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

Coalition takes direct action against city contractor

12,000 Detroiters shut off so far; assault connected to city bankruptcy

Charity Hicks, first to be arrested protesting water shut-offs in her neighborhood in May, passes after weeks in coma in NYC

By Diane Bukowski

July 10, 2014

Complete videos of protest and arrest by Demeeko Williams at end of story.

Police cart off protester outside Homrich gates. Photo by Mark Tucker.

DETROIT – Members of the Detroit Water Warriors, the Detroit Water Brigade, Call ’em Out and others today put their bodies on the line to stop Homrich Wrecking trucks from shutting water off to the people of Detroit, the poorest major city in the U.S.

At least 10 of many protesters blocking the gates to the facility at 2660 E. Grand Blvd, including religious and community leaders, were arrested and brutally treated by police, said Demeeko Williams of the Water Brigade.

“We are making a statement to Detroiters that the shut-offs are not their fault, but are their fight,” Williams said. “When the Water Board did not meet our demands to stop the shut-offs, we took the battle to the streets. A lot more Detroiters need to stand with us against this outrageous assault, and also to demand the departure of Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and an end to bankruptcy proceedings.”

Demeeko Williams during May Day protest against bankruptcy.

He said that during the arrests, police grabbed and twisted the arm of Michigan Citizen editor Teresa Kelly despite her statement that she would get up, and came down hard on Agnes Hitchcock, leader of the Call ‘em Out Coalition, as she lay on her stomach on the ground. (The two can be seen in the video above, Kelly with white hair and Hitchcock in scarf.)

Others arrested included Pastor Bill Wylie-Kellerman and his wife Denise Gruebler, Father Tom Lumpkin, Sister Mary Ellen Howard, Detroit School Board member Elena Herrada, and Pat Driscoll, an activist with Detroit Eviction Defense. Herrada said they were charged with “disturbing the peace” and face a court hearing July 21 at 8:30 a.m. in Detroit’s 36^th District Court.

“We will not stop until they stop,” Herrada told VOD.

Protesters block gates at Homrich facility. Photo by Abayomi Azikiwe

“This morning I participated in an act of civil disobedience,” Sister Howard said in part. “With several others, I peacefully held a long banner blocking the driveway to Homrich Co. headquarters on East Grand Blvd. so that their employees could not get in to work and their trucks could not leave to do the shutoffs. We arrived at 6:45 am, and the cops arrived at about 8 am. Although we were peacefully demonstrating, they attacked us; it was quite violent. I was arrested with nine others. We were handcuffed together and taken to Mound Correctional Facility to be processed.”

Sister Mary Ellen Howard

Howard said police threatened to jail them until their July 21 hearing if they didn’t stop singing, “Wade in the Water,” but that in the end they posted bond and were released.

“Several of my co-criminals want to request a jury trial which they say is the last vestige of a democratic society. We are meeting Sunday night to decide together what we want to do. Water is a human right, and as the UN has said about the Detroit situation, to deny water to persons who cannot afford to pay for it is a denial of a human right.”

Williams also announced that Charity Hicks, the first to take action protesting water shut-offs in her neighborhood in May, passed away July 9 after being in a coma since May 31 in a hospital in New York City. Hicks was policy director for the East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC). She was the victim in NYC of a hit and run driver as she attended a national conference in the city.

Hicks told VOD shortly before that accident that a Homrich employee assaulted her when she asked him to give her neighbors time to collect water for their needs. Detroit police arrested her instead after she reported the assault, and threw her into the Mound Road prison for two days to endure “conditions that are meant to shame you, demoralize you, criminalize you and break you down.”

Those included being kept in a holding tank with one toilet housing hundreds of women.

Hicks said earlier regarding the water shut-offs, “Your human dignity shouldn’t be truncated because you’re priced out of the commodification of an essential resource.”

Funeral arrangements are pending.

The Detroit Water Board approved a $5.6 million “Water Shut-Off/Turn-On Project” contract with Homrich Wrecking, headquartered in Carleton, Michigan, April 24. The contract is costing more than delinquent bills, according to some sources.

Despite the city’s announcement, after protesters’ repeated demands, that it will begin shutting off delinquent corporations, it has not stopped shut-offs in the poorest neighborhoods of the city. At least 12,000 Detroiters have been shut off, including elderly citizens, families with children, and disabled people.

Protester at bankruptcy court April 1, 2014 carries depiction of “Dictator” Kevyn Orr.

