrysler.
Fiat Chrysler Toledo Jeep plant.
Members, meanwhile, are engaged in a vigorous debate in the plants and on social media over whether the new contract is enough. A group of workers in the Jeep plant in Toledo are circulating a Vote No leaflet, and the Autoworker Caravan has a leaflet pointing out the contract’s lowlights, in contrast to the UAW leadership’s highlights document.
Labor Notes spoke to Alex Wassell, a member of UAW Local 869 and a longtime labor activist, about the new proposed deal. Wassell is a skilled tradesman who has worked at Chrysler’s Warren Stamping Plant for 22 years. Here’s what he had to say about why many workers remain opposed:
A lot of people are skeptical that it takes eight years or two contract cycles to get up to top-tier wages, although the pension and healthcare are still second-tier. People are disappointed that COLA [the cost-of-living adjustment, historically a part of UAW contracts but suspended in 2007] wasn’t part of the deal.
Alex Wassell
Alternative work schedules are still part of the contract. Even though they said in 60 days they’ll talk about it, I don’t believe anything substantive will come of it. The unlimited use of temporaries is another downside. For Mopar workers and Axle workers the deal’s probably worse than before.
So the new deal hasn’t changed my opinion, and there’s a lot of negative sentiment in the plant. I don’t think you need to hire a PR firm if you negotiate a good contract.
I just can’t trust them around the eight-year period to get to top-tier wages. That’s two contract cycles. They couldn’t even enforce the 25 percent limit on two-tier workers that they supposedly negotiated in 2011.
Under the 2011 contract, there was no cap. But there was language put in that at the end of the 2011 agreement, the 25 percent cap would be imposed and people would roll over and become first-tier. That didn’t happen because, guess what? At the end of the agreement everything’s up for discussion. People really think that cap should be honored.
End Two-Tier? An Interview
Chrysler worker Alex Wassell was interviewed on the Belabored podcast on October 15 about why auto workers are opposing the second tentative agreement. Listen to the interview here, between the 12- and 26-minute marks.
Wassell said that unlike the first round, workers at his plant will have to vote on this second proposal at the union hall, which is off-site. “I think that’s going to cut down the participation,” he said. “You can’t vote on your break time here, so you have to do it before, or after, or during your lunchtime—and lunchtime is iffy. So I see a diminished participation this time, although I think the sentiment is still running more against than for.”
Protesters significantly chose to picket UAW Solidarity House in Detroit over the first contract which they voted down.
Chrysler workers will vote on the new agreement next Tuesday and Wednesday, October 20-21. Wassell predicts it will be close, but that a no vote will again prevail.
As far as what would convince him and other workers to vote yes, Wassell says: “I’d like to see the elimination of the tiered workforce within the four-year contract cycle. I’d like to see the restoration of the cost-of-living-allowance for all employees. I’d like to see second-tier (“in-progression”) employees get full medical and benefits to match the traditional workers. And I just need to feel that the International union and the secondary leadership is in tune with the rank-and-file and these demands.”
Auto workers: Let Labor Notes know what’s happening in your plant – contact dan@labornotes.org with any tips. And check out the rest of our site for more about our trainings and books.
Auto workers have overwhelmingly voted down their union’s national deal with Chrysler, aiming to force their bargainers back to the table to do better.
The United Auto Workers announced today that 65 percent voted no on the tentative agreement. The union represents 40,000 workers at Chrysler.
Union officers had recommended a yes vote on the four-year pact, announced September 15. It included raises and bonuses but would maintain the two-tier system, trap people in Tier 2 who had expected to move up, and create even more tiers. Voting ended September 30.
Detroit, Michigan – Members of the United Auto Workers participate in the Labor Day parade days before their union contracts with GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler expire. Retired Ford worker Ron Lare wants to end the two-tier pay system the union accepted in 2007.
Probably the top reason workers voted no was indignation that the agreement broke the union’s longstanding promise to cap the lower-paid tier at 25 percent of the workforce this fall. Since 45 percent of Chrysler workers are in Tier 2, many expected a raise to $28 an hour. With no cap, it’s only a matter of time before there’s no first tier left.
Amplifying the anger were Chrysler’s high profits and the revelation that the company plans to move car production to Mexico.
Facebook gave a big boost to the quickly-building momentum of the vote-no wave. In a variety of public and private Facebook groups, workers swapped contract information, local vote tallies, and photos showing ballots marked “no” and protest T-shirts.
The biggest, Local 12 (Toledo Assembly Complex, Ohio) with 5,000 members, was among the last to vote—and scored the most dramatic margin, with 87 percent of production workers and 80 percent of skilled trades workers rejecting the pact. Members there had rallied against the deal outside their informational meeting September 27. Continue reading →
Members of BLM national steering committee meeting with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford
October 15, 2015
The #BlackLivesMatter organization is now part of the 2016 Democratic Party election machinery, assuming its role as a power broker on behalf of Black people. It’s a familiar historical pattern, except for the speed with which the transition has taken place. “The #BLM philosophy is that therapeutic dialogue with members of the power elite is politically more effective than the presentation of core demands.
“#BlackLivesMatter provides harmless chat partners for Hillary and the other presidential hopefuls.”
The best thing that could be said about the #BlackLivesMatter Campaign Zero team is that they are an embarrassment, political tourists in the halls of empire. The truth is, however, much worse. In two meetings with Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, they have offered no demands worthy of the name, choosing instead to imagine that they are “pushing” Clinton and the Democratic Party into some stance advantageous to Black people.
Demonstrator in Ferguson throws tear gas canister back at police, in aftermath of police killing of Michael Brown Aug. 9, 2014.
In reality, the #BlackLivesMatter clique has dissipated the energy – and threat – of angry Black bodies, hands and missiles in motion in Ferguson and Baltimore. Quickly fading is the specter of a Black movement from down below that struck real fear in the Obama administration and much of the U.S. power structure. Instead, #BlackLivesMatter provides harmless chat partners for Hillary and the other presidential hopefuls.
The #BLM operatives claim they “spent months” studying Clinton’s positions on the issues, in preparation for the meeting. Why? To gauge how far they could “move” the war criminal and corporate thief? Move her towards what? Campaign Zero’s “demands” are an eclectic assortment of criminal justice reform ideas and recommendations, many of them straight out of Obama’s presidential task force on policing, and borrowed “best-practice” police procedures (Seattle is their favorite department). When #BLM folks claim they have “lots” of demands, it actually means they have no core demands, at all.
Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza.
