VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan unveils plans for Great Lakes Water Authority as (l to r) Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano listen Sept. 9, 2014.

City retirees demand plan go on ballot for vote of the people

DWSD gets annual $50 million lease payments for 40 years, in exchange for GLWA control of multi-billion dollar six-county system

Detroit Water & Sewerage Dept. consigned to city limits

Banks, suburban pols profit from bonds, contracts; Wall Street celebrates

New regional water “affordability” plan will not bar shut-offs or lower rates for low-income households

By Diane Bukowski

September 9, 2014

Duggan targets Detroit on map of DWSD, saying it will now operate only within city boundaries Sept. 9, 2014.

DETROIT – The all-white quartet of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and County Executives L. Brooks Patterson, Robert Ficano, and Mark Hackel today proposed the creation of a regional “Great Lakes Water Authority” (GLWA), to be up and running within “200 days.” They announced they had just signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Also signing were Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.

The GLWA would divest the City of Detroit, the largest major Black-majority city in the U.S., of its largest and most lucrative asset, the 150 year old, six-county Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), the third largest in the U.S. In exchange, DWSD would receive $50 million a year “lease” payments for an initial period of the next 40 years, “extendable to at least match the terms of any outstanding bonds of the Authority.”

(Click on GLWA plan for packet given to media, and on http://www.dwsd.org/downloads_n/announcements/general_announcements/ga2014-09-09_regional_authority_MOU_executed.pdf to read full MOU.)

DWSD’s Lake Huron water treatment plant. DWSD is the third largest water utllity in the country. It provides water service to almost one million people in Detroit and three million people in 126 neighboring Southeastern Michigan communities throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb St. Clair, Lapeer, Genesee, Washtenaw and Monroe counties.

The lease payments would be used for “Detroit local system infrastructure improvements, debt service associated with such improvements, or the City’s share of the cost of common-to-all improvements.”

Under terms of the MOU, only DWSD, not the GLWA, would have “liability . . . for funding the City’s frozen General Retirement System (GRS) pension plan . . . and the City’s settlement of claims associated with the swaps for its Pension Obligation Certifications, and for payments relating to debt service on DWSD’s allocated share of liability on the new B Notes attributable to the GRS VEBA [employee health plan] and Pension Obligation Certificates.”

Couple demands no privatization of water systems.

The officials at the press conference had claimed that the lease payments would go to the DWSD, not the city’s general fund as had been originally proposed, but it is clear from the above clause in the MOU that they would go largely to Wall Street.

Duggan said Detroit’s infrastructure will see immediate improvements under the GLWA, but neglected to mention the following proviso in the MOU:

“The Authority will finance Detroit local system improvements through the issuance of Authority bonds under the Revenue Bond Act, with the debt service to be allocated solely to Detroit local system ratepayers.”

Although all four of the officials denied there is any plan to privatize the GLWA or the DWSD, the actual MOU says the GLWA board could adopt a procurement policy “which will include the terms on which any aspect of the operations of either system may be privatized.” The world’s second largest water privatizer, Veolia, Inc., has already been hired by DWSD, allegedly as a consultant.

Protesters at opening of bankruptcy plan trial Sept. 2, 2014.

Wall Street celebrated the plan, according to Bloomberg.

“After the announcement, Detroit’s 5.75 percent sewer bonds due in 2031 climbed more than 5 percent to 111.7 cents on the dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,” the newspaper wrote.

Wall Street ratings agencies had been steadily downgrading DWSD bond ratings, citing the enterprise agency’s association with the City of Detroit and the bankruptcy filing. Such downgrades increased interest rates on DWSD bonds. However, DWSD for years had AAA ratings.

U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox

Despite DWSD’s technical dissociation from Detroit’s general fund, the GLWA proposal resulted from months of mediation ordered by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, who assigned U.S. District Court Chief Judge Gerald Rosen as mediator.

Rosen later brought in U.S. District Judge Sean Cox. Cox earlier handed over “supermajority” control of the Board of Water Commissioners, including awarding of contracts and setting rates, to the Counties in 2011. Both Rosen and Cox are members of the ultraconservative Federalist Society.

Duggan said the yearly lease payments would allow Detroit to repair water main breaks, which numbered 2,000 last year. According to a proposal summary, however, the money could also be used to buy up to $800 million in bonds for system-wide repairs.

“Somebody needs to go to jail, and somebody needs to go to hell,” reacted outraged city retirees, barred from attending the press conference at the Federal courthouse in downtown Detroit.

Detroit retirees (l to r) Belinda Myers Florence, Laverne Holloway, Cecily McClellan and Bill Smith discuss ramifications of GLWA plan after being barred from press conference.

“The people of Detroit should demand their right to vote on this, guaranteed in the City Charter,” said Bill Davis, who retired as Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) shift supervisor after 34 years.

“The counties are buying into something they know nothing about, a system that because of Kevyn Orr’s mismanagement is operating with non-functional main sewage pumps, causing last month’s massive flooding. They claim they don’t have the money for repairs, well get it from the banks who are robbing us.”

Orr’s recently announced DWSD debt “restructuring” includes full payment to the banks of $2.2 billion that had originally been considered “impaired,” with the city asking the banks to settle for less. Much DWSD debt is the result of predatory lending, including $537 million in illegal swaps.

Protesters in Birmingham, Ala. protest higher rates imposed in Jefferson County bankruptcy, even though Chase was forced to take 75% debt cut.

“The money used to unwind the swaps would almost cover the utility’s $571.7 million in planned capital spending for the five years through June 2016, according to bond documents.” said a 2012 Bloomberg News article titled, “Detroit Debt Shows Wall Street Never Loses on Bad Swaps.”

 “Or it would be enough for the sewer system’s $519.8 million fiscal 2013 budget, with millions to spare.”

The swaps involved JPMorgan Chase, which Jefferson County, Alabama forced to take a 75 percent cut in its debt payments as part of their bankruptcy case. The County had filed suit previously due to evidence of bribery in sewerage contract awards. Sewerage rates, however, still increased dramatically.

Gov. Rick Snyder announces appointment of Kevyn Orr as EM March 14, 2013.

Gov. Rick Snyder announces appointment of Kevyn Orr as EM March 14, 2013.

“This ends 40 years of conflict between the city and the suburbs,” Duggan said.

“It was a pretty remarkable accomplishment that we all came together in support of Governor Rick Snyder and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s plan. The department has been under federal oversight since 1977, but it did not work. We have 2,000 water main breaks a year and constant rate hikes.”

Duggan lived in suburban Livonia until he moved to Detroit, a couple weeks short of the deadline for filing. He was barred from running by the Court of Appeals, but conducted a write-in campaign which the Court did not overturn.

He said Snyder’s top aide, Richard Baird, and U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox, who succeeded Judge John Feikens as DWSD overseer, initiating suburban control of the Board of Water Commissioners, played major roles in brokering the deal.

The twelve-point proposal would be incorporated into yet another amended Plan of Adjustment for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes’ final okay, after the Detroit City Council and the County Commissions approve it, Duggan said.

Red lines and boxes (water and sewer plants) depict proposed GLWA territory; blue lines within Detroit boundaries depict secondary mains to be under DWSD control.

“Detroit keeps exclusive control of the local water and sewer system in DWSD, under the authority of the Mayor and City Council,” the plan says. “The Detroit local system is made up of 3,400 miles of local water mains serving the neighborhoods of Detroit.”

DWSD would thus be carved down into a system that exists only within city boundaries. But even the department’s assets within those boundaries, including its wastewater and freshwater treatment plants, and its major water mains, would operate under the Authority’s control, as shown in the diagram above. The red lines indicate GLWA operated plants and mains.

