Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

‘We are hiding out with no water’: Detroit privatizers deny poor people their right to water
The San Francisco Bay View - A National Black Newspaper ^ | June 28, 2014 | Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia, Poor News Network

Posted on 06/28/2014 5:50:44 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Every week, as some 3,000 additional families’ water is shut off by their “public” utility, Detroiters protest on Freedom Friday.

“We are hiding out in our own house with no water,” Shelah, a 15-year-old youth and poverty skola whispered on the phone to me. She went on to tell me she and her mama and 9-year-old brother were among thousands of poor families who have had their water service cut off in the last few months by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Since spring, up to 3,000 Detroit households per week have been getting their water shut off – for owing as little as $150 or two months in bills. This is the Detroit facing water privatization in which upward of 150,000 customers, late on bills that have increased 119 percent in the last decade, are now threatened with shut-offs. Detroit organizers estimate this could impact nearly half of Detroit’s mostly poor and Black population – between 200,000 and 300,000 people.

Privatization is the U.S. corporate answer to everything, and to Detroit, like Chicago and New Orleans and Oakland and hundreds of other U.S. cities, this means the private corporate theft of all of our public resources, including schools, parks, streets and housing. As us poor folks know, the result is we end up water-less, house-less, street-less and park-less – gentrified out of our own neighborhoods, schools and communities and shuttled into the biggest profit-maker of them all: plantation prisons.

This is nothing new. Poor people are always getting our so-called public utilities shut off. When me and my mama were dealing with our life-long poverty and about to be houseless in Oakland, all of our utilities were cut off. The first thing that happened was my mama was afraid CPS would find out and mark her as “negligent.” This is part of the deep criminalization and Catch 22 that poor families face all the time, causing us to not even seek so-called “help” for fear of more theft, removal and criminalization.

Since spring, up to 3,000 Detroit households per week have been getting their water shut off – for owing as little as $150 or two months in bills.

“My friend was put into foster care after her water got cut off,” Shelah whispered. She and her brother are among the many children who are now at risk of seizure by Children’s Separation Service, as it might as well be called, because after they take everything away from us poor folks, then they threaten to take our children. “That’s when we went into hiding,” she concluded.

This is nothing new. Poor people are always getting our so-called public utilities shut off.

Grassroots organizers have been fighting back.

A coalition of grassroots groups like Detroit People’s Water Board, Food and Water Watch and Canada-based Blue Planet Project issued a report on June 18 containing the testimony of people who are affected by the service shut-offs and said they were given no warning. They submitted the report, “Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation regarding water cutoffs in the City of Detroit, Michigan,” to the United Nations naming these shut-offs as a violation of human rights.

The U.N. answered back: “Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,” the U.N. officials said in a news release. “Because of a high poverty rate and a high unemployment rate, relatively expensive water bills in Detroit are unaffordable for a significant portion of the population.”

The public water system, a prized resource worth billions and sitting on the Great Lakes, is now the latest target of the private developers – and these mass water shut-offs of our people’s homes are a way to make the so-called public utility more attractive in the lead up to its privatization.

“Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,” the U.N. officials said in a news release.

As po’ folks, our so-called public resources are always under attack, our so-called free lives, which were used, stolen and exploited to build this stolen land they call amerikkka, are always at risk of eviction, displacement, gentrification, death by police terror and/or incarceration. This is why us poor and landless stolen and diasporic Afrikans, criminalized, false bordered, indigenous and po’ folks at POOR Magazine are actively creating an international model for poor people-led change we call Homefulness in Deep East Ohlone Land (Oakland) where we take our stolen resources back, self-determined by us, and teach descendants of stolen wealth hoarders to redistribute their families’ stolen and hoarded blood-stained dollaz.

This is what we at POOR Magazine call Community Reparations. And this model needs to be practiced across the United Snakkkes of Amerikkka and the world so these violations of our human bodies, our communities and our land will cease to occur.

All power to the people in Detroit!


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Local News; Politics
KEYWORDS: detroit; michigan; socialism; water
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-164 next last
To: SgtBob

I doubt Detroit well or river water is safe to drink.

What if your local water became polluted, the sole municipality kept increasing your rates and you did not have the means to leave (because nobody wants to buy your polluted property in a dying area)? That is basically what happened in Detroit.