The Democrats scoped them as political assets, early on: that’s why the Democratic National Committee overwhelmingly voted to “endorse” #BlackLivesMatter back in August. The trio of #BLM founders, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza, formally rejected the official DNC embrace, but the #BLM’s chat-and-tweet-squads have continued to make the Democrats look good by pretending to hold them accountable through meaningless, meandering, demand-less meetings.
“They appear to believe their mission was to ‘educate’ Clinton.”
DeRay Mckesson, Brittany Packnett, Johnetta Elzie, Cherno Biko and Samuel Sinyangwe provided Hillary Clinton with another useful backdrop, last week. They appear to believe their mission was to “educate” Clinton (although they would have done far better to have educated themselves on political movement history, practice and theory).
“This was an opportunity to get input from Black people, who are experts of their own lives, solutions to dismantling anti-black racist institutions and policies,” Johnetta Elzie told reporters. #BLM thinks that relaying the recommendations of an Obama task force to a former Obama Secretary of State equals providing “solutions to dismantling anti-black racist institutions and policies.”
Hillary appears to be telling #BLM leaders her side of the story.
Actually, the #BLM crew’s primary mission was to force Clinton to mentally grapple with white privilege, and to grasp how Black people “feel.” #BLM’s aim is to assure that the next president has a deeper understanding of the workings of racism – presumably, deeper than the current, Black one. In the course of the conversation, Elzie said Clinton
“…would listen and acknowledge that her experience was totally different than any of the black people at this table. It took her awhile to get there, but she got there. So I’m hopeful that she will continue to have this educational conversation with herself to acknowledge her privilege. You saying that you know that you’re white, you know that you have power, and you know that you are wealthy is not the same as seeing it and knowing that the way that police interact with you is completely different than how they will ever interact with us.”
The #BLM philosophy is that therapeutic dialogue with members of the power elite is politically more effective than the presentation of core demands. (Certainly, it is better for the future careers of the #BLM interlocutors.)
Federal troops intervene at presidential order to allow “The Little Rock Nine” into Arkansas schools during civil rights movement. Ironically, Pres. Bill Clinton interrupted his first campaign to return to Arkansas to preside over the execution of a Black, mentally challenged man.
When it came to actually doing something about the Black condition, Clinton was less forthcoming. “I think she can take a harder stance on how she understands the role of the federal government in protecting the rights of people of color and pushing and modeling for local and state governments,” said DeRay Mckesson. “She kind of downplayed the role of the federal government and placed it all on state and local government,” said Johnetta Elzie.
Clinton used the meeting to announce her opposition to private prisons – which may have come as a shock to her campaign contributors from Wall Street’s corporate incarceration firms.
Elzie offered that Bernie Sanders has a better understanding of Black people’s justifiable fears of police. She and McKesson told the press they would wait to see more specifics from Clinton before deciding who to support. Cherno Biko said Clinton “hasn’t earned my endorsement yet, but I’m looking forward to her releasing a racial justice platform in the coming weeks.” Brittany Packnett emerged from the meeting “still thinking about where I will put my vote and not yet having an answer.”
“The #BLM crowd milked the incipient movement for all it was worth.”
“Black petit bourgeoisie shuffle”
They will all endorse one of the Democrats, sooner rather than later. The #BlackLivesMatter tent has already been folded up inside the Democratic Party, where slick Black “activists” on the make go to catch the express elevator to the executive suites. In less than a year, the #BLM crowd milked the incipient movement for all it was worth, presenting themselves as the interlocutors between the streets and Power. It’s been one hell of a journey – a great hustle. They have arrived at where they wanted to be: part of the age-old Black Petit Bourgeois Shuffle, dancing to the Master’s tune, while complaining that their pale partners still don’t have the right rhythm.
The demand from the streets remains the same as it has been since the imposition of the modern Black mass incarceration regime, two generations ago: Black community control of the police – by any means necessary. The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will rally and march on the White House on Saturday, November 7 – as it has every year since 2009 – under the banner “Black Power Matters.”
The demand for Black community control of police is called forth by both the principle of self-determination and the facts of Black existence in the United States. But self-determination does not exist in the practice of #BlackLivesMatter, which has squandered Black people’s dignity and the momentum of an emerging movement.
We wish them a swift and complete assimilation into the corridors of Power – which was their mission, all along.
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, with anguish in his face, speaks at press conference on Flint water reconnection to DWSD as Gov. Rick Snyder looks on warily. (Christian Randolph/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)
In last week’s press conference announcing that the city of Flint would finally be allowed to return to Detroit’s water system, Gov. Rick Snyder made it a point to note that placing blame for the lead poisoning of children is not something he intends to do.
He wants to address the current problem, learn what can be done better in the future, and move forward.
Call it the “no-blame” game.
The governor’s spokesperson, Sara Wurfel, is playing it as hard as anyone right now.
In an interview with the ACLU of Michigan following the governor’s tightly-managed press conference, Wurfel did the best she could to absolve her boss of any responsibility for the disastrous decision to begin using the Flint River as the city’s source of drinking water in April 2014.
Asked about the governor’s role in that decision, Wurfel claimed that there was really no choice to be made, that the city of Detroit kicked Flint off of its system, thus forcing the switch to river water.
DWSD workers picket Detroit Water Board Building Oct. 13, 2015 to denounce unsafe practices for entire 6-county system due to drastic staff reductions, among other issues.
According to the paper, Wurfel asserted that the city was forced to find another source of water after the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department terminated Flint’s contract to continue purchasing water under the terms of its expired contract.
Maybe the Snyder administration is operating under the theory that a lie repeated often enough is eventually accepted as fact.
But here’s the truth:
Flint did have a choice. It absolutely could have kept using Detroit water until construction of the Karegondi pipeline, which will bring water from Lake Huron to Genesee County, is completed next year.
Instead, in a decision based purely on cost, the Flint emergency manager appointed by Snyder chose to leave the Detroit system early and begin relying on the Flint River in April 2014.
How do we know that?
Because of a letter the ACLU of Michigan obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Darnell Earley, then Flint EM, with Detroit “Mayor” Mike Duggan during Michigan Municipal League convention, 2014.
On March 7, 2014, then-Emergency Darnell Earley wrote to the DWSD, saying:
“Thank you for the correspondence … which provides Flint with the option of continuing to purchase water from DWSD following the termination of the current contract …”Thanks, but no thanks.