WWTP workers struck Sept. 30, 2012, declaring on sign, “The battle for Detroit begins here and now.” The strike was sabotaged by top leaders of AFSCME Council 25; now they are left with the theft of DWSD. Most DWSD workers are Black.

Nine hundred of 1400 DWSD workers would become GLWA workers, including those at the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant, with their union contracts transferred under successor clauses. Duggan said he met with union leaders at 7:30 a.m. about the proposal, and planned to meet with Wastewater Treatment Plant workers themselves later today.

Lakita Thomas, Secretary-Treasurer AFSCME Local 207.

Lakita Thomas, secretary-treasurer of AFSCME Local 207, which originally represented most WWTP workers, said Duggan refused to negotiate with them at the 7:30 a.m. meeting.

“They’re giving the Department away, and the GLWA will maintain control of the money,” Thomas said. “DWSD takes in billions a month. [DWSD director] Sue McCormick has been designing it to fail. They’ve been having contractors repair water main breaks and piping, but they don’t know what they’re doing and our people have to come after them to fix things. The contractors are the ones causing the sinkholes. We get no raises, but the contractors get six and seven-figure amounts. They’ve been suspending our people and writing them up on dumb charges, and they threaten them if they expose the real problems.”

Under McCormick, the Board of Water Commissioners hired EMA, Inc., a consultant which recommended the elimination of 81 percent of the DWSD workforce. According to Local 207 Vice-President Mike Mulholland, EMA now runs the WWTP and is largely responsible for the lack of maintenance of the crucial sewage pumps. He earlier said that not only has WWTP deterioration caused the recent floods in Detroit, the outflow of raw sewage into the Detroit River also contributed to the contamination of Lake Erie, which resulted in last month’s water emergency in Toledo.

Union members demand jobs for Detroit youth, not contractors, during May 27, 2010 protest.

“As a Detroiter, I’m against giving anything more to the suburbs flat out,” Mulholland told VOD.

“They’re calling it a lease, but we’ve lost control. From my standpoint as a long-time DWSD worker and senior union officer, this further breaks up DWSD, disempowers the workers, and sets it up for privatization. Veolia is already here, ready to take over. They’re doing this under the political cover of bankruptcy; they don’t legally have to do it. But what is currently legal is wrong. Anything we do now to fight for the workers, especially Black workers and residents, will be illegal, but we must stand up and fight back.”

Duggan claimed that new repairs to Detroit’s DWSD infrastructure will provide “thousands of jobs” for Detroiters, but Davis estimated that 90 percent of the contractors working on street mains and other repairs are suburban whites. The MOU says only, “The Authority shall make every effort to employ individuals and contract with vendors from throughout the service areas,” in other words the entire six-county region.

Water Department unions announce lawsuit challenging Cox’s order handing control of BOWC to suburbs, attacking workers’ rights, in 2011.

Thomas said that during the session, the union refused to drop a Michigan Council 25 lawsuit against Cox’s Nov. 2011 order, which essentially wrested control of the Board of Water Commissioners and the Department away from Detroit, and outlined blanket attacks against union contracts and protections. That lawsuit is still pending before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, having been filed two years before Orr petitioned for bankruptcy. (Click on Cox-Co-25-motion-to-intervene-11-14-11 to read lawsuit.)

It therefore holds out some hope for counteracting the GLWA takeover. AFSCME and the UAW earlier pledged to give up other appeals of Judge Rhodes’ bankruptcy eligibility decision pending at the Sixth Circuit if the city’s Plan of Adjustment is confirmed with the “Grand Bargain” in place.

City retiree Ezza Brandon was one of dozens of retirees who picketed AFSCME Co. 25 headquarters last month for the union leadership’s agreement to the Plan of Adjustment.

City retirees picketed outside AFSCME Council 25’s headquarters in Detroit when they discovered the monumental sell-out.

“It’s happening to thousands and thousands of workers everywhere,” one protester said. “Where is our union leadership’s compassion, why aren’t they fighting? How are the unions even going to survive if they don’t stand up? Do they suddenly have a ‘new purpose’ for existing?”

The GLWA would essentially be controlled by the Governor’s office. It would be run by a six-member board, with a five member super-majority required to approve contracts, rates, budgets, and other financial matters. Two members would be appointed by Detroit’s mayor, one by the governor, and one each by the three county executives.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel.

However, if a county commission does not buy into the authority, the Governor would appoint someone to occupy that position.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said there is some reluctance on the part of his officials to agree to the plan, and that he does not like the provision regarding Snyder’s appointment powers. All three counties had filed objections to the Plan of Adjustment, but Ficano and Patterson said they would withdraw their counties’ objections if their commissions approve the GLWA.

“It took 15 months of intense bargaining and negotiations resulting in the Memorandum of Understanding which we signed this morning,” Patterson said. “It goes against my DNA, but many Oakland County residents looked at DWSD as a cash cow for the City of Detroit because revenues from the department’s rates were being used for the city’s general fund.”

Patterson’s statement on that was a blatant falsehood. As an enterprise agency, DWSD revenues by law are mandated to benefit only DWSD, not Detroit’s general fund. An original proposal for the $50 million a year to go to Detroit’s general fund to aid in the bankruptcy case was apparently a sticking point at least for Patterson. Under the GLWA, however, all revenues go for water and sewerage purposes, leaving open the question of why it should even be involved in bankruptcy discussions.

Oakland Co. Executive L. Brooks Patterson.

Patterson also said he feared that Judge Rhodes would “cram down” terms of the deal if it was not agreed to by the parties, and would not be as “conscious” as they are.

The reference to his “DNA” was ironic. Several years ago, he likened Black women members of the Detroit City Council to “monkeys in a zoo.” He also represented anti-school busing Ku Klux Klan members, arrested in the early 1970’s after they attacked protesters against Irene McCabe, another anti-busing agitator, in Oakland County.

The proposal sets a 10-year limit on rate increases of four percent, but Patterson made clear that customers’ bills could increase far beyond that if the local communities involved attach additional charges, a situation which has always existed.

Generally, suburban officials have ignored that reality when criticizing Detroit’s control of DWSD, using rate increases to whip up their constituents’ hostility toward the city.

Lame duck Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.

As for Ficano, tied to numerous corruption cases involving his officials, he expressed support for the plan, not surprisingly, since many aspects derive from EMA, Inc. proposals to cut 81 percent of DWSD staff and cross-train the others.

Wayne County under the Ficano machine first hired EMA, Inc. in 2008, in a contract involving Downriver Wastewater Treatment Facilities Operation and Management, despite EMA’s known history of sabotaging sewerage operations in Toronto, where understaffing caused massive flooding in 2012, and in New York City, according to county worker Jackson Anderson.

“Ficano’s people are running the City’s Water Department (James Fausone, water board chair, Matthew Schenk, DWSD COO, Woolfson, etc.),” Anderson said in an earlier VOD commentary. “How can you justify a $48 million NO-BID CONTRACT to EMA based on a 90-day self-serving review?”

The GLWA proposal creates a $4.5 million Water Residential Affordability Program (WRAP), not only for Detroit residents but for the entire region covered by the GLWA. It does not include a moratorium on water shut-offs, or a true “water affordability” program that would set rates according to a household’s income.

Protesters block entrance to contractor Homrich facility to stop water shutoffs last month. They sustained nine arrests.

Duggan compared the WRAP to the $200,000 which the City of Detroit has collected in donations so far for its “Water Affordability Plan,” but neglected to mention that WRAP covers a much larger area.