The shut-offs, ordered by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, are taking place during ongoing bankruptcy negotiations in New York City with Detroit Water and Sewerage Department lenders.

Bankruptcy documents list $5 billion in secured DWSD bond claims, most “unimpaired.” That means the city will pay the entire debt while it raises water rates, shuts water off, lays the groundwork for privatization and regionalization of DWSD, and attacks city workers and retirees, under the bankruptcy “Plan of Adjustment.”

The water shut-offs have engendered publicity across the world. In many countries like Great Britain, water shut-offs, even by private entities like Thames Water, are illegal since they are considered a threat to public health and safety.

When Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, under pressure from suburban interests, ordered mass water shut-offs in 2002, media came from as far as Britain and Australia to film the events. After a long delay, the Detroit City Council finally passed a “Water Affordability Plan” that was originally supposed to gear rates toward customers’ incomes.

Neighbor brings water to family with children shut off in 2002. Photo: Diane Bukowski

It was substantially altered, then administered by the city’s Human Services Department, which was wholly shut down last year by Mayor Dave Bing, despite being nearly 100 percent federally funded.

In the interim, DWSD has raised Detroiters’ sewage rates much higher than those of suburban communities, allegedly to compensate for delinquent water bills in the city.

The city also attaches unpaid water bills to residents’ property tax bills, subjecting them to possible tax foreclosure and actual loss of their homes along with their water. The State Department of Human Services, through its Child Protective Services workers, frequently removes children from homes affected by utility shut-offs instead of providing assistance.

Monica Patrick

Demeeko Williams said groups are spreading out through the city’s neighborhoods under the leadership of well-known activist Monica Patrick and others. He said residents can call 1-844-42WATER and volunteers will be dispatched to their homes and those of their neighbors. The Detroit Water Brigade’s website is at http://detroitwaterbrigade.org. Leaders of the brigade can be reached by calling 313-279-0608.

Arrestees after release outside Detroit Detention Center at Mound Road Prison. Photo: Demeeko Williams

SIGN PETITION TO WATER BOARD TO STOP THE SHUT-OFFS

I’m Joe Dinkin of Working Families, and I started a petition to James Fausone, chairman of the Detroit Board of Water Commissioners , which says:

3,600 residents in Detroit are already without water. Why? Because they have bills of $150 or more, or are 60 days past due on bills in a city that is bankrupt. Soon, half of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s 323,900 local residents will be out of water. It is unacceptable to withhold our citizens’ basic needs like clean running water.

We need to call attention to this unacceptable violation of human rights, and quickly — before more homes run dry.

Sign our petition to demand that the Detroit Water and Sewage Department restore running water to the residents of Detroit.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Joe Dinkin

This petition was created on MoveOn’s online petition site, where anyone can start their own online petitions. Working Families didn’t pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.

COMPLETE VIDEOS OF PROTEST AND ARRESTS BY DEMEEKO WILLIAMS

Demeeko: Dude the police was very out of order. They put my friend Baxter Jones under panic attack when he was assaulted by being pulled out of his chair.. a few reports have claimed that they seen Baxter out of his chair. Anybody who messes with the disabled is heartless.

Related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/27/detroiters-say-peoples-war-on-water-shut-offs-needed/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/25/stop-water-shut-offs-detroiters-take-demand-to-united-nations/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/22/appeal-to-support-charity-hicks-powerhouse-fighter-for-the-people/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/01/call-em-out-goes-back-to-war-direct-action-to-stop-water-shut-offs/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/28/mass-water-shut-offs-mass-incarceration-at-mound-road-prison-for-protesters/

Baxter Jones (left) as crowd masses in front of Homrich gates July 10, 2014.

This is new Facebook photo for Dominika Jones’ page. She is the mother of Aiyana Jones, murdered by Detroit police in 2010. Her husband Charles Jones was framed as part of a cover-up and sentenced to 40-60 years in prison.

NATIONAL ACTION AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY!

This petition will be delivered to:

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL – ERIC HOLDER

Petition by Danette Chavis New York, NY

CLICK ON http://www.change.org/petitions/national-action-against-police-brutality to sign petition

INVESTIGATIONS “CASE BY CASE” HAVE NOT AND SHALL NOT REMEDY THE PROBLEM! AS ONE IS BEING INVESTIGATED “HUNDREDS MORE” ARE MOUNTING UP! AND INDEED, POLICE BRUTALITY HAS ESCALATED TO THE LEVEL OF “NATIONAL PROPORTIONS”. THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS ARE BEING “STOPPED AND FRISKED” FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. THE LOSS OF LIFE THAT HAS OCCURRED AT THE HANDS OF POLICE HAS ESCALATED TO WHERE “UNARMED INDIVIDUALS” ARE BEING “FIRED UPON” AND “KILLED” AND WEEKS AND MONTHS GO BY – WITH “NO EXPLANATION” FOR THESE SHOOTINGS BY THEIR DEPARTMENT!