“… the City of Flint has actively pursued using the Flint River as a temporary water source while the KWA pipeline is being constructed,” wrote Earley. “We expect the Flint Water Treatment Plant will be fully operational and capable of treating Flint River water…”
As it turns out, the city, under the control of an emergency manager appointed by the governor, proved to be entirely incapable of properly treating water from the highly corrosive Flint River.
As a result of that failure, children were poisoned by lead in the water coming out of the taps in their homes and, quite possibly, the fountains in their schools.
Lead that was present because the river water is many times more corrosive than Detroit’s. Lead that was present because Flint officials and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality inexplicably stopped adding the same types of corrosion inhibitors Detroit routinely puts in its water just so a public-health disaster such as this does not occur.
Karegnondi Water Authority’s pipeline to Lake Huron under construction.
Particularly absurd are Earley’s claims that he bears no responsibility for the catastrophe that began while he wielded complete control over every aspect of the city’s government. As the Flint Journal’s Ron Fonger reports, Earley recently sent the paper an email claiming:
“The decision to separate from (the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department) and go with the Karegnondi Water Authority, including the decision to pump Flint River water in the interim, were both a part of a long-term plan that was approved by Flint’s mayor, and confirmed by a City Council vote of 7-1 in March of 2013 — a full seven months before I began my term as emergency manager.”
Under the state’s far-reaching emergency manager law, Earley clearly had the authority to do whatever he wanted at that point. So his attempts to shield himself from responsibility are beyond bogus.
But it is even worse than that.
Flint resident Barbara Griffith-Wilson screams out an amen as she stands up out of her seat to show solidarity with a six Flint City Council members calling for the removal of Emergency Manager Darnell Earley on Monday, Oct. 6, 2014 at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Flint. /Jake May | MLive.com
As the Flint Journal’s Fonger points out:, “Although the Flint City Council voted in March 2013 in support of moving to the KWA pipeline … there is no record that the council voted to use the Flint River as a short-term drinking water source.”
Being the current emergency manager in charge of Detroit Public Schools and its 47,000 students, it is easy to see why all this might be a particularly touchy subject for Earley – and the governor who appointed him to both positions.
Fingers are being pointed in all directions, and lies are being told in an attempt to avoid responsibility.
In a recent interview with the ACLU of Michigan, Flint Public Works Director Howard Croft initially tried making the same false claim as Wurfel, saying that Flint was forced to leave the Detroit system and begin using the river as its water source.
Asked to respond to that accusation, Wurfel tried her best to sidestep the issue. She could have put the matter to rest immediately by simply declaring: “That is absolutely untrue.”
But she didn’t say that. Instead, she trotted out the false claim that the city was forced to make the switch. When pressed on that point, and then asked again about the governor’s role in making the tragically bad decision to force the people of Flint to drink from a dangerous river, she again tried to slip out of giving a direct answer.
“You’re saying that the governor’s office was directly involved? I can’t address that at all because that’s not accurate.”
So she is not addressing a direct question because it is not accurate?
Questions are neither accurate nor inaccurate, but answers should be.
Curt Guyette
There is usually a compelling reason why evasion and obfuscation are the responses to a yes or no question. And the reason is this: The people doing the evading are afraid to tell the truth, and even more afraid to face the consequences that come with it.
Curt Guyette is an investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan. His work focuses on emergency management and open government. He can be reached at 313-578-6834 or cguyette@aclumich.org.
FROM: Taxpaying Residents United for Education (TRUE)
PERSPECTIVE: Thomas Jefferson said the mother principle of a republic is that the will of the people is represented, “governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute it.”
Taxpaying Residents United for 21st century Education, is a coalition of 26 Michigan groups, 2 national organizations, concerned teachers, a variety of leaders with a 10 point mission statement. We feel poorly represented in safety checks and balances, and wish to assert a complaint on the issues of state knowledge of lead in our water and a breakdown of public safety principals, protocols, best practices and communication under PA 436, as practiced by the State of Michigan.
ISSUE: Negotiations between two Emergency Managers, Orr and Hurtz/Earley did not put safety first. Flint released contaminated or toxic water into drinking fountains of Flint Public Schools and Flint Residents. Flint did not use chemicals which would minimize corrosion. In October 2014, General Motors received a waiver and stopped using Flint River water due to corrosion issues on metal parts. There was a failure by responsible officials to notify residents of public health emergency after internal EPA memo went to press July 15, 2015. Instead city officials sent a notice to each address that “This is not an emergency.” The MDEQ and MDHS criticized the Virginia Tech study which cited corrosion issues and Dr. Hana-Attisha’s study. Former EM Earley has denied responsibility. Shuette says state liability for EM decision is “hypothetical.”
Baxter Jones, founder TRUE
Bill Davis, Pres. of TRUE.
PATTERN OF BREAK DOWN OF PUBLIC SAFETY: As Emergency Manager of Detroit, Kevyn Orr did not apply for Federal grants or use Federal grants available through FEMA, while fire fighters needed more personnel and equipment. He also shut the electricity off on all residents in the City on September 11, 2013 so that traffic lights stopped, the court house went black, fire house doors would not open, and people were stuck on elevators. People were evacuated from buildings and productivity of businesses was lost. He caused unnecessary harm and chaos, yet Gary Brown stated this was done to send a message.
The United Nations also cited Detroit for human rights violations due to mass water shut offs which increased asthma and sepsis and resulted in among the greatest number of e.coli and other bacterial outbreaks in the nation that year. Under PA 436, state departments like MDEQ and MDHS are one entity with the Emergency Manager, as the EM making decisions is an employee of the state. Under normal democracy, the State would represent the best interests of citizens to come to tell a town or council that actions were a threat to public health providing checks and balances.
Flint school children.
JURISDICTION:The State is a recipient of Federal funds. Educational environments should be safe. There is a disparate impact on women and the minority community and a disparate environmental impact on the poor.
RMO: Governor Rick Snyder, Ed Kurtz, Darnell Earley, Dan Wyatt, Nick Lyon, Brad Wurfel
SUMMARY:
Risk Assessment
Emergency Managers, Ed Kurtz and Darnell Earley, knew or should have known, that stopping flow of water from the Huron River and releasing Flint River Water to the treatment plant and into the tap of Flint Schools was dangerous. Ed Kurtz, the Mayor of Flint and the appointed rather than elected City Council, under PA 436 chose to focus on money savings in an area where such a mistake could risk public health and result in death, long term disability, and illness.
Above: Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha of Hurley Medical Center announces that Flint children’s lead levels have skyrocketed under Flint water system
DWSD workers protest mass layoffs: “Do you want to drink Flint water?”