Judge Rhodes is still to rule on a lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order on water shut-offs in Detroit, after a hearing set for Sept. 17. He ordered mediation on that matter in addition to the DWSD mediation.

If the results of the DWSD mediation are any indication, the shut-offs mediation cannot be expected to yield any more than the plan the City of Detroit has already put in place. It does not bar shut-offs, although in the United Kingdom and other countries, water shut-offs are outlawed as a threat to public health and safety.

(The statement below from the People’s Water Board is being republished here; it does not mean their organization necessarily supports all the contents of the story above.)

PEOPLE’S WATER BOARD STATEMENT ON CREATION OF REGIONAL WATER AUTHORITY 

People’s Water Board Coalition Calls Regional Water Authority an Assault Against Democracy and the Human Right to Water

Community calls for protection and representation for all region’s residents

Detroit, Mich. – The People’s Water Board decried Mayor Mike Duggan’s plan to create a regional water authority as undemocratic and a threat to the human right to water for many in the region. We have access to the largest body of surface freshwater in the world, so it would seem abundance and access should not be an issue. However the manner of governing this valuable resource as responsible environmental stewards for the world has left many communities without trust.

The deal was negotiated behind closed doors without any input from the public and is the next step on the pathway to privatization. It takes away the rights of both the Detroit City Council and the citizens of Detroit to have input on big decisions impacting the system.

“Suburban customers should not be fooled into thinking that this deal gives them more control or influence over the water system,” said Lynna Kaucheck of the People’s Water Board. “The new authority will be made up of unelected officials who are accountable to no one. People need to know that this deal doesn’t take privatization off the table.”

There is a global campaign to dump Veolia contracts because of the company’s connection with Israeli apartheid actions against the Palestinians. See link below,

Veolia Water North America, the largest private water company operating in the United States, has been hired to evaluate the management of the system and clearly has a vested interest in privatization. Privatization typically results in skyrocketing rates, decreased service quality and the loss of jobs. In fact, corporate profits, dividends and income taxes can add 20 to 30 percent to operation and maintenance costs, and a lack of competition and poor negotiation skills can leave local governments with expensive contracts.

In the Great Lakes region, large private water companies charge more than twice as much as cities charge for household water service. This is not the solution for Detroit or the region.

“The regionalization plan is unacceptable. We need a system that is accountable and transparent and that works for all its customers,” said Tawana Petty of the People’s Water Board. “We want an elected board of water commissioners. We want to reduce costs for the region through bulk purchasing and resource sharing. And we want to implement the Affordability Plan as passed by Detroit City Council in 2005. Detroit and suburban leaders need to protect residents and democratize the system.”

The People’s Water Board advocates for access, protection, and conservation of water, and promotes awareness of the interconnectedness of all people and resources.

People’s Water Board Coalition protest outside Water Board Building,

The People’s Water Board includes: AFSCME Local 207, Baxter’s Beat Back the Bullies Brigade, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Detroit Green Party, Detroit People’s Platform, Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management, East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Food & Water Watch, FLOW, Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit, Matrix Theater, Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, Sierra Club, Sisters of Mercy, Voices for Earth Justice and We the People of Detroit. September 10, 2014 Contact: Lynna Kaucheck, Food & Water Watch, (586) 556-8805 Tawana Petty, People’s Water Board, (313) 433-9882

Some recent and previous articles related to this story:

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/los-angeles-activists-put-veolias-complicity-israels-human-rights-violations-spotlight

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/09/06/racist-bankruptcy-plan-hearing-sanctions-theft-of-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/31/march-vs-detroit-bankruptcy-sept-2-retirees-demand-council-put-water-dept-sale-on-ballot/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/26/detroiters-ask-judge-to-bar-water-shut-offs-until-lawsuit-resolved-hearing-tues-sept-2/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/21/near-catastrophic-failure-of-detroit-sewage-pumps-caused-detroit-floods-toledo-water-crisis-city-retirees-say/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/13/detroit-retirees-water-affordability-plan-make-the-banks-pay-press-conference-wed-aug-13-3-pm/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/07/retiree-groups-unions-to-nix-detroit-bankruptcy-eligibility-appeals-at-6th-circuit-after-trial/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/07/31/retirees-picket-afscme-for-withdrawing-detroit-bankruptcy-appeal/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/01/ema-which-proposed-dwsd-cuts-tied-to-ficano-heise/

http://www.freep.com/article/20120710/NEWS02/207100354/Ficano-s-ex-appointees-get-six-figure-jobs-at-Detroit-water-department

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/09/board-passes-48-m-5-yr-ema-contract-to-cut-81-of-detroit-water-workforce/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/08/22/toronto-under-water-sewage-in-wake-of-ema-plan/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/16/union-challenges-cox%e2%80%99s-water-dept-takeover-order/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/10/cox-axes-detroiters-control-over-water-department/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/02/13/judge-cox-mayor-bing-suburban-leaders-conspire-in-water-takeover-violate-city-charter/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/02/13/judge-cox-mayor-bing-suburban-leaders-conspire-in-water-takeover-violate-city-charter/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/01/26/stop-takeover-of-detroits-water/

Case like no other in country; strips assets of largest Black city in U.S.

 Hearing a battle between Orr/Jones Day and Syncora as union, retiree leaders vacate field, endorse Plan of Adjustment

 Under plan, banks get at least $8.5 billion, private corporations get assets, while retirees lose $4.5 billion

 By Diane Bukowski

 Sept. 5, 2014

Stop killing seniors! Photo Kenny Snodgrass.

 DETROIT – Not with a bang but a whimper, the plan confirmation phase of Detroit’s bankruptcy trial kicked off Sept. 2, 2014, a little more than a year after Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr filed the petition on July 17, 2013.

It is no mistake that San Bernadino and Stockton, California declared bankruptcy a year before Detroit, but hearings there have not yet reached the confirmation stage.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit EM Kevyn Orr announce filing of Detroit bankruptcy July 17, 2014.

Just as Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson assassinated Michael Brown, Jr. on Aug. 9, Detroit as the largest Black majority city in the U.S. is about to face assassination as well, at the hands of an unelected dictator and his Wall Street cronies.

 The assassination has been coldly calculated for over two years, in a fashion as cruel as the way Ferguson police let Michael Brown’s body lie in the street for four hours as his agonized family and neighbors watched the long stream of blood from his wounds congeal and turn black. Now banksters and government officials are watching gleefully as the City of Detroit slowly dies under their onslaught.

DWSD retiree Bill Davis, who spent 34 years at the Wastewater Treatment Plant and stands to lose a large portion of his annuity savings fund.

“Judge Steven Rhodes should be removed from office, he’s a crook,” Bill Davis, a city Water and Sewerage Dept. retiree, said as protesters marched outside the courthouse Sept. 2. “Kevyn Orr is doing worse than anything Kilpatrick ever did. If the City of Detroit has a cash flow problem, we shouldn’t be spending hundreds of millions on crooked financial institutions.”

Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison for 24 counts of bid-rigging, extortion, bribery, and tax evasion, in violation of the federal RICO act. The total monetary amount involved that allegedly went directly into his pocket? About $112,500.

What prison sentence is therefore appropriate for those who are stealing the entire city of Detroit, also in violation of RICO?

How much time should by served by Rhodes, who chaired a forum advocating Chapter 9 bankruptcy and Emergency Management in 2012, Orr who is only a mouthpiece for his former employer, the law firm Jones Day which authored the game plan for the Detroit takeover in a white paper in 2010, and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, creator of Public Act 436, which has disenfranchised the majority of the state’s Black citizens? What about the crooked banks and corporations who stand to gain at least $8.5 billion under the plan, plus profits from Water Department contracts and other privatization?