Photo on petition.

THE STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL WITHIN THESE STATES HAVE “REFUSED TO ACT” – LEAVING ALL ACTION TO BE TAKEN BY THE COMMISSIONER’S OF THESE DEPARTMENTS. AND THE COMMISSIONER’S HAVE “JUSTIFIED” THE ACTIONS OF THESE OFFICERS – AND IN MANY CASES “PROMOTED THEM” AFTER THE KILLING OF THESE VICTIMS. THE MECHANISMS THAT HAVE BEEN PUT IN PLACE HAVE “ALL FAILED” AND THE ESCALATION OF POLICE BRUTALITY IS “EVIDENCE” OF THAT FAILURE.

WE HAVE WITNESSED THE CONFESSIONS OF POLICE THEMSELVES WHO HAVE TESTIFIED THAT THEY WERE “MADE TO ISSUE SUMMONSES” AND “MAKE ARRESTS” WITHOUT CAUSE – AND THE SUBSEQUENT “HARASSMENT” WHICH FOLLOWED “IMMEDIATELY AFTER” THEIR REFUSAL. WE HAVE HEARD TESTIMONY IN COURT HOW THEY INDEED “PLANTED NARCOTICS” ON “INNOCENT VICTIMS” – SIMPLY TO MEET THE “QUOTA REQUIRED” CONCERNING AN ARREST. YET, THOSE INDIVIDUALS REMAIN INCARCERATED FOR THE CRIME ACCUSED.

THE RECOURSE OF THE PEOPLE HAS BEEN THWARTED, SO THAT THERE REMAINS “NO COURSE OF ACTION” THAT CAN BE TAKEN. THEREFORE, THIS EPIDEMIC WHICH HAS REACHED “NATIONAL PROPORTIONS” HAS BEEN PRESENTED TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, FOR IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION, ACTION AND REMEDY.

Detroiters who testified against the killings of their loved ones by Detroit police at Police Commission hearing.

AS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, THE OCCUPIER OF OFFICE IS THE “CHIEF LAW ENFORCER” HAVING JURISDICTION OVER BOTH “STATE” AND “GOVERNMENT” IN ISSUES CONCERNING “LAW”. AND WHEN VIOLATIONS OF LAW ARE “RAMPANT” “UN-CHECKED” AND “UNABATED” – HE HAS A “SWORN DUTY” TO RESPOND THOSE VIOLATIONS.

LAW ENFORCEMENT ACROSS THE UNITED STATES HAS “ABUSED THE AUTHORITY” VESTED IN THEM, AND HAVE VIOLATED ON A “CONTINUAL BASIS” THE LAW ITSELF. BUT NO ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN, EITHER BY THEIR DEPARTMENT OR ATTORNEY GENERALS WITHIN THEIR STATE.

THEREFORE, PETITION IS MADE BEFORE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES TO NOT ONLY “ACT” ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, BUT TO FULFILL THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE OFFICE – FOR WHICH HE HAS “SWORN AN OATH” TO FULFILL UPON HIS OCCUPANCY!

LET IT BE UNDERSTOOD: THAT A “FAILURE” OR REFUSAL TO “ACT” IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE OBLIGATIONS CONCERNING THOSE DUTIES, SIGNIFIES AN “INABILITY” TO HOLD THE OFFICE – WHICH IS “NOW” BEING HELD.

Detroit’s own champion hydroplane racer, Jerry Bell (center in light blue T-shirt) with his 2008 crew, made up of Golightly students.

Appeals for additional sponsors

By Diane Bukowski

July 8, 2014

Jerry Bell shows one of his championship patches after City Council hearing in 2010.

DETROIT — Detroit’s own Jerry Bell, a hydroplane racer since 1995, is announcing that he will return to the sport in this year’s APBA Gold Cup races. He and a dozen others are scheduled to compete in a supporting class, the five-liter Gold Cup.