EM Darnell Earley disconnected Flint’s water system, is now EM over the Detroit Public Schools; both Rep. and Dem. leaders have destroyed DPS
Referendum petitions still circulating to mandate Detroit referendum on takeover of DWSD by Great Lakes Water Authority, set for Jan. 1, 2016.
AFSCME Local 207 workers protest at Water Board Building Oct. 13, 2015.
By Diane Bukowski
October 13, 2015
(VOD; there is a news story below this from weather.com which summarizes events with Flint water.)
DETROIT–City workers from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept. (DWSD) conducted a contract negotiations protest outside the Detroit Water Board Building today, chanting, “Do you want to drink Flint water?” among other slogans.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced Oct. 8 that he will “allow” the city of Flint to reconnect its water supply to Detroit’s, saying, “I’m in full support of the return to the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). We all care about the citizens of Flint.”
Snyder did not acknowledge that the contract between the City of Detroit and the GLWA has not yet taken effect, pending the completion of what GLWA chair Robert Daddow called “precedent conditions.”
Flint water protest Oct. 12, 2015/Photo: Record-Eagle
Local 207 members said mass lay-offs at DWSD have already endangered the six-county water supply. (Click on AFSCME207 Organizer180 10-7-15 to read about other specific union issues.)
Meanwhile, studies have shown that not only has Flint’s separated system resulted in water contaminated with fecal bacteria, but also with lead. Dr. Mona Hanna-Atisha of Hurley Medical Center in Flint (in video above) said her study showed lead levels in the blood of Flint’s majority-Black children jumped from 2.5 percent to 6.3 percent beginning in Jan. 1, 2015 to Sept. 15 this year, in certain zip codes.
Whether the citizens of Flint will benefit from being part of the GLWA remains open to serious question. The GLWA announced plans July 9 to further down-size the current DWSD infrastructure and workforce, increasing the likelihood that residents not only of Flint, but also of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair, Lapeer, Genesee, Washtenaw and Monroe counties will be exposed to contaminated water.
The “drop-dead” date for the GLWA takeover is Jan. 1, 2016.
Meanwhile, the Coalition to Save the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is circulating state-mandated petitions demanding that a referendum be placed on Detroit’s ballot to allow Detroiters to vote on the takeover of their system. If they vote “NO,” the contract would be invalidated under provisions of PA 233 of 1955. (See links below story for more information on the “Our Water Our Vote” campaign.)
The formation of the GLWA was part of the state-introduced, unconstitutional bankruptcy filing for the City of Detroit. A representative of Gov. Snyder sits on the GLWA board, along with one representative each from Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne Counties, and two from Detroit, all with connections to contractors who plan to profit from the transformation. The Detroit City Council will no longer approve such contracts and is currently not doing so for DWSD, according to Council President Brenda Jones.
Protesters at Jones Day gala awards ceremony at DIA Oct. 13, 2014.
As city workers protested downtown, others picketed a gala awards ceremony held by Jones Day, the global law firm which masterminded the Detroit bankruptcy. Awardees included U.S. District Judge Steven W. Rhodes, who heard the bankruptcy court proceedings, and Chief Judge Gerald Rosen, who acted as “mediator” in secret meetings connected with bankruptcy issues.
Protesters pointed out that among other matters, Rhodes allowed the payment of $537 million in illegal swap debt to DWSD creditor banks, while thousands of Detroit families continue to have their water shut-off due to their inability to pay skyrocketing water bills, in violation of United Nations declarations.
Gov. Snyder, Detroit EM Kevyn Orr announce Detroit bankruptcy filing July, 2013.
Judge Sean Cox
U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox oversaw the proposal to form the GLWA during the bankruptcy proceedings. During his ongoing tenure as federal overseer of DWSD, 41 percent of its workers have been laid off, according to its director Sue McCormick, also interim director of the GLWA. The BOWC recently negotiated an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to increase the levels of certain contaminants allowed in water from the DWSD.
The GLWA and the BOWC met jointly July 9, to approve frightening plans to downsize the GLWA significantly from the current DWSD, including:
Dropping spending for water main replacement to $25 million a year, enough to repair only one one percent of the lines;
Shutting down treatment plants and booster stations;
Reducing capital improvement spending from $9 billion to $2.9 billion;
Rescission of planned upgrades for 14 sites;
Reducing GLWA’s daily pumping capacity from 1,760 million to 1,040 million gallons;
Reduction of water intake sites from five to three.
Detroit drivers struggle to safety after their cars were submerged in flood of Aug. 2014.
DWSD’s Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), currently run by contractor EMA, already caused a major crisis in August, 2014, according to DWSD retirees who worked there. They said the huge floods of that month in Detroit and its suburbs, as well as the water crisis in Toledo, Ohio, were directly linked to the cessation of 24/7 maintenance of sewage pumps and other equipment at the WWTP, the largest such facility in the U.S.
“They have reduced staffing to a skeleton crew,” Mike Mulholland, Pres. of AFSCME Local 207, said at the time. “Although there was a torrential rain Monday, the sewage pumps already were not working properly due to minimal maintenance. It is EMA’s intention to strip the plant down and run it remotely as much as it can. Instead of 24/7 maintenance, they only check equipment every few days. The pumping stations at the plant, the incinerators, and other equipment are close to catastrophic failure.”
DWSD retiree Bill Davis said three of the major sewage pumps at the WWTP were not working, having become clogged with sewage and seriously damaged.
Activist Baxter Jones has been on a hunger strike for justice since Sept. 13, led prayer vigil for Flint residents Oct. 12, 2015. His face shows a severe loss of weight.
On Oct. 12, a coalition of Detroiters under the banner of TRUE, an organization founded by activist Baxter Jones, held a prayer vigil at the Detroit’s U.S. Department of Justice offices on Michigan Avenue in the Federal Building calling for the USDOJ to intervene to stop Michigan’s emergency manager (EM) system. Most of the state’s majority-Black cities and school districts, including the Detroit Public Schools, are run by the state.
Darnell Earley, as EM of Flint, ordered its disconnection from the DWSD system in 2013 “to save money.” He is now EM of the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) and is continuing slash-and-burn policies of the state which have left Detroit children with virtually no public, neighborhood schools since 2005. Those policies have been carried out under Governors John Engler (R), Jennifer Granholm (D) and Gov. Snyder (R).