DETROIT BANKRUPTCY CROOKS: (L to r top: UBS CEO Sergio Ermatti; Chase CEO Jamie Dimon; Jones Day CEO Stephen Brogan with Detroit EM Kevyn Orr, BOA CEO Brian Moynihan; Mich. Gov. Rick Snyder; (l to r bottom: 2012 Pro-CH9/EM Forum: Douglas Headen, State Treasury, Edward Plawecki, Judge Steven Rhodes, PA 4 trainer Douglas Bernstein, PA 4 co-author and trainer Judy O’Neill; accountant Charles Moore of Conway McKenzie, a chief witness for Jones Day at both the eligibility and plan confirmation trials; DPS CEO Jack Martin (top); charter school advocates Doug Ross and Carol Goss, CEO of Skillman Foundation,

How much time should they serve for stealing at least $4.5 billion from retirees, plus water, land, public utilities, homes and jobs from over 700,000 residents, at least 82 percent of whom are African-American?

Protester describes future plight of Detroit city retirees.

UBS AG, Bank of America, Chase, and numerous mortgage companies have been sanctioned by the U.S. Justice Department with multi-billion settlements related to their criminal activities, but no criminal charges have been brought. Too bad this is not Vietnam or China, where criminal bankers who took advantage of the decay of communism in those countries are being sentenced to death.

Who should really be on trial in Detroit?

“It’s not the City of Detroit, Rhodes is hearing from Jones Day, the third largest law firm in the world representing the banks that have the city in a death grip, who triggered the financial crisis,” Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellerman told protesters.

Wylie-Kellerman stood up at an earlier bankruptcy hearing and loudly declared that Jones Day is not the city of Detroit, whereupon Judge Rhodes fled the bench, evidently expecting a larger display of the people’s wrath akin to that in Ferguson. Wylie-Kellerman has also led two blockades of the Homrich facility on East Grand Blvd. to stop water shut-offs, with participants sustaining about 20 arrests.

Pastor Bill Wylie-Kellerman

“The court hearing gives an appearance of legitimacy to privatizing public assets, dismantling resources, extracting money,” Wylie-Kellerman pointed out. “Put Kevyn Orr and Homrich [the private contractor being paid $6.8 million to shut water off] on trial, put the process on trial, challenge the false legitimacy.”

At the Sept. 2 hearing, attorney Alice Jennings revealed that of 19,000 city households who had their water shut off beginning in March, 5,500 still do not have water. She told protesters that another 1,000 households have been shut-off since a temporary pause in shut-offs ended August 25, with more on the way.

“We have made our argument for the people,” Jennings told the protesters after the hearing. “We must have a temporary restraining order on all shut-offs. They create sanitation problems and pandemic disease processes. What about people with feeding tubes, and those who use nebulizers for asthma [as well as households with children, who stand to be kidnapped by the state’s Child Protective Services]. Through a Freedom of Act request, we found out that the city failed to bill Detroiters the higher sewerage rates for six years, so dumped them on the last billing.”

Attorney Alice Jennings speaks, with team of lawyers who argued lawsuit for TRO against water shut-offs.

Many countries including the United Kingdom outlaw water shut-offs altogether.

At the insistence of suburban forces, Detroiters are penalized with the higher rates because of delinquency rates on bill payments, in a city where 38 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty level, and 27 percent above the poverty level cannot afford the daily necessities of living, according to a recent report by the United Way Foundations of Michigan.

Retiree calls POA nothing but theft of her golden years.

Rhodes has ordered “mediation” of the matter, with a subsequent hearing Sept. 17. If the mediation is anything like that going on about the ownership and management of DWSD, his order does not carry much hope.

What about the leaders of the unions and retirement systems, who have ceded the floor for any opposition to the POA to Syncora and FGIC? They have filed briefs agreeing to a plan that will impoverish retirees, eventually dismantle the $6 billion pension fund as more and more workers are forced out of city employment, and lay waste to the future of Detroit’s youth.

Their briefs contradict hundreds of objections filed by retirees and city residents themselves. Jones Day has cited their briefs as evidence the objections should be denied, in an omnibus motion filed Sept. 5.

Shouldn’t these mis-leaders join their co-conspirators in prison for using their own members’ union dues and retiree contributions against them?

Retirees and supporters march outside bankruptcy court as plan confirmation trial begins Sept. 2, 2014.

Michigan AFSCME Council 25, the International UAW, and others told the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that they will withdraw their appeals of the city’s bankruptcy eligibility if the plan is confirmed including the so-called “Grand Bargain.” The “Grand Theft,” as it is popularly known, provides a measly $816 million, allegedly for retirees, in exchange for the city relinquishing it’s ownership of the multi-billion DIA art collections.

Helen Moore (left) demands No Pensions, No Peace.

It allegedly makes up for the loss of at least $4.5 BILLION in city pension contributions and payouts, an AVERAGE loss of $27,000 per retiree in annuity savings plus 6.75 percent interest, a loss of COLA amounting to $33,500 per retiree, and phony VEBA health care plans that do not guarantee the provision of health care to retirees.

In a monumental sell-out, the unions also said they will give up all other rights to appeal the POA, agree to negate Art. 9, Sec. 24 of the Michigan Constitution which protects public pensions, and cease their opposition to PA 436, the Emergency Manager Act. Ironically, that Act declares that any EM must live up to Art. 9, Section 24!

AFSCME Local 207 Pres. Mike Mulholland speaks as retirees Dave Sole and Belinda Myers-Florence listen.

AFSCME Local 207, representing Detroit Water and Sewerage workers, was one of only two city locals that urged members to vote down the Plan of Adjustment.

“Privatization at DWSD is happening at a rapid pace,” Local 207 President Mike Mulholland said at the rally. “They are poised in this bankruptcy to give it away entirely—either to the suburbs or by handing the actual management to Veolia, the second largest water privatizer in the world. They had to bring in EMA, Inc. to dismantle the Wastewater Treatment Plant, causing the recent floods and the Toledo water emergency. Now we have to get another overseer to oversee the overseer, thanks to Orr. AFSCME Council 25 has left us hanging. They are punishing our local for striking against the DWSD takeover by stripping our membership to 150 workers.”

Mulholland said earlier that the Teamsters and Operating Engineers are in line to take over representation of the other DWSD workers, who now total 700 instead of the 1100 in unionized ranks before EMA took over. Current DWSD workers must also reapply for their jobs.

Detroit is the only city facing such massive losses under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code, which bars creditors from demanding liquidation of assets, “unless the debtor agrees.”

Baxter Jones, Jr. tells the crowd to fight with every beat of their hearts.

Orr, having been crowned as the debtor by Judge Rhodes early on, is not only agreeing but playing a proactive role in destroying Detroit.

He ordered “restructuring” of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s bond debt, a restructuring that provides for $2.2 billion of that debt which was considered impaired under the Plan of Adjustment, to be paid in full.

Elena Herrada and another protester hold banner that says it all. Photo: Kenny Snodgrass.

He approved the establishment of a regional Public Lighting Authority to replace Detroit’s Public Lighting Department. Plans for the PLA include REMOVAL of 40 percent of street lighting in the city, to coincide with the removal of other city services from large swaths of neighborhoods.

He ordered the privatization of the Detroit Public Works Department, which handles garbage pick-up, beginning March 1. Current workers must re-apply for their jobs.