“These are smaller boats, about 19 feet, running about 120 mph, but this is a very highly competitive and exciting class,” Bell said.  “The racers jockey with each other for lanes unlike the bigger boats, giving spectators true thrills.”

This is the first time in many years that the Eastpointe-based American Power Boat Association has scheduled the class, after Bell’s urging.

“I am appealing to the community and to businesses for additional sponsorship,” Bell said. He has recovered from serious injuries sustained in 2010, during a robbery while  working as a cab driver. He was unable to work for months afterwards. He said he needs $6,000.

Jerry Bell racing in 2004.

Bell dreamed of becoming a hydroplane racer as a child, when his mother took him to the river near their home to watch the races. He began racing in 1995 under the tutelage of the first Black hydroplane racer, Teddy Dudley.

He was the APBA High Point Champion for Region 6 in 2000, and won two fourth-place finishes in the Gold Cup in 2003 and 2004, among other awards. In 2008, students from the Detroit Public Schools Golightly Career and Technical Center made up his crew for the 100th running of the Gold Cup, but their  hopes were dashed when the automotive-powered boat class they were registered for was eliminated.

TO HELP SPONSOR JERRY BELL’S BOAT, AND FOR MORE INFO

CALL 313-549-4187

Puerto Rican workers rally in preparation for a general strike against Jones Day-style austerity measures.

Public water, electrical workers vote to approve strike

Call on public to stop paying utility bills

Vote follows series of one-day walk-outs

June 19, 2014

This article originally appeared in Caribbean Business

PUERTO RICO — The main unions representing Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Authority (Prasa) and Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa) workers approved strike votes on Tuesday over proposed fiscal emergency legislation that will cut benefits for employees across the island government.

UIA President Pedro Irene Maymi speaks to members.

The first move to approve an open-ended walkout came during a special assembly of rank-and-file Independent Authentic Union (UIA by its Spanish initials) members. The union, the biggest at Prasa, has staged a series of 24-hour stoppages in recent weeks.

UIA President Pedro Irene Maymi said the strike vote was intended to make the public feel the indignation that utility workers feel over austerity measures in the fiscal emergency legislation approved by both the House and Senate.

Members of UTIER, as the chief union as Prepa is known, also met in an assembly Tuesday where they unanimously approved a strike vote.

“We are going to paralyze this island until this law is stopped,” UTIER President Angel Figueroa Jaramillo said.

He also called on islanders to stop paying their electricity and water bills. Union members then took their protests to the middle of Plaza Las Américas, the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean.

The Puerto Rico National Guard has said it is prepared to step in to help insure that essential services including electric, water and ferries continue to operate in case of a general strike.

La Fortaleza announced last weekend that union leaders representing the majority of workers at Puerto Rico government agencies have agreed to pay and benefit amendments sought under García Padilla’s balanced budget proposal for fiscal 2015.

Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla

However, unions representing a range of public corporations are still battling hard against the belt-tightening plan. La Fortaleza Chief of Staff Ingrid Vila on Tuesday called on public corporation union leaders to return to the bargaining table to negotiate with management. “We urge them to take this step toward firming up accords to avoid bigger complications,” she said.Gov. Alejandro García Padilla was questioned during an activity about union leaders framing their protests as an issue of rich and poor.

“On what side of the rich and poor equation is a secretary at a public corporation who earns $10,000 per month?” García Padilla asked. “Or a person who makes $200,000 per year and has 3,000 hours of vacation accumulated that must be paid off?

For more in-depth coverage of the Puerto Rico general strike, Yana Kunichoff reported for In These Times:

Public union workers from a handful of unions across Puerto Rico have spent the last week blocking ports, shutting down thoroughfares and slowing public transit. But that may be just the beginning: In the coming week, workers are expected to vote on whether to hold a general strike across the country.

The unions are standing against the austerity budget proposed this spring by members of the U.S. commonwealth’s General Assembly to deal with the country’s recent bond downgrade and looming payment of its debts to bondholders. The Fiscal Sustainability Act of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as the budget is called, would allow the government to bring in “emergency powers” to deal with the crisis.

(October 15th, 2009) Thousands of protestors flooded the streets in the largest public gathering in Puerto Rican history. The massive strike was in response to the republican governor Luis Fortuño’s decision to lay off 16,720 public workers. ~ San Juan, Puerto Rico ~ Photo © 2009 Ricardo Figueroa

Under this authority, it could renegotiate all public employees’ contracts, liquidate unused sick days, and freeze salaries—thereby gutting workers’ collective bargaining powers. Privatizing the commonwealth’s electrical company, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, has also been placed on the table as an option for stanching the crisis; the emergency measures would also include closing 100 public schools.