“It is a very sad day to learn our decision makers decided to compromise the safety of children and child bearing women in the name of greed,” Jones, who has been on a justice lead hunger strike since September 13th, said in a statement. “They have bullied us, and we must pray for the victims and stand fast in solidarity with them.”
Many water activists see the main problem as “Republican” Gov. Rick Snyder. Filmmaker/activist Mike Moore tweeted, “Republican governor takes over Flint, makes residents drink their own sewage.”
In this election year, during which U.S. Representatives and Senators and new candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties are sparring, many activists are being caught up in the “Go Left America” agenda backed by the Democratic Party.
Detroit people’s rebellion against police and poverty, July, 1967.
However, the current Democratic administration of U.S. Pres. Barack Obama backed the Detroit bankruptcy during hearings, and earlier refused to conduct an investigation of Voting Rights Act violations in Public Act 4, the predecessor to Michigan’s current PA 436. History has shown that only action by the people themselves changes their circumstances, like the campaign for a people’s vote on the GLWA contract, the rebellions against police killings in Baltimore and elsewhere, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott during the Civil Rights Movement.
For more information on the Our Water Our Vote campaign, including links to petitions themselves, fliers, and instructions for circulating, see:
Protest in Flint Oct. 5 protesting irrevocable damage done to Flint children by lead poisoning from separate water system.
Strange colors and smells seeped out of the faucets of Flint, Michigan, residents for more than a year, but officials assured them everything was fine. In recent weeks, it’s been revealed that residents had a right to be concerned; the water has been contaminated and has increased lead levels in the blood of some of the city’s children.
Last year, a boil order was issued when fecal coliform bacteria surfaced in some Flint neighborhoods, reports The New York Times. Extra chlorine was pumped into the water to combat the problem, but it seemed to only add increased levels of this new contaminant.
Flint resident holds up jug of contaminated water during hearing.
After switching to a temporary water supply in 2014, Flint officials seemed to have soothed residents. They sent out a notice in July, stating, “This is not an emergency. If a situation arises where the water is no longer safe to drink, you will be notified within 24 hours.”
Despite their reassurances, alarm spiked again when testing in recent weeks revealed increased levels of lead in the blood of some of Flint’s children. Health officials believe the water is a likely source.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Hurley Medical Center pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha reviewed blood test results of some of the city’s children both before and after the city ended its water contract with Detroit and began taking water from the Flint River. In the 20 months before Sept. 15, 2013, the amount of children with elevated blood-lead levels jumped from 2.1 percent to 4.0 percent between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 of this year.
Certain zip codes saw a more troubling change. According to Hanna-Attisha, there was an increase from 2.5 percent of lead found in the children tested to 6.3 percent.
Some effects of lead poisoning, most of them permanent.
“I was hoping not to find anything, but what we found … is concerning,” said Hanna-Attisha. “This is not something you mess around with. Our population already has so many issues from poverty, from unemployment, from violence.”
Flint’s water problems are the result of long-standing financial hardships. In 1960, the city had nearly 200,000 residents, but as auto plants closed, the population dropped by half. In 2011, the tax base shrank and an emergency manager was appointed to the city. The next four years lead to the city having four managers overseeing operations, and the water supply was switched.
Flint had purchased its water supply from Detroit for decades before the city’s leaders decided they could save millions by creating a new authority that would draw and treat its own water from the lake. However, before they could make this change, they would need an alternative water supply. They switched to drawing from the Flint River, which state officials say was a back up water source in the past. This change created a host of problems.
The city initially advised residents to run their water for five minutes before using it, to use only cold water for drinking and cooking and to install lead-removing water filters. Then, county officials issued an emergency advisory, recommending people not drink the water unless it was filtered or tested for lead. Fountains were shut off in local schools and private groups donated bottled water to them, as well as filters to families that could not afford them.
Flint water plant.
Officials claim that the water leaving their plant does not contain lead, but the chemistry in the water disturbs lead in the delivery pipes and plumbing fixtures in homes and businesses, the Detroit Free Press also reports.
Wednesday a panel of experts recommended that Flint reconnects to Detroit’s water system in an effort to restore the quality of the city’s drinking water.
A ten-point plan was issued Friday to address Flint’s troubled water system and it included free water testing, an allocation of $1 million for water filters for residents and complete anticorrosion treatment of the city’s water system.
Despite these actions, many residents feel the authorities let them down by taking so long to react.
“Anytime you have to weigh money against the health and welfare of people, it always has to be the health and welfare you go with,” Flint pastor Rev. Alfred Harris told The New York Times. Harris has stopped performing baptisms at his church because of concerns about the contaminants in the water. “We’ve been talking about this for the last 14 months, and they did not give a sincere ear to any of us. Shame on you!”
LeeAnne Walters, watched by her son Garrett, uses bottled water to make pasta because her tap water is often brown. She said Garrett’s twin, Gavin, 4, had lost weight and tested for elevated lead levels since Flint switched water sources. Photo: LAURA MCDERMOTT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Another Flint resident, LeeAnne Walters, told The Times her four-year-old son who has immune system issues has had direct consequences as a result of consuming the water. He dropped to 27 pounds, much less than that of his twin brother and, according to Walters, he sometimes seemed unable to pronounce words he had already learned.
“He is going to deal with the side effects of this for the rest of his life. I don’t think there’s a word angry enough to describe my anger. I trusted the city, and I helped the city poison my kid,” said Walters.
In addition to securing funds, the city of Flint must also negotiate a contract with Detroit and Genesee County, which owns the transmission lines they need to carry water from Detroit’s main to Flint’s water plant.
Flint resident carries jugs to obtain clean water. Former Detroit City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel told Detroiters whose water had been shut off due to inability to pay to go to the Detroit River to get their water there.
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has been in discussions with Flint, William Wolfson, the department’s chief administrative and compliance officer,told the Free Press. According to him, when Flint disconnected from Detroit’s system, it was a “hard disconnect,” meaning the pipes would have to be joined again, a task Detroit would not charge any special fees for.
“The only change would be our labor charges,” said Wolfson, who declined to estimate a price.
According to John O’Brien of the Genesee County Drain Office, reconnecting could be completed in “about two weeks, once the agreement is reached with Detroit.”
However, he warns that the switch to Detroit’s water will not eliminate all of Flint’s lead issues. Like many communities, the city struggles with an aging infrastructure.
“I think the expectation is zero lead,” O’Brien told the Free Press. “I think the expectation is too high.
Protest against Tamir Rice killing by Cleveland police last year.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor McGinty releases reports from retired FBI agent, Denver assistant prosecutor to media, does not notify family
Family statement: “Who will speak for Tamir before the grand jury? Not the prosecutor, apparently.”