Rizzo Environmental Services, headquartered in Sterling Heights, and Advance Disposal Services, will take over. They plan to dispose of Detroit’s trash at Detroit Renewable Energy, LLC, the notorious Detroit incinerator which has been subject to constant protests over the years about its pollution of the surrounding poor and Black neighborhoods.

DPW city workers, who must reapply for their jobs, are a majority Black.

Crain’s Detroit Business said of Rizzo, “Its parent company, Rizzo Group, is co-owned by father and son along with CEO Michael Ferrantino Jr. of EQ – The Environmental Quality Co. in Wayne; New York City-based private equity firm Kinderhook Industries; and Habib Mamou, president of V&M Corp., doing business as Royal Oak Recycling.”

Orr has also ordered changes to demolition requirements for “blight removal” (read “Black removal”) projects, allowing contractors to partially fill excavation sites with chopped up parts of the existing structure, despite hazardous materials like lead and asbestos that may be present, then top it off with “clean fill.”

March continues. Photo: Kenny Snodgrass

Baxter Jones, Jr. encouraged protesters to continue fighting back with every beat of their hearts.

“The reason we don’t see a lot more people out here is that they’ve been beat down so long they got used to it,” Jones, who was arrested in his wheelchair at both Homrich blockades, said.

“Beat the bullies back with your heartbeat,” Jones cried out. “Even the bankers and wealthy people have to die, they can’t take their things with them. Think about the young people at the Oakman School. The DPS EM Jack Martin closed it down because he didn’t care about their challenges and limitations, and sent kids to other schools with no sensibility.”

Murderer Gov. Rick Snyder.

Speakers Elena Herrada and Helen Moore also pointed out the devastation emergency management and the breakway Educational Achievement Authority have meant for Detroit schools, most of which are now closed down.

In a recent interview with Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press, Orr endorsed a plan for Detroit schools like those in New Orleans and Washington, D.C. He and illegally-elected Mayor Mike Duggan, the first white mayor of 82 percent Black Detroit since 1974, are proposing mayoral control of the schools to facilitate this.

There is no more public school system in New Orleans subsequent to Hurricane Katrina; privately-run charter schools, most for-profit have taken over completely. Washington, D.C. is well on its way. Charter profiteers and organizations like the Broad Foundation have targeted primarily majority-Black cities like Detroit, New Orleans and Washington D.C. for their ill-gotten gains.

Herrada announced that on Oct. 2 at the Fisher Building, a protest will take place subsequent to the hearing of a lawsuit filed by the elected, in-exile Detroit Board of Education against the EAA.

Abiyomi Azikiwe of Moratorium NOW! summed up the effects the bankruptcy will have on Detroit during the Sept. 2 protest.

“Make the banks pay, they owe us for the destruction of our city through massive illegal oreclosures,” he said. “We are opposed to the sixth, or is it the seventh, Plan of Adjustment put together by the agents of Wall Street. Even if they rubber stamp this, the City of Detroit will still experience massive poverty, unemployment, and dislocation. Since Kevyn Orr took over, the streets, lighting, EMS, bus transportation all have worsened. He has driven the city further into the ground.”

He added, “A few months from now, the plan can be readjusted again. They have blamed the city’s situation on working people, residents, and retirees. But the bankruptcy has been engineered for the past two years [by Wall Street banks and corporations in league with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Jones Day and Kevyn Orr].”

Recent related articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/31/march-vs-detroit-bankruptcy-sept-2-retirees-demand-council-put-water-dept-sale-on-ballot/  

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/26/detroiters-ask-judge-to-bar-water-shut-offs-until-lawsuit-resolved-hearing-tues-sept-2/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/21/near-catastrophic-failure-of-detroit-sewage-pumps-caused-detroit-floods-toledo-water-crisis-city-retirees-say/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/21/bank-of-america-agrees-to-nearly-17b-mortgage-fraud-settlement-helped-destroy-detroit/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/13/detroit-retirees-water-affordability-plan-make-the-banks-pay-press-conference-wed-aug-13-3-pm/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/07/retiree-groups-unions-to-nix-detroit-bankruptcy-eligibility-appeals-at-6th-circuit-after-trial/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/03/detroit-water-shut-offs-city-takeover-still-on-full-blast/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/07/31/retirees-picket-afscme-for-withdrawing-detroit-bankruptcy-appeal/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/07/30/unions-and-retirement-systems-must-continue-6th-circuit-appeals-of-detroit-bankruptcy-eligibility-call-your-reps/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/07/27/detroit-bankruptcy-vote-8-3b-gain-for-banks-4-5b-loss-for-workers-retirees-dismantling-of-city/

Aftermath of Michael Brown’s killing by Ferguson police.

UN Committee cites recent killings of Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, other excessive force incidents

By Sonya Eskridge

Sep 2, 2014

Police killed Eric Garner in NYC.

The United Nations is calling on the United States to stop the inequitable use of excessive force on African-American people.

It’s been an eye-opening summer as the U.S. law enforcement system has come under fire for the deaths of several innocent black men across the country. Eric Garner’s passing earlier this summer got people upset, but Michael Brown’s shooting death made people riot in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri.

Tensions were further strained by instances of police using excessive force in situations that didn’t apparently call for it, like an incident where one NYPD put a pregnant black woman in a chokehold for using a barbecue in front of her home.

Reuters reports that the U.N.’s anti-racism board, U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), has said that disproportionate police brutality against black people is a problem the world can no longer afford to ignore. It’s just one thing among other forms of discrimination that black people face in America.

Michael Brown, Ferguson, MO, killed by P.O. Darren WIlson. No charges filed.

CERD committee vice chairman Noureddine Amir said in a statement, “Racial and ethnic discrimination remains a serious and persistent problem in all areas of life from de facto school segregation, access to health care and housing.” The committee is made up of 18 independent experts, and on August 13, they questioned several U.S. ambassadors about the prevalent discrimination against minorities.

Keith Harper, a senior U.S. delegate, admits that the country has a lot further to go in its mission to eliminate racial discrimination. However, he defended the U.S. in arguing that the nation has made progress in its treatment of minorities.

In CERD’s opinion, the U.S. hasn’t done enough yet to combat the issue.

Nourredine Amir is from Algeria.

“The excessive use of force by law enforcement officials against racial and ethnic minorities is an ongoing issue of concern and particularly in light of the shooting of Michael Brown,” Noureddin said in a news release.

“This is not an isolated event,” he added, “and illustrates a bigger problem in the United States, such as racial bias among law enforcement officials, the lack of proper implementation of rules and regulations governing the use of force, and the inadequacy of training of law enforcement officials.”

(VOD: a major story on State Police brutality in Detroit –not Belle Isle) that took place yesterday will be out shortly.)

Detroit fast food workers struck and marched last year.

Workers from McDonald’s, Burger King and other chains to hold walkout protest on Thursday Sept. 4, 2014 as battle to unionize escalates

Civil disobedience planned

By Dominic Rushe in New York

 theguardian.com

 September 1, 2014

Workers across the country are tweeting for strike.

America’s fast food workers are planning their biggest strike to date this Thursday, with a nationwide walkout in protest at low wages and poor healthcare.

The strike is the latest in a series of increasingly heated confrontations between fast food firms and their workers. Pressure is also mounting on McDonald’s, the largest fast food company, over its relations with its workers and franchisees.

Workers from McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut and other large chains will strike on Thursday and are planning protests outside stores nationwide, in states including California, Missouri, Wisconsin and New York.

The day of disruption is being coordinated by local coalitions and Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, union-backed pressure groups which have called for the raising of the minimum wage to $15 an hour for the nation’s four million fast-food workers.