The budget must be passed on June 30 to coincide with the beginning of the 2015 fiscal year on July 1. And as that deadline nears, unions across the island have been escalating their protests. On June 5, the union of transportation employees prevented ferries around the country from functioning. That same day, workers from the bus and port authorities, as well as the state insurance funds, blocked the entrance to the central government building in San Juan. Amid the disruptions, the labor secretary said at a council meeting he would not speculate as to whether the actions already constituted a general strike, or were just a series of protests. Continue reading →

Protest outside White House. The U.S. announced that it has sent 300 troops to Iraq.

IRAQ A State at War With Itself

[col. writ. 6/15/14] © ’14 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Lightning strikes. Those are the words that came to me as I witnessed the speed with which the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was rolling through northern Iraq, forcing government forces to flee.The cities of Mosul, Samarah, Tikrit and others fell in a matter of days, with nothing but token resistance from the central government.

Photos appeared of long lines of men, unarmed and out of uniform, making haste in their flight from the seized cities.

Now, in shocked reactions to ISIS gains, U.S. politicians are clamoring for the return of thousands of U.S. soldiers, to buttress Iraq’s fast-fading forces. In essence, they are agitating for more war.

It’s a safe bet that this won’t happen, but the partisan call for war continues to sound.

One wonders: war for what? For a government that has made the lives of Iraq’s Sunnis a living hell? It is this very region that forms the springboard for ISIS power.

Since the fall of Saddam they have suffered the lion’s share of American and now, Iraqi state violence.

Did we think resistance would never have arisen?

The U.S. Army didn’t invade in pursuit of peace, but of petroleum. They split Iraq asunder and left it in tatters.

The Iraq invasion, a neoconservative dream that became a nightmare, was a disaster from Day One.

It remains so.

The war began with lies. It could not have ended otherwise.US pushing Iraq toward Yugoslavia-style disintegration: Rodney Martin

The neocons, who created this mess, are now trying to restart the war anew.

On this, they must fail.

-© ’14 maj

US special ops troops in Iraq.

 

U.S. PUSHING IRAQ TOWARD DISINTEGRATION

The United States is seeking a Yugoslavia-style disintegration of Iraq in order to take over some parts of the country after Washington failed to keep its hold on the entire country, an American political commentator says.

The US wants “disintegration or breakup of Iraq, much like the breakup of Yugoslavia,” said Rodney Martin, who is the director of the World View Foundations, a website, and a host at the American Nationalist Network, an internet radio station.

Rodney Martin

“If the United States can’t get their hands on all of it, then they will take some of it. This just speaks to the immorality of the United States’ policy in that region and in other parts of the world as well,” he told Press TV in a phone interview on Monday.

On Sunday, Republican Senator John Barrasso said that a stable Iraq, split into three separate parts, will best serve the interests of the United States.

“The United States basically has the Kurdish region, they established that after the first (Persian) Gulf war…and then they have pledged to keep Iraq together,” Martin stated.

“And then when the political situation, which the United States created, let’s understand this political structure in Iraq was dictated to Iraq by the United States when the elections which have been conducted under a political system imposed by the United States didn’t go the way the United States wanted, then the United States pulled support and let the country fall apart,” he added.

Over the past weeks, militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) — a radical al-Qaeda offshoot that enjoys support from loyalists of Iraq’s former Baathist regime — have been wreaking havoc in Iraq.

The ISIL has captured large swaths of territory across northern Iraq after seizing the city of Mosul on June 10.

The militants, who have posted pictures of their atrocious acts against Iraqi citizens online, have vowed to continue their offensive towards the capital Baghdad.

U.S. backed rebels in Syria massacred these children.

“So you have this terrorist group, ISIL, that has terrorized and engaged in horrific genocide in Syria, that was another effort by the United States to topple President Assad, and which has now returned to south and started charging on Baghdad,” said Martin, who also served for a time on the staff of a US congressman assigned to Military and Veteran Issues.

“So this is consistent with the US policy. They can’t get all of it, they’ll take some of it. They propose to cut Iraq into three regions, the Kurd region, and the Sunni region, and the Shia region, which is a kind of interesting because the majority of Iraq’s oil production actually takes place in the south, down around Basra, which would be controlled by the Shia region, which is no friend of the United States…It’s kind of archaic and schizophrenic on the part of the United States,” he stated.

