Dear Editor: The Free Press June 27 editorial condemnation of the Detroit Water and Sewerage System (DWSD) for their mass water shut off program properly calls out this serious human rights violation. Water is a human right! One correction: the final paragraph implies that such abuse of Detroiters is somehow without direction from [Emergency Manger Kevyn] Orr or his boss, Gov. Rick Snyder... First, there is no evidence whatsoever that these atrocious mass shut-offs of hundred or even thousands of families per week were not ordered by Orr and Snyder. Indeed, they were implemented in the midst of intensive, confidential court-ordered mediation over the future governance and ownership of DWSD. This strongly suggests that the intended purpose of these human rights violations is to clear up liabilities and increase DWSDs paper value in the mediation and/or sale of its assets. Suburban leaders and others have repeatedly expressed reluctance to assume DWSDs debts. This is a major issue in the emergency managed-bankruptcy being run by Orr and Snyder. Causing thousands of low-income Detroiters to lose water service for such a selfish reason is, as your editorial argues, inexcusable. But it is also attributable to Orr and Snyder. More fundamentally, DWSDs imposition of narrow commercial criteria on the public health and quality of life asset that is DWSD is an inevitable result of the inappropriate corporate policy imposed by Snyder, Orr and Jones Day. It is precisely what drives their hostile white supremacist austerity takeover campaign against Detroit. The Free Press should not be defending them against the logical consequences and immoral outcomes of their own policies. The buck stops with the Emergency Manager and his handlers, who are as guilty of this flagrant human rights abuse as the DWSD officials who serve them. Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management (D-REM) Communications Working Group m.freep/opinion/article?a=2014306270026&f=1237
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 20:52:29 +0000
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