McDonald’s workers demand supersize of wages.

Dana Wittman, 38, works for Pizza Hut in Kansas City, Missouri, and will join the strike on Thursday. She makes $9 an hour working night shifts and said she takes home about $600 a week. Her rent is $650 and she is reliant on government subsidies to make up the shortfall. Last month her electricity was cut off for a week when she could not pay the bill.

Wittman was recently promoted from chef to shift leader and given a raise from $7.50. Her new responsibilities include organising deliveries, customer service, paperwork and making sure the restaurant is cleaned up and closed down at the end of her shift, which can be as late as 2am.

“The company should pay me more. I am worth more,” she said. “They make billions a year and I don’t even get health insurance. The CEO gets health insurance.

“I intend to do whatever it takes to make this company pay a wage that lets me pay my bills without having to go to the government. I don’t think that right now these corporations are listening. They think we will just shut up eventually and go away, but they are wrong.”

Workers march at Chicago convention.

Thursday’s strike will be the seventh since fast food workers in New York walked out on their jobs in November 2012. Each walkout has been bigger than the last and have been credited with spurring President Barack Obama to focus on an increase in the minimum wage.

 In July more than 1,300 low-wage employees gathered in Chicago, at a convention to coordinate their calls for higher wages and better working conditions. The convention, held a few miles from McDonald’s headquarters, was organised by Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the US’s largest unions with two million members. SEIU’s traditional base has been hospital workers, home care aides and janitors but it has become increasingly focused on recruiting food service workers.

At the convention, the workers voted to intensify their efforts for higher pay and union membership by using nonviolent civil disobedience. Rally organisers declined to comment on their plans for Thursday.

Workers strike in early morning hours.

Terrence Wise, a Burger King worker, member of Stand up KC, and member of the national organizing committee of Fight for 15, said: “Thirteen-hundred workers unanimously adopted a resolution at our convention in July to do whatever it takes to win $15 an hour and union rights, including participating in non-violent, peaceful protests in the tradition of the civil rights movement.

“On Thursday, we are prepared to take arrests to show our commitment to the growing Fight for $15.”

The rally comes after the National Labor Relations Board defined McDonald’s as a joint employer of the restaurants run by its franchisees. The decision came after the SEIU brought several cases against the company, alleging it acted as an employer.

The decision, which is being heavily challenged, could bring McDonald’s to the negotiation table over wages and benefits. The company has insisted, and continues to insist, that its franchisees, not the corporation, are responsible for wages.

Should the NLRB’s decision be ratified, SEIU would be able to unionise McDonald’s operations on a larger scale, rather than targeting a few franchises at a time.

In this Aug. 1, 2013 photo, demonstrators protesting what they say are low wages and improper treatment for fast-food workers stand near a McDonald’s restaurant in downtown Seattle.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/01/fast-food-strike-minimum-wage-workers-protest

To download this flier, click on City retirees demand vote on DWSD 2.

To download this flier, click on Protest Bankruptcy/

Related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/26/detroiters-ask-judge-to-bar-water-shut-offs-until-lawsuit-resolved-hearing-tues-sept-2/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/21/near-catastrophic-failure-of-detroit-sewage-pumps-caused-detroit-floods-toledo-water-crisis-city-retirees-say/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/08/13/detroit-retirees-water-affordability-plan-make-the-banks-pay-press-conference-wed-aug-13-3-pm/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/07/31/retirees-picket-afscme-for-withdrawing-detroit-bankruptcy-appeal/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/07/27/detroit-bankruptcy-vote-8-3b-gain-for-banks-4-5b-loss-for-workers-retirees-dismantling-of-city/

POOR PEOPLE’S MARCH ON WASHINGTON, 1968, HELD AFTER DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. WAS ASSASSINATED.

By Jeff Karoub, Associated Press

August 30, 2014

A new study finds that 40 percent of Michigan households with at least one worker don’t make enough money to meet basic survival needs.

The report, commissioned by the Michigan Association of United Ways and released today focuses on people whose earnings are above the poverty line but still unable to cover expenses such as housing, transportation and health and child care.

Their households, according to the study, are 13 percent short of filling the gap between how much money wage earners take home and what they need to cover those expenses.

Can this child’s family afford to feed and house him?

The United Way in 2009 coined the acronym ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed. The project, which focuses on people within that group, started in New Jersey and has spread to Michigan and several other states.

The report found that about 930,000 Michigan households fall within the ALICE criteria, and the number grows to 1.5 million when those below the poverty line are added.

“ALICE exists in populations all over the state,” said Scott Dzurka, president and chief executive of the Lansing-based association, which represents about 60 United Way chapters statewide that coordinate, promote and provide social and economic services.

“There are many perceptions out there about where poverty exists,” he added. “It’s not just an urban issue, it’s a rural issue.”

Michigan is among the first states beyond New Jersey to perform its own version of the study, so no regional or national comparisons can be made. But New Jersey’s statewide report in 2011 found that 30 percent of its households couldn’t cover basic expenses.

Dzurka said there’s “no silver bullet” for those working yet struggling to make ends meet but he views the report as “a starting point” for conversations with local governments, nonprofits and businesses. Efforts could include boosting the quantity and quality of affordable housing and medium- and high-skilled jobs.

“Here’s a group of people who are tinkering on the edge who could potentially fall back into more (poverty) and become more costly,” Dzurka said. “I think everybody has an interest here.”

Gilda Jacobs of Michigan League for Public Policy

Research on the studies is led by Rutgers University-Newark’s School of Public Affairs and Administration. Dzurka said the association also worked with the Michigan League for Public Policy, an advocacy group for the poor that also publishes reports examining families’ financial hardships and the economic gaps they face.

Michigan League officials say the United Way study breaks new ground by estimating the share of families who don’t make ends meet.

“This is further proof that Michigan needs to do much more to support working families,” Gilda Jacobs, the group’s president and CEO, said in an email. “That means working families would get better tax credits and more help with child care, and we need to raise the minimum wage even more than we have.”

To download a copy of the ALICE REPORT, click on  http://www.uwmich.org/alice/ . For excerpts related to Detroit, click on EXCERPTS FROM ALICE REPORT RE DETROIT.

The report says about Detroit that 38 percent of households have income below the FPL (federal poverty level) and another 29 percent are ALICE households, totaling 67 percent that cannot meet basic daily needs, a horrendous figure indeed. However, the report does not include supplemental figures from the U.S. Census shown below that poverty levels range up to 55.5% for families with children. So that is almost 85 PERCENT of those families in Detroit who can’t meet basic needs.

DETROIT: GROUND ZERO

Since these figures don’t cover those who have dropped out of the workforce, the real poverty rates are much higher, particularly for Black families and youth, who comprise 82% of Detroit’s population.

Detroit is GROUND ZERO in the war on poor and working people and on the Black population nationally. The ALICE report tends to blame ills in the rest of the state on the outward movement of Detroiters (i.e. poverty and crime) into outlying areas, the city’s poor school system, and other such factors.

It fails in its analysis of the real reasons for the impoverishment of Detroit. These include the deliberate flight of the auto industry from the city to escape militant Black and unionized workforces, and the dismantling of the public sector through privatization both at city and school district levels, eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs for Detroiters.

Linda Willis puts the blame where it belongs.

The Detroit Public School system has been dismantled by these Wall Street forces, through a series of state takeovers since 1999, all of which have left the district in worse shape, burdened with bank debt that it did not have under local leadership. Detroit is the major target of private charter schools, which drain funds from the public school system as well. Children in Detroit do not HAVE neighborhood schools, period.