“It will be read, understandably, as a tragic foreshadowing of where the case may be headed: no arrest, no charges, no indictments,” Rhonda Y. Williams, Director, Social Justice Institute, Case Western U. in Cleveland.
Tamir’s mother Samaria Rice and family at press conference last year.
Cleveland, Ohio — The family of Tamir Rice has condemned Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty’s release of two “expert reports” finding white Officer Timothy Loehmann justified in shooting the 12-year-old Black child to death Nov. 23, 2014. Rice, who was playing with a toy gun, was killed two seconds after the cop jumped out of his still-running scout car.
The reports are eventually to be given to a grand jury, said McGinty, but were released to the media, and not the family, who only heard about them from media reports.
Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty
“The Rice family and Clevelanders have always said that they want the officers who rushed upon and killed 12-year-old Tamir held accountable,” family attorney Subodh Chandra, says in the statement.
“The family now believes that the prosecutor’s office has been on an 11-month quest to avoid providing that accountability. Any presentation to a grand jury—without the prosecutor advocating for Tamir—is a charade. To get so-called experts to assist in the whitewash—when the world has the video of what happened—is all-the-more alarming.
“These hired guns—all pro-police—dodge the simple fact that the officers rushed Tamir and shot him immediately without assessing the situation in the least. Reasonable jurors could find that conduct unreasonable. But they will never get the chance because the prosecutor is working diligently to ensure that there is no indictment and no accountability.
Dr. Rhonda Williams
Who will speak for Tamir before the grand jury? Not the prosecutor, apparently.”
The New York Times quoted Rhonda Williams, Director of the Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, “It will be read, understandably, as a tragic foreshadowing of where the case may be headed: no arrest, no charges, no indictments.”
Williams was one of a group of Clevelanders who brought a private complaint successfully requesting that Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine issue an opinion that Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmack should face murder charges in the case.
Kimberly Crawford, former FBI special agent.
S. Lamar Sims, Denver ADA
Retired FBI agent Sandra A. Crawford wrote that “Loehmann had no information to suggest the weapon was anything but a real handgun . . .It is my conclusion that Officer Loehmann’s use of deadly force falls within the realm of reasonableness under the dictates of the Fourth Amendment.”
Denver, CO. Assistant Prosecutor S. Lamar Sims said, “There can be no doubt that Rice’s death was tragic and, indeed, when one considers his age, heartbreaking. However, for all of the reasons discussed herein, I conclude that Officer Loehmann’s belief that Rice posed a threat of serious physical harm or death was objectively reasonable as was his response to that perceived threat.”
Tamir Rice. Cops said they thought he was 20.
Rice was killed on Nov 23, 2014. Surveillance video shows the boy playing with some sort of gun at a public recreation park. Police were called by an individual who said a male was pointing a gun, likely a toy, at people in the park. The police dispatcher who failed to report the caller’s full remark about the tory resigned in June.
The video shows a police cruiser pulling up to the park, officer Loehmann stepping off and within a second opening fire. The extended version, below, also shows them throwing his 14-year-old sister to the ground after she approaches to try to help her brother, then throwing her into the police car from which they killed Tamir. Her mother approaches the scene a while later to the left and is turned away. The officers go nowhere near Tamir to administer first aid.
In June 2014, Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine issued an opinion advocating charges against both Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmback, at the request of several Cleveland citizens, under an Ohio statute allowing citizens to bring private complaints before a judge. Allegedly, the judge can issue only an advisory opinion regarding probable cause to the prosecutor in the case, with the prosecutor held to standards of “reasonable cause” to bring charges.
Killer cop Timothy Loehmann
Frank Garmback, aidor and abettor
However, according to the “Ohio Revised Code, Chapter 2937.09, Court Action on Pleas in Felony Cases,” a preliminary examination is held on charges involving “probable cause” in a lower court, and then referred to the higher “Court of Common Pleas” for indictment and trial to determine cause beyond a reasonable doubt.
It is unclear why Judge Adrine’s ruling did not force the Prosecutor at least to bring “probable cause” charges against Loehmann and Garmback in a lower court.
“After viewing it several times, this court is still thunderstruck by how quickly this event turned deadly. . .On the video, the Zone Car containing patrol officers Loehmann and Garmack is still in the process of stopping when Rice is shot. . . four additional minutes pass during which neither officer approaches Tamir as he lies wounded on the ground. . . Tamir’s sister arrives on the scene and is restrained from going to her brother’s side. . . During the same time, approximately six other members of the Cleveland Division of Police join the first two . . .It is difficult to discern . . .what, if any aid is anyone renders to Rice during these eight minutes. Nearly 14 minutes ultimately expire between the time that Tamir is shot and the time he is ultimately removed from the park.”
Adrine found that probable cause existed for murder, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless homicide charges against Loehman, and for negligent homicide against Garmback.
McGinty said that the two reports released Oct. 10 represent only a part of the evidence that a grand jury will weigh.
“The gathering of evidence continues, and the grand jury will evaluate it all,” McGinty said.
The site killedbypolice.net says there now have been 917 people in the U.S. killed by law enforcement since the beginning of 2015.
Pugh on trial in civil lawsuit by “K.S.,” young man who alleges Pugh sexually abused him
Pugh needs to be CRIMINALLY tried along with Fatal Five who approved 2012 Consent Agreement leading to Detroit bankruptcy, Gov. Rick Snyder, Kevyn Orr, collaborators, for genocidal crimes against people of Detroit
By Diane Bukowski
Editorial
Oct. 8, 2015
Pugh berates a member of the public commenting vs. proposed Consent Agreement with State, Snyder
DETROIT – The daily media is currently keeping pretty mum about the ongoing civil trial of former Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh, alleging sexual abuse of a student at the Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men in 2013. A jury trial in front of U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson is set for Nov. 3.
Also named in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of “K.S.,” are former Detroit Public Schools emergency managers Roy Roberts and Robert Bobb, and DPS officials Berry Greer and Monique McMurtry.
Among the shocking allegations in the suit, which is linked at the conclusion of this article:
“34. On or about May 31, 2013, defendant PUGH began bribing plaintiff, promising him gifts, such as video games and money for performing sexual acts and/or making videos of plaintiff performing sexual acts. Defendant PUGH made it clear to plaintiff that his career would be ruined if anyone found out about these bribes, and continuously told plaintiff to keep their conversations private.