GJH/AGB

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/07/01/369343/us-pushing-iraq-toward-disintegration/

Related Stories:

Renisha McBride’s photo superimposed on Theodore Wafer’s Dearborn Heights house, where he shotgunned her to death.

Daily media tainting jury pool? Describes barred evidence sight unseen 

Dr. Werner Spitz rambles about case events, not cause of death; to testify on human response to fear 

Hearing to continue Mon. June 30 at 9 a.m. 

By Diane Bukowski

June 28, 2014

Detroit — Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Margaret Hathaway ruled June 27 that text messages Dearborn Heights police took from Renisha McBride’s cell phone are inadmissible as evidence in the trial of her killer, Theodore Wafer.

“None of these show that she would have been aggressive,” Hathaway said firmly. “They are unfairly prejudicial.” She said that they were not even proof of unrelated criminal activity. She also barred the use of police reports from two incidents that did not result in charges, and the use of a “crime map” of Wafer’s neighborhood composed by the police.

USSC barred police search of personal cell phones without warrant June 25, 2014.

Hathaway postponed a final determination on the use of photos on the cell phone until Monday, June 30, although she said she believed the photos were not conclusive proof of anything.

Holding up her personal cell phone, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Danielle Hagaman-Clark asked,”You might find a naked picture of me. Does that make me a hooker?”

The Detroit Free Press vividly described the alleged contents of the barred evidence, using only defense attorney Cheryl Carpenter’s verbal depictions. Carpenter contended McBride was the aggressor in the case and was generally involved in criminal activity. The texts and photos were not shown during the pre-trial hearing.

Ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 on June 25 that police must get a warrant to search a person’s cellphone, in Riley v. California and U.S. v. Brima Wurie. Dearborn Heights police had no such warrant. They conducted no similar search of Wafer’s phone.

Attendee at McBride’s funeral.

“They’re treating her like she’s the criminal,” McBride’s aunt Bernita Spinks said after the evidentiary hearing. “My niece is dead. They talk about her being under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, but her killer was never tested for alcohol, barbiturates or opiates. She was never a bad person. She went to Southfield High School, and many of her classmates are wearing T-shirts with her photo.”

Spinks said her niece was likely disoriented, and may have thought she was at her mother’s house, which resembles Wafer’s house. McBride had a car accident in Detroit several hours before her body was found on Wafer’s porch in Dearborn Heights, a half-mile away; cracks in the windshield show that she may have hit her head on it. At the accident scene, she kept telling witnesses that she just wanted to “go home.”

Theodore Wafer’s home at 16812 W. Outer Drive in Dearborn Heights, MI.

Wafer, 54,  blasted McBride, 19, in the face with a shotgun on that porch in the early morning hours of Nov. 2, 2013. He faces a capital charge of second-degree murder, which carries up to life in prison. He is also charged with manslaughter—death by weapon aimed with intent but without malice, which carries up to 15 years in prison, and felony firearm, which carries a mandatory consecutive penalty of two years.

Home of Renisha McBride’s mother.

To date, he has not served a day in prison, although capital charges generally result in remand, not bond. McBride’s case has been compared nationally to the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida last year.

Judge Hathaway partially granted a defense motion to have forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz testify directly after Wayne County Medical Examiner Kilak Kesha during the prosecution’s case, within limits. Kesha testified extensively at Wafer’s preliminary exam about McBride’s autopsy, including the cause and manner of her death.

Spitz said he has been certified as an expert only in the field of forensic pathology, not in the fields of physiology, psychiatry, or neurology. He said he has published no research of his own in these areas. But he is to testify primarily on the human physiological response to fear, with reference to Wafer.

Assistant Prosecutor Athena Siringas conducted a lengthy cross-exam of Spitz, contending he should only testify on cause and manner of death.

Dr. Werner Spitz at earlier trial.

“You’ve given opinions here that involve psychology, physiology, neurology, all things that human beings do while they’re alive, and you’ve actually only examined dead people,” she told him.

Spitz countered, “The issue is how did it all happen? The cause of death is the simplest thing: anybody in the street, hundreds of people could make that determination.”

Siringas questioned why Spitz’s testimony, if allowed, should not be taken after Wafer’s during the defense case, if Wafer takes the stand. Judge Hathaway said she will instruct the jury to disregard Spitz’ testimony if Wafer does not testify.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know how the defense can put on a case of self-defense without the defendant testifying,” Hathaway said.