In recent years, Detroit has been targeted by Wall Street banks for hundreds of thousands of foreclosures resulting from predatory lending and illegal evictions. High utility rates and shut-offs, discriminatorily high auto and home insurance rates, and the school to prison pipeline, the practice of expelling Black and Latin students across the state at higher rates than white students, have added to the city’s woes and increased mass incarceration levels. These levels hurt the entire city, not just folks who are locked up.  Crime is primarily the result of high poverty rates and the genocidal infusion into Detroit over the past decades of various forms of the drug trade, secretly sanctioned and abetted by the U.S. government and the CIA. (Read DARK ALLIANCE, by reporter Gary Webb.)

The authors of this report stated they didn’t have solutions, but protesters at May Day march in downtown Detroit offered theirs.

Malik Z. Shabazz, president and founder of Black Lawyers for Justice based in Washington, D.C., holds a news conference in front of the federal courthouse in St. Louis on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 where he announced the details of a $40 million lawsuit his organization filed against police and the governments of Ferguson and St. Louis County. The lawsuit alleges that police in Ferguson and St. Louis County used excessive force and falsely arrested innocent bystanders amid attempts to quell widespread unrest after the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson)

Missouri citizens seek $40 million in federal court for harsh police tactics after shooting death of Michael Brown

August 29, 2014

Al Jazeera America

Police in riot gear threaten Ferguson teen with arms raised: DON’T SHOOT.

St. Louis, MO — A group of people caught up in the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, that followed the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer, sued local officials on Thursday, alleging civil rights violations stemming from arrests and police actions that used rubber bullets and tear gas.

 The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, says law enforcement met the broad public outcry over the Aug. 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown with “militaristic displays of force and weaponry,” and engaged U.S. citizens “as if they were war combatants.”

Michael Brown, 18, murdered by Ferguson cop Darren Wilson

The lawsuit, filed by D.C.-based Black Lawyers For Justice (BLFJ), seeks a total of $40 million on behalf of six plaintiffs, including a 17-year-old boy who was with his mother in a fast-food restaurant when they were arrested. Each of the plaintiffs was caught up in interactions with police over a period from Aug. 11 to 13, the suit alleges.

 “We filed this suit because there were serious constitutional and human rights violations carried out at the hands of Ferguson police during the demonstrations,” said Malik Shabazz, lead attorney for the group filing the suit. Shabazz said the suit alleges “4th, 5th and 1st Amendment violations.”

Neither the city, county nor police departments had any immediate comment on the lawsuit.

The filing of the lawsuit followed nearly two weeks of demonstrations in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where Brown’s killing prompted area residents to take to the streets. The initial show of force by city and county police, which included riot gear and military-style assault weapons and armored vehicles, elevated local tensions and drew national attention.

Ferguson youth express outrage Aug.15 at police murder of Michael Brown.

Supporters of the police response cite looting of a few Ferguson businesses that occurred during some of the nights of demonstrations.

But attorneys for the plaintiffs said that is not a direct justification for police actions. “The evidence will come out showing that very few people were arrested for actual looting,” said Shabazz. “Many allegations of protester misconduct have been found to be blown out of proportion,” Shabazz said, adding it still didn’t merit a “blanket approach.”

“Gassing and arresting everyone within a 3 mile radius is preposterous,” said Shabazz. “Those kinds of actions, in fact, only encourage some people.”

“You can’t just gas people off the streets, and arrest them simply because there’s protesting and unrest,” Shabazz said.

Atty. Malik Shabazz, head of Black Lawyers for Justice, on courthouse steps.

One of the plaintiffs alleges she and her son were in a McDonald’s restaurant when several police officers with rifles ordered them out. According to the suit, an officer threw her to the ground and handcuffed her, with she and her son both arrested.

Another plaintiff alleges he was trying to visit his mother in Ferguson when several police officers in military uniforms shot him with rubber bullets. When he fell over, he was beaten and sprayed with pepper spray, the lawsuit says.

Two other plaintiffs say they were peacefully protesting when officers in riot gear fired on them with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades. A separate plaintiff says he was trying to record footage of the protests when police took his camera and arrested him.

“This is a blatant example of how police handle African-Americans … how it can go terribly, terribly wrong. You have a right to peaceful assembly,” said BLFJ attorney Reginald Greene.

Ferguson cop Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown to death, numerous times. He is still at large and has not been charged.

Ferguson Police said officer Darren Wilson shot Brown on a residential street when a dispute erupted after Wilson asked Brown to move out of the road. Some witnesses have reported that Brown was holding his hands up in surrender when he was shot multiple times, including twice in the head.

 Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they expect more complaints will come, and if more victims sign on, they will look to upgrade the suit to class-action status.

Shabazz, who is president of the BLFJ, said he hopes suits like this one will encourage better training of police, so that when there is unrest, it is met with a more disciplined and professional response. “We hope this will send a message to every police department in America,” said Shabazz, “if you violate the constitutional and human rights of black people, you will be aggressively challenged in court on these issues.”

A St. Louis County grand jury has begun hearing evidence in the case. The U.S. Justice Department has opened its own investigation.

Reuters. Amel Ahmed contributed to this report

Click on http://www.blfjustice.org/ to see lawsuit.

National protest against water shut-offs in downtown Detroit July 18, 2014.

COALITION ASKS FOR TRO AGAINST SHUT-OFFS

August 25, 2014

DETROIT – In an effort to preserve a moratorium on water shut-offs, a group of Detroit residents and civil rights attorneys filed court documents over the weekend asking a judge to immediately block the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) from terminating water service to any occupied residence, and to require the restoration of service to occupied residences without water.

Alice Jennings speaks at federal courthouse to protest phony Detroit bankruptcy.

The moratorium was currently scheduled to end today. The ACLU of Michigan and NAACP Legal Defense fund are serving as expert consultants in the ongoing litigation.

 “Without a continued moratorium on water shutoffs, thousands more Detroiters, mostly low income children, seniors, and disabled, will immediately be at risk for shutoff,” says Alice Jennings of Edwards & Jennings, P.C., counsel in the lawsuit.

“A comprehensive water affordability plan, a viable bill dispute process, specific polices for landlord-tenant bills and a sustainable mechanism for evaluating the number of families in shutoff status or at risk for shutoff, is necessary prior to lifting the DWSD water shutoff moratorium.”

Jennings said that Judge Steven Rhodes scheduled the hearing at 8:30, on September 2, 2014.

“The legal team is requesting support for the Plaintiffs in the courtroom or outside of court. The bankruptcy trial is also schedules to begin that day. Please let me know what you are hearing about shutoffs this week.”

The motion for a temporary restraining order filed yesterday is part of a class action lawsuit, Lyda et.al v. City of Detroit, on behalf of Detroit residents affected by the mass shut-off campaign of DWSD, as well as organizations active in the fight for the restoration of and affordable access to water. They include the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, People’s Water Board, National Action Network-Michigan Chapter and Moratorium Now!.

This suit is currently in bankruptcy court before Judge Stephen Rhodes as part of the city’s bankruptcy proceedings. The lawsuit argues that that the DWSD began water shutoffs without adequate notice and against the most vulnerable residents, while commercial entities with delinquent accounts were left alone. The suit also argues that this violates the plaintiffs’ due process and equal protection rights.

RUN THESE HOMRICH TRUCKS OUT OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD! Company being paid $5.8 M to shut Detroiters’ water off.