On or about June 1, 2013, plaintiff told defendant PUGH he needed One Hundred Sixty ($160.00) Dollars, and defendant PUGH agreed to give plaintiff the money, in exchange for plaintiff making a video of himself masturbating.”
Charles Pugh in selfie showing off his body.
The suit also alleges that Pugh deliberately disobeyed orders from the student’s mother to cease contact with her son. It says Pugh provided him with a cell phone so that they could communicate without her knowledge.
Detroit school board members also filed a 450-page Title VI complaint with the U.S. Justice Department in August, alleging that emergency managers appointed by the state have stripped the school district of its civil rights, by creating “separate and unequal treatment for African-American students”, the majority of the district.
The complaint cites the teen’s case as a glaring example of such treatment, and says board members had repeatedly warned the EM’s against allowing Pugh to mentor young Black men.
VOD is not writing about this matter out of interest in its salacious content, or out of anti-gay bias. VOD is strongly in favor of rights for gay, lesbian, bi, and transgendered people, including the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of gay marriage.
This editorial is inspired by outrage that Pugh may have been carrying out activities such as sexual abuse of students and minors as he led efforts to dismantle the City of Detroit, in effect raping its people’s assets, in his role as Council President. At the same time, he abused and disrespected hundreds of Detroiters who came before Council.
VOD believes it likely that the daily media is keeping quiet about this trial because it supported Pugh’s assault on Detroit.
PARTICIPANTS IN RAPE OF DETROIT (from top clockwise): WALL STREET, MICH. GOV. RICK SNYDER, DETROIT PMD KRISS ANDREWS, MILLER CANFIELD ATTY. MICHAEL MCGEE, COUNCILMAN KEN COCKREL, JR, COUNCILWOMAN SAUNTEEL JENKINS, FISCAL ANALYST IRVIN CORLEY, COUNCILMEN JAMES TATE, ANDRE SPIVEY, MILLIMAN CEO STEVEN WHITE, STIFEL CEO RON KRUSJEWSKI, FAB LEADERS KEN WHIPPLE, SANDRA PIERCE, COUNCIL LEADERS GARY BROWN, CHARLES PUGH, MAYOR DAVE BING, STATE TREASURER ANDY DILLON.
Pugh cast the deciding Council vote the a hotly-contested Consent Agreement with the State of Michigan June 4, 2012. It opened the way for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s appointment of Kevyn Orr as Emergency Manager, and later for Orr’s declaration July 17, 2013 that the city was bankrupt.
The bankruptcy trial in front of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, also involving U.S. District Court Judges Gerald Rosen and Sean Cox, was essentially a dog-and-pony show whose racist, genocidal outcome had been determined long before it began by Wall Street. It ended with Detroit being ordered to hand over its Water & Sewerage Department to the Great Lakes Water Authority and billions of dollars worth of publicly-owned art at the Detroit Institute of Arts to the Founders’ Society.
Below: Rhodes says bankruptcy largely due to Detroit’s racial composition
The bankruptcy Plan of Adjustment stole $7 billion from Detroit retirees, condemning many to official poverty status, and was responsible for the ongoing lay-offs of thousands of active workers, contracting out of their jobs, and deprivation of union rights for those who remained.
It rewarded Detroit’s wealthy creditors including global banks and insurance companies with 95.9 percent of their claims; Detroit retirees and poor folks got 13.5 percent.
During days of Council debate on the Consent Agreement, hundreds of Detroiters showed up to decry the giveaway of their city in public comment sessions. Pugh was abusive and disrespectful to most of them.
Sandra Hines, Lila Cabill, dozens line up in hallway outside Council chambers after Pugh refused to move meeting to auditorium.
He refused to move the hearings to the auditorium, forcing long lines of Detroiters to stand waiting in the hall in order to make their one-and-a-half minute comments, then forcing them to leave the Council chambers once they were done. He clearly violated the Open Meetings Act in doing so, because he should have provided full access to Detroit citizens to the entire Council sessions.
Pugh showed utter disrespect for well-known community leaders who gave comments, including Cardinal Baye Landy of Detroit’s historic Shrine of the Black Madonna, a Black Christian nationalist church with broad political influence in Detroit since the militant days of the 1960’s.
When Cardinal Landy took his place for comment, dressed as usual in casual clothing, Pugh asked, “You’re a Cardinal?” apparently ignorant of the Shrine’s history in Detroit.
The Shrine of the Black Madonna was founded and led by for three decades by Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, formerly Dr. Albert Cleage, seen in Paul Lee’s interview above.
Pugh had several people, including Lee, arrested and removed by police for allegedly exceeding the ridiculously picayune time limits on their comments. He threatened this reporter with arrest when she asked for 15 seconds more to speak. He noted on camera that she had been arrested before. He referred to her arrest and two felony convictions stemming from her legitimate duties as a reporter for the Michigan Citizen in covering a fatal state trooper police chase on Nov. 4, 2008, the day U.S. President Barack Obama was first elected.
Detroit retiree Walter Knall, historian Paul Lee hold up photo depicting historic rally in Detroit during consent agreement hearings. Pugh ordered police to remove Lee from chambers.
Ironically, Pugh as a former journalist himself signed an affidavit in her support during trial proceedings.
Pugh played a prominent role in the City’s giveaway, traveling to Lansing with Co-Chair Gary Brown to meet with Snyder officials to set up the Consent Agreement, which became the blueprint for the bankruptcy plan of adjustment.
He also sat on a secret “Roots Cause Committee” with Brown that planned the dismantling of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department under Judge Sean Cox.
VOD clearly condemns Pugh’s alleged sexual violation of the youthful K.S. and others it is rumored were subjected to such treatment as well. It is horrifying that a man in such a position could act in such a manner after centuries of the oppression of African people which included rape and sexual abuse, not to mention the African Holocaust, slavery, lynchings, torture, murder, and disrespect of Black women as Pugh allegedly disrespected the mother of “K.S.”
It is even more horrifying that Detroit’s leaders including Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy allowed such a man to ride off into the sunset of New York City to work as a waiter and carry on with his life and likely further abuses, without prosecution.
Heroic WWTP workers walked out in wildcat strike Sept. 30, 2012 to stop what is happening now. Leaders of AFSCME Council 25 sabotaged the strike and now Detroit may lose the Water & SewerageDepartment.
Current Local 207 President Mike Mulholland, former Local VP Lekita Thomas (now transferred ), part of Local 207’s fighting leadership.
