Article: How Flint, Ferguson and Baltimore are all connected...

stringer bell

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/25/how-flint-ferguson-and-baltimore-are-all-connected/

Flint, Ferguson, New Orleans and Baltimore — cities now inseparable from the national news stories centered there — became calamities for separate reasons. One was a natural disaster (made worse by human error), another a wholly man-made crisis. The two others began with police violence, but in disparate settings: the newly impoverished suburbs and the long-distraught inner city. Flint and New Orleans were failures of infrastructure, Baltimore and Ferguson a collapse of human relationships.

"On one level," says Henry Louis Taylor, "they all look and appear to be very, very different." But, argues the professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo, it's about time we begin to talk about them in the same breath. "These are places that are left behind, forgotten," he says. "They're places we’ve gotten very good at shielding from view."

Together, he argues that these cities — and recent events there — point to the endurance in the United States of structural racism, of minorities disproportionately left vulnerable to the economy or the environment, of communities abandoned by taxpayer dollars, public interest and government oversight.

"Flint is what I call 'a throwaway city,' " Taylor says, to take one example. "It was left by the big industries. It was left on its own, by the state, by taxpayers, by the county."

And then such places must strike terrible financial bargains — ticketing residents in Ferguson to generate money, downgrading the water supply in Flint to cut costs. The same shortage of funding also affects schools. The quality of schools alters children's futures. Those children remain in poverty as adults. And their own families live with the environmental costs of decades-old decisions on where to put highways, factories and power plants.

These kinds of places are frequently home to minorities. And they often exist, too, within larger regions that do have resources — but where the neighbors have been quite ingenious in making sure they don't have to share them.

"Across the board, when we start to probe deep into these forgotten places, we start to see a trend emerge," Taylor says. "We start to see the different ways in which racism impacts African Americans, and we also see the different ways where it impacts the places where they live."

In the heat of an unfolding news event, it appears as if we're looking at something else, or something smaller — a problem of EPA leadership, or aging pipes, or bad apples among police officers.

"We’ll see police brutality in Ferguson, and we’ll see police brutality in Baltimore, or Cleveland, but we’re confused about the places," Taylor says. "[People think] well in Ferguson, you had whites in control. But in Baltimore, you had blacks in control, so maybe that’s not racism, maybe that’s something else. We’re not sure exactly what we’re seeing. Or you see Flint, and people are really confused, because we don’t know what’s going on. Maybe those were just a bunch of bad decisions people made, and it doesn’t have anything to do with race."

What we should be seeing, he suggests, are links between all of these events and the larger structures that contributed to them.

Ajackson17

The larger is white supremacy and the goal is to put you hidden from the world and left in darkness. ? structure no matter what ethnicity runs is gonna support the bigger machine.

yellowtapesport

Its a reach but I aint mad

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Olorun22

Black should know that they're are trying to get rid of us

D. Morgan

Black_Samson wrote: »

Kwame Kilpatrick, who is serving the longest sentence in U.S. history for political corruption, wonders whether any elected officials will go to jail for poisoning an entire city.

In a letter posted on Facebook, the former Detroit mayor drops a few bombshells, alleging that Flint’s contamination problem goes all the way back to when Democrat Jennifer Granholm was governor.

In his letter, posted by WXYZ, Kilpatrick offers a timeline and some context for the water crisis:

FYI
Just so you all know. We (The Detroit Water and Sewage Department) were talking about the problems of the Flint Water Department (financial management, ability to perform, cleanliness of water, elimination of contaminants, mercury levels, lead levels) back in 2004. We knew (our folks in Detroit, SEMCOG, Genesee County Officials, some members of the State Legislature, and the Governor at that time) new that there were significant issues with all of those items.



In 2006 we attempted to craft a deal to put them on our water system. We were in negotiations, led by Victor Mercado, for months, and I wanted to make it work. I attended one meeting, and was on a conference call for another, expressing my willingness to make this work. SEMCOG and Judge Fiekens was also aware of this. SEMCOG was against the Agreement!



BUT, the people in Genesee County, at the table during that time (the County Drain Commissioner & his staff, a State Senator, and a State House Member all from Genesee County) wanted to keep control of the system.



Also, former Michigan Governor, Jennifer Granholm, was well aware of the issues with the Flint Water Department, and their inability to produce contaminant free water moving forward, nor afford the equipment & technology to do so.



When the current Governor of Michigan says that he “only recently was made aware of this issue”, he is being misleading at best. But more than likely, he is being viciously, aggressively, and deliberately untruthful. I pray that the truth comes out. That’s what everyone in Michigan wants right? The Truth! Well, my prayer is that you all will have an opportunity to warm yourselves at the fire of Truth.



I am here in prison, with a 28-year sentence, for a case where there is NO EMBEZZLEMENT, NO MISUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS, NO BRIBERY, NO STEALING OF ANY MONEY, as a matter of fact, NO PUBLIC MONEY AT ALL. And NO CHARGES THEREOF! 99% of Detroiters have NO idea why I’m here. They don’t know the charges, nor what I’m sentenced for. They sure do know the rumors.



I wonder how much time you get for knowingly & actually delivering unsafe, dangerous, and poisonous drinking water to the people you represent? Which in-turn causes deaths, permanent illnesses, and disabilities. Can you actually be hated, hurt, and imprisoned for ridiculous rumors about murder…and not be for actually killing people?



I pray for justice for the people of Flint! And I also pray that ? will give to all of you in Michigan the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. That you all may have your eyes opened with understanding.
The blindness is hurting lots of people. Its even killing some. OPEN YOUR EYES!

KMK”

Wow.

Based on what happened with Kilpatrick I have been wondering the same damn thing.