“More than 17,000 homes have had their water cut off and water bills in Detroit are among the highest in the country and unaffordable to many Detroit residents,” says Kary Moss, ACLU of Michigan executive director. “The rush to resume shut offs when there are serious questions about the affordability plan, accuracy of bills, and issues with the water department’s ability to process disputes, means that the City of Detroit should get its house in order before turning off anyone else’s water.”

In March, DWSD began dispatching private contractors to begin shutting off water service to residents who are more than 60 days delinquent, or owe more than $150. Despite the fact that 38 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the shut-offs began without a plan to help those who cannot pay.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in San Francisco: “We are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

After public outcry and this lawsuit, the city implemented a moratorium and announced a 10-point plan to address the dysfunctions raised by the lawsuit and civil rights groups.

“The mayor’s plan only consists of proposals and temporary fixes,” said Rev. Charles Williams of the National Action Network-Michigan Chapter. “Until actual policies are in place to ensure that residents have access to affordable water, the water shut-offs cannot be resumed. The current proposal for residents to enter into non-negotiable payment plans is only a short-term solution.”

Last month, the ACLU of Michigan and NAACP LDF wrote a letter to city officials arguing that that the poorly implemented and uneven DWSD shut-off policy violates the civil and human rights, as well as the due process rights of residents because it often fails to provide them with adequate notice and a hearing that takes into account whether they actually have the ability to pay.

“DWSD must immediately restore water to all its customers,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. “In addition, they should create a reasonable timetable for a hearing and appeals process, pending resolution of these issues.”

Attorneys for residents are calling on Judge Rhodes to order DWSD to extend the moratorium to ensure that the most vulnerable Detroiters are not left without water. The moratorium on shut offs should be extended until DWSD has policies in place to ensure that collections are done in a way that doesn’t violate residents constitutional rights.

Tawana Petty, an activist with the People’s Water Board Coalition, echoed these sentiments. “We are asking the Governor, Mayor, Emergency Manager and the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to stop their assault on the citizens of Detroit and restore all water to residents. Water is life and without it, we perish.”

► Read the motion for a temporary restraining order

► Read the lawsuit filed by civil rights groups

► Read the letter to Detroit officials urging an immediate moratorium on water shut-offs

CONTACT: Alice Jennings, Edwards & Jennings, P.C, at ajennings@edwardsjennings.com or 313.961.5000

Rana Elmir, ACLU of Michigan, at relmir@aclumich.org, 313.578.6816

Jennifer Parker, NAACP LDF at jparker@naacpldf.org, 212-965-2783

Linda Willis and nephew help protest outside Water Board Building Aug. 15, 2014.

In addition to the lawsuit filed Aug. 25, Hassan Aleen and Carl Williams, along with members of the Detroit Active and Retired Employees Association, filed an objection to the upcoming water shut-offs Aug. 21, stating in part:

 “Governor Snyder and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr conspired by their action and were cruel in their action and in a sense using punishment for those being unfortunately unable to pay a water bill for something that is an essential necessity of life to exist, a “God” given element of life.

Their action was shocking to conscious people all over the world in the so-called richest country in the world depriving their residents and citizens of a God-given necessity. In the way it was executed it was a cruel and usual violation of IX Amendment of the United States Constitution. Gov. Snyder and his sidekick Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr contravened the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

“Art. 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Art. 5 No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Art. 7 All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Art. 8 Everyone has a right to any effective remedy by the competent National tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Art. 10 Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

We need Magistrate Judge Steven W. Rhodes to order an investigation against the State of Michigan and to hold a hearing on this matter in connection with the Bankruptcy.”

Full objection at DB DAREA objection re water shutoffs.

Protesters including Baxter Jones (in front) prepare for arrest July 18 as they blockade Homrich entrance.

Aug 16, 2014
By NewsOne Staff

Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, 28, received an award for “extraordinary effort in the line of duty” months before he gunned down unarmed teenager Mike Brown and left him in the street for 4 hours last Saturday, reports Yahoo News.

RELATED: Jesse Williams On Ferguson: ‘White People Have The Privilege Of Being Treated Like Human Beings’

Wilson’s father, John Wilson, posted how proud he was of his son on Facebook:

“Very proud of my son, Darren Wilson on his receiving a Commendation from his Police Department,” John Wilson wrote on February 11. “Congratulations Son.”

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson released Wilson’s name during a press conference on Friday after 5 days of refusing to do so.

Michael Brown, unarmed, shot dead numerous times by Darren Wilson as he held his hands in the air,

When reporters tried to contact Wilson, it was revealed that he and his family had “left town days ago.”

Four days ago John Wilson turned to Facebook for support without mentioning his son by name.

“Dear FB friends, Our family is in need for prayers to be sent up for a family member,” John Wilson wrote. “Circumstances do not allow for us to say anything further. Please pray with our family in mind. Put a covering of protection over our family member please.”

Protester in Ferguson.

A woman who replied in the comment thread told John that she could put him in touch with someone that “has been through many difficult times with his children. Prayers are what brought the family through the rough times. We are just a phone call away.”

John Wilson thanked his many friends who were quick to offer encouragement.

“Please continue to do so as we deal with a family situation that is very challenging,” he wrote.

In his last post this week, John Wilson shared a saying from a Texas evangelical pastor: “When something is ‘out of control’ it is merely out of your control — not God’s!”

The Ferguson police department has done it’s best to paint Brown as the aggressor, describing Wilson as a “gentle” man and an “excellent” police officer who is “devastated” about killing Brown.

But he wasn’t too devastated to stand over him and gun him down while the unarmed teen held his hands in the air.

The FBI is currently conducting an investigation, while the citizens of Ferguson continue to protest Brown’s brutal slaying.

CELLPHONE VIDEO APPEARS TO CONTRADICT OFFICER ACCOUNTS IN KAIJEME POWELL KILLING AUG. 20 IN ST. LOUIS, MO

Within 15 seconds of arriving at the scene officers fired on Powell

By Ian Blair

The St. Louis Police Department released cellphone video footage and the 9-1-1 dispatch recording on Wednesday showing the killing of a 25-year-old black man, Kajieme Powell, by two white police officers shortly after Powell allegedly shoplifted [donuts] from a local convenience store  The incident transpired only three miles south of Ferguson, Missouri, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, less than two weeks prior.

Kajieme Powell moments before police shot him to death multiple times.

In a press conference on Tuesday, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson had said his officers fired upon Powell after Powell allegedly got within 3 or 4 feet of them while wielding a knife “in an overhand grip.”

But the cellphone video released Wednesday appears to contradict Chief Dotson’s story and his officer’s police reports. In the video, the two officers arrive on the scene in their signature police SUV responding to the 9-1-1 call from the store owner. Powell appears to be pacing as described by numerous witnesses though it is difficult to make out his words. When the officers got out of their vehicle, Powell clearly yells, still pacing about. Witnesses said the suspect yelled, “Shoot me now. Kill me now.” Powell then approaches the officers with both hands at his side and clearly further away than “3 or 4 feet,” when the two officers fire nearly a dozen shots.

Kajieme Powell after St. Louis cops killed him with multiple gun shots. They continued to point their guns at him and handcuffed him while he lay dead on the ground.

The whole incident, from the time officers arrived to when they began shooting, lasts only 15 seconds.

In an interview following the release of the tapes, Chief Dotson defended his officers’ actions, acknowledging the discrepancies in his Tuesday briefing and what the video shows.

“The officers did what I think you or I would do, they protected their life in that situation,” Chief Dotson said.

When pressed by CNN’s Don Lemon about the need for officers to exercise lethal force, Dotson replied: “In a lethal situation, they used lethal force.”

Ian Blair is a Master’s Candidate in the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at NYU. Follow him on Twitter: @i2theb.