Assistant Prosecutor Athina Siringas

Spitz, who is 88, gave a bizarre, rambling hour-long description of a crazed, aggressive McBride pounding on and breaking the doors of Wafer’s home. He said he based that depiction on police reports and discussions with defense attorneys.

Spitz said he talked to Wafer only briefly at his home, but not about the case. He said he had not seen the police videotape of Wafer’s statement directly after the killing, nor witness statements from neighbors where McBride earlier crashed her car in Detroit. During the preliminary exam, those neighbors described McBride as disoriented but not aggressive.

“He heard pounding from different areas of the house and was wondering was he being attacked,” Spitz said. “He ran to the main door. The way I understood, he had a feeling of impending doom.”

Spitz also commented generally about an individual’s psychological reaction when awakened from a deep sleep. He brought a cartload of medical textbooks to the hearing, to demonstrate his source of knowledge in fields other than which he is certified as an expert.

Siringas asked, “Is a normal reaction [to a fear of impending doom] to open your door and expose yourself?”

Wafer has a large picture window in his living room to the left of his solid front door.

“He couldn’t have looked through his front window because it had vertical blind slats, and that would have exposed him completely,” Spitz contended. “He couldn’t look through the peephole because it was broken.”

Photos from Renisha McBride funeral program differ strongly from defense depiction of her.

Wafer opened the locked front door and shot McBride with a 12-gauge shotgun through the screen door, according to testimony at his preliminary exam. Carpenter and Spitz, however, contend the unarmed McBride damaged the screen door herself and broke a peephole in the solid door prior to being shotgunned to death.

Dearborn Heights police did not take the screen door into evidence until Nov. 11, nine days after McBride’s death, from Wafer’s basement. The defense claimed during the preliminary exam that “smudges” on both front and side doors were evidence that McBride hit them, but prosecutors said no fingerprints, palm prints, or evidence of human contact were found.

Autopsy drawing showing wound to Renisha McBride’s face.

Spitz testified that he reviewed McBride’s autopsy report, photos of her body, and transcripts of Kesha’s testimony at the preliminary exam. He said a photo of McBride’s left hand showed that it was swollen and bloody, and implied that the apparent injury resulted from her pounding on the door. He said Kesha’s report “did not address whether there was an injury on the back of her hand,” and that the hand should have been X-rayed or cut open.

During the preliminary exam, Kesha said it was apparent there was no wound in McBride’s hand after her body was washed. He said McBride had a gaping wound in her face, resulting from 10-20 shotgun pellets which he said “pulpified” her brain and caused blood loss.

Spitz did affirm Kesha’s description of the cause of death as the shotgun wound to the face, and the manner of death as “homicide.”

Judge Hathaway also denied a defense motion to present a map of crimes in Wafer’s neighborhood, including petty larceny, provided by the Dearborn Heights police. The map as displayed on a screen had large black blotches all over a broad area alleged to portray instances of crime, without regard to the severity of the crimes.

“What matters to me,” Judge Hathaway said, “is what the defendant actually knew [about nearby crimes], testimony from him and his neighbors.”

Hathaway said she would defer a ruling on a change of venue until after jury selection.

The hearing is to resume Monday, June 30 at 9 a.m.

Related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/21/will-renisha-mcbrides-family-get-justice-in-case-against-her-killer-theodore-wafer/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/12/21/theodore-wafer-to-stand-trial-for-2nd-degree-murder-other-charges-in-death-of-renisha-mcbride/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/11/16/renisha-mcbrides-killer-theodore-wafer-charged-with-2nd-degree-murder-other-felonies-free-on-bond/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/11/13/worthy-has-renisha-mcbride-police-report-sign-petition-to-bring-full-charges-vs-killer/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/11/09/justice-for-renisha-mcbride-detroits-trayvon-martin-dearborn-hts-homeowner-is-theodore-paul-wafer/

As Water Crisis in Detroit Escalates, Groups Pressure United Nations to Take Action, Restore Water Service to Thousands of Residents and Ensure the Human Right to Water

Joint Media Release

June 18, 2014

Frank Lewis delivers water to his neighbors, 10 year old Edward Jones, 6 year old Pierre Cook and their parents Marilyn Cook and Edward Jones during wave of water shut-offs in 2002. The Detroit City Council later established a Water Affordability Plan, which was administered out of the city Human Services Dept. That department was closed by Mayor Dave Bing last year despite being nearly 100% federally funded. Photo by Diane Bukowski

Detroit, Michigan — In March 2014, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) announced it would begin shutting off water ser­vice for 1,500 to 3,000 customers every week if their water bills were not paid, and yesterday, the City Council approved an 8.7 percent water rate increase. According to a recent DWSD document, more than 80,000 residential households are in arrears.