Long live the heroic spirit of AFSCME Local 207 President John Riehl! Local Pres. 2000-2012, WWTP worker 37 years, died too early at age 62.
DETROIT CITY WORKERS BEING RUN OUT OF JOBS IN EVERY DEPT. DUE TO BANKRUPTCY
By Diane Bukowski
Oct. 9, 2015
(Editor: photos taken of this event by VOD did not turn out, others are used.)
AFSCME Local 2799 Pres. Cherlyn Rupert (Facebook)
Active city workers told State Sen. Coleman A. Young (D-Detroit), City Council President Brenda Jones, and Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hatty about the devastating effects the bankruptcy continues to have on them, during a meeting called by AFSCME Local 2799 Pres. Cheryln Rupert Oct. 5 at the AFSCME Council 25 hall downtown.
Under terms of the bankruptcy, the state continues its oversight of City of Detroit finances for 20 years, through a “Financial Review Commission.”
Romona Jones, a 27-year city employee currently with the Finance Dept. Purchasing Division, said all workers there are being forced to reapply for their jobs after completing online applications and testing.
“A lot of employees find the applications very difficult to complete, and they are afraid that if they don’t pass, they will be set on the street,” Jones said.
Vance Russell, a principal accountant who has worked for the city for 30 years, said workers in his division are also being forced to reapply for their jobs, under terms of Orr’s Executive Order 41, “Establishing Centralized Financial Management Organizational Structure.” See EM Order 41 Establishing Centralized Financial Management Organizational Structure.
Vance Russell/Facebook
“This is a bomb over our heads,” Russell said. “We have an existing union agreement, from 2014-2018, that delineates our positions and nowhere does it state we have to re-apply for our jobs. The city met with all city employees Jan. 8, going around the unions, and held a sledge hammer over them saying the same thing.”
Council President Brenda Jones said it was her understanding that all EM orders should have expired in Dec. 2014, upon Orr’s exit as emergency manager, and that she is researching the matter.
Mike Mulholland, Pres. of AFSCME Local 207, representing Detroit Water and Sewerage (DWSD) workers, told VOD last week that he expects 67 of his members to be laid off this week because the department changed their job titles and made them apply for the new jobs, which comprised the same work, then denied their applications.
DWSD director Sue McCormick recently said that the department has eliminated 41 percent of its workers. A large number of contractors are being hired. Jones said the DWSD contracts are not being brought before the City Council.
Contractors digging up water mains on East Jefferson for at least the last month.
For the past month, VOD has observed contractors on East Jefferson from Belle Isle to Erma Henderson Park digging up huge tracts of sidewalks and street-side land. A project worker said they are replacing water mains, work normally done by qualified DWSD employees. Contractor trucks included some from Springline Excavating, LLC, which has offices in Detroit, Livonia, and Smyrna, GA.
Former Local 207 Vice-President Lekita Thomas earlier told VOD that DWSD workers must frequently go behind the work of inexperienced contractors to re-do it. There definitely appeared to be shoddy workmanship on the current project, as seen by one hydrant among many that have spouted water for weeks after the work.
This hydrant, connected by tubing to an unknown underground line, has been spraying large amounts of water for weeks. Other hydrants on E. Jefferson have been observed doing the same.
Association of Detroit Engineers Pres. Shakil Ahmed recently emailed GLWA chair Robert Daddow as follows: “DWSD is laying off 11 experienced engineers even with professional licenses and in their place are bringing engineers with no experience and without professional licenses. We are very short in engineering staff and this action will upset the operation of DWSD.”
Daddow replied that he could do nothing about it because the GLWA has not yet taken control. DWSD director Sue McCormick recently said that the department has eliminated 41 percent of its workers.
Audrey Bellamy, President of the Senior Accountants, Analysts and Appraisers Association(SAAA), said the city has also told all DWSD workers that they are no longer Civil Service employees.
“I don’t believe that’s legal or that they have the capacity to tell our people that,” Bellamy said.
JOIN THE PETITION CAMPAIGN FOR A REFERENDUM VOTE ON THE CITY OF DETROIT CONTRACT WITH THE GREAT LAKES WATER AUTHORITY.
DWSD faces a takeover mandated under terms of the bankruptcy plan by the regional Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), with a current deadline of Jan. 1, 2016. DAREA and other groups are circulating petitions under Public Act 233 of 1955 calling for Detroiters to hold a referendum vote on the contract, mandated by that Act. If successful, the contract would be revoked, according to language in the Act.
Flint residents earlier protested Flint’s cut-off from DWSD, which has resulted in high levels of lead and other contaminants in their water.
The GLWA met July 8 and approved a plan to severely downsize the current DWSD system, workforce, facilities, and spending as it takes over.
One of the provisions was to eliminate the whole of Genesee County, not just Flint, from the system. Recent announcements that Flint will be hooking back up to DWSD since large levels of lead poisoning have resulted from Flint’s jerry-rigged set-up apparently are going to throw a wrench into those plans.
Delia Enright, President of AFSCME Local 1023 representing 911 workers, said the City Clerk’s office no longer has minutes for the Civil Service Commission, which they had kept on file for decades until 2011. She said she finally tracked down copies of the minutes and made a startling discovery.
“Denise Starr, the new head of Human Resources, went to the Civil Service Commission in June and gave them a brief outline of some of the Civil Service rules she is going to change.”
According to the City Charter, the Human Resources Department operates under the direction of the Civil Service Commission, not vice versa. Civil Service actually predates union representation for public workers, having been established in most municipalities decades ago to stop corrupt hiring practices.
Phyllis McMillion, president of AFSCME Local 542, representing General Service and Recreation Department workers, said the city is refusing to notify the union as required of the contracting out of numerous union-represented positions, meaning the lay-offs of more city workers.
Catherine Phillips, staff representative for Michigan AFSCME Council 25, said the union has filed unfair labor practice charges on the matter. During bankruptcy proceedings, Council 25 withdrew its appeal to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Rhodes’ eligibility ruling, and later agreed to terms of the bankruptcy plan of adjustment.
AFSCME Local 542 Pres. Phyllis McMillion speaks at rally to save Belle Isle from state takeover Sept. 22, 2012. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr ordered takeover later.
During his long-term tenure with the Detroit Police Department, Melendez helped shoot to death two unarmed Detroiters, Lou Adkins, during a traffic stop in 1996, and Ernest Crutchfield, in his own kitchen in 2003. “Robocop” has been sued a total of 12 times in federal court, costing Detroit over $1.2 million. The City of Inkster paid $1.3 million to settle Dent’s case.