With thousands of families now without water, and thousands more expected to lose access at any moment, a group of concerned organizations have submitted a report to Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, urging authorities to take immediate action to restore water services and stop further cut-offs. The report was released by the Detroit People’s Water Board, the Blue Planet Project, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and Food & Water Watch.

“By denying water service to thousands, Detroit is violating the human right to water,” said Blue Planet Project Founder and Food & Water Watch Board Chair Maude Barlow. “After decades of policies that put businesses and profits ahead of the public good, the city now has a major crisis on its hands. It is shocking and abominable that anyone would be subjected to these conditions.”

First Freedom Friday protest against mass Detroit water shut-offs in front of Detroit Water Board building.

Over the last decade, Detroit residents have seen water rates rise by 119 percent. With unemployment rates at a record high and the poverty rate at about 40 percent, Detroit water bills are unaffordable to a significant portion of the population. Many of those affected by the shut-offs were given no warning. The infirm have been left without water and functioning toilets, children cannot bathe and parents cannot adequately prepare food for their families.

“When delinquent corporate water lines are still running without collection of funds, it demonstrates a level of intentional disparity that devalues the lives of the people struggling financially. Where is our compassion? Where is our humanity?” asked Lila Cabbil, President Emeritus of the Rosa Parks Institute.

Gwen Gaines at national protest against water-shut-offs and privatization. Photo: Kenny Snodgrass

In 2013, Detroit declared bankruptcy and appointed Kevyn Orr as emergency manager, giving him a mandate to get the city back on its feet financially. Orr has since taken steps to privatize the DWSD, and many now believe that the water shut-offs are an attempt to appeal to potential investors. In the Great Lakes region, large, private water companies charge households on average more than twice as much as rates charged by comparable publicly-controlled systems. Moreover, private operation has been linked to poor service, workforce reductions, maintenance backlogs, water leaks and sewage spills.

The Detroit People’s Water Board, the Blue Planet Project, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and Food & Water Watch make the following recommendations:

1. We call on the State of Michigan and the U.S. government to respect the human right to wa­ter and sanitation.
2. We call on the city to restore services to households that have been cut off immediately.
3. We call on the city to abandon its plan for further cut-offs.
4. We call on the federal and state governments to work with the city to ensure a sustainable public financing plan and rate structure that would prevent a transfer of the utility’s finan­cial burden onto residents who are currently paying exorbitant rates for their water ser­vices.
5. We call for fair water rates for the residents of Detroit.
6. We call on the City of Detroit to implement the original water affordability program.

Read the report here

For more information:

Meera Karunananthan, Blue Planet Project, 613-355-2100, meera@canadians.org Twitter: @CouncilOfCDNs

Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905, kfried@fwwatch.org

People’s Water Board members protest earlier outside Water Board Building.

The Detroit People’s Water Board is a coalition that includes AFSCME Local 207, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Detroit Green Party, East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Food & Water Watch, FLOW, Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit, Matrix Theater, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, Sierra Club and Voices for Earth Justice. The coalition advocates for access, protection, and conservation of water and promotes the human right to water.

The late Tashi Kiya at protest.

The Blue Planet Project is a global initiative that works with organizations and activists around the world to promote water as a human right and a commons. This includes working with local organizations and activists on grassroots struggles to protect democratic, community control of water, and building a movement to see the full implementation of the human right to water and sanitation. The Blue Planet Project is affiliated with international networks including Friends of the Earth International, Red Vida (the Americas Network on the Right to Water) and the People’s Health Movement.

Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons – our shared resources – under public control.

The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization fights for, and represents, the victims of poverty. We organize to eliminate poverty and to stop the war against the poor. We are working with people to deal with the current water crisis in the City of Detroit by advocating for low income people to demand fair treatment, registering complaints against the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), organizing protests and the DWSD offices and Detroit local government buildings, alerting people to resources – when available – to help with their water bills, and speaking out on the human right to water in the media and at public events.

Recent related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/28/mass-water-shut-offs-mass-incarceration-at-mound-road-prison-for-protesters/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/22/appeal-to-support-charity-hicks-powerhouse-fighter-for-the-people/