I’m having very good luck. I just believe people should be held responsible for stepping on the freedoms of others. The polluters and government agents who allowed it are responsible for the lack of natural drinking water. Water is as essential and natural as air and must remain available as it did in nature.


121 posted on 06/28/2014 11:00:27 PM PDT by varyouga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies]

To: berdie

Anywhere with clean well, river or lake water. Water exists in nature just like air.

That is true for most of the country and was true of Detroit before pollution.


122 posted on 06/28/2014 11:09:40 PM PDT by varyouga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: Vigilanteman

“Maybe she didn’t buy that TV, her son looted it for her. :->”

Maybe she got it at one of those “rent to own” rip-off joints. You know, only $27 a week for five years.


123 posted on 06/29/2014 1:05:52 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Do you know how many free or very low cost education, training, apprenticeship and vocational programs there are in this country for low income individuals?”

According to a recent study, 100% of the job growth since 2000 went to immigrants, legal and illegal.


124 posted on 06/29/2014 1:07:30 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: dsc

That might be, but there are plenty of good jobs here:

http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=&l=76208


125 posted on 06/29/2014 1:11:33 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 124 | View Replies]

To: varyouga; SgtBob

Remember the advice the late comedian Sam Kinison gave to the people of Ethiopia? MOVE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0q4o58pKwA

(WARNING: Language)


126 posted on 06/29/2014 1:17:12 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

“What about the basic human right to not be raped by UN Peacekeepers?”

I think UN Peacekeepers might be out of their league in Detroit.


127 posted on 06/29/2014 1:19:45 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

“That might be, but there are plenty of good jobs here:
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=&l=76208";

The word “plenty” gives me pause. I would ask the number of applicants and the number of jobs.

If there are more applicants than jobs, I would ask how the various demographics are faring. By the time you get to straight white men, disabled, sick, and in their sixties, there might not be what you would call a “plethora” of opportunities.


128 posted on 06/29/2014 1:33:30 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 125 | View Replies]

To: kelly4c
I'm not saying poverty is funny, but the article is. And the gravity of the situation very much depends on whether you are "alone," or have others to take care of, especially children.

I lived on the street for a period of time, by choice. It was an eye opener. I didn't have much worry, and happiness is a state of mind. It's very different when one is supporting a household, and income doesn't go far enough to make ends meet. That's my current condition - not poverty, but worry, worry, worry.

129 posted on 06/29/2014 2:54:17 AM PDT by Cboldt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: Darksheare
I notice how they gloss over the nonpayment of utilities portion to shriek and propagandize about those same utilities being shut off.

And they use the phrase, "Some for as little as...". One must wonder what the average debt/time without paying is ....

130 posted on 06/29/2014 3:26:02 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

It was OK to cut off the water when the Democrat-controlled GOVERNMENT did it.


131 posted on 06/29/2014 3:34:46 AM PDT by AppyPappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: trebb

Yeah.
And in their minds, they have a right to not pay.
They never heard of “TANSTAAFL”.


132 posted on 06/29/2014 3:35:25 AM PDT by Darksheare (Try my coffee, first one's free..... Even robots will kill for it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: varyouga
What if your local water became polluted, the sole municipality kept increasing your rates and you did not have the means to leave (because nobody wants to buy your polluted property in a dying area)? That is basically what happened in Detroit.

Pollution is a natural result of having huge masses of people living in one place. To some extent the same is true in every large city in the country. After all, people in NY, LA, Chicago or Dallas don't have individual wells for a reason.
133 posted on 06/29/2014 3:43:52 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: Darksheare

I wonder if they were able to pay their cable TV bill.


134 posted on 06/29/2014 4:06:08 AM PDT by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 132 | View Replies]

To: BunnySlippers

They probably did.


135 posted on 06/29/2014 4:09:39 AM PDT by Darksheare (Try my coffee, first one's free..... Even robots will kill for it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: Darksheare

Link them.

If you are able to pay for cable TV and not water, then cut it off. Let’s see what the UN says then.


136 posted on 06/29/2014 4:16:09 AM PDT by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 135 | View Replies]

To: BunnySlippers

Such thinking is too complicated and advanced for some.
And probably considered “rasis” in the lib mindset.


137 posted on 06/29/2014 4:19:59 AM PDT by Darksheare (Try my coffee, first one's free..... Even robots will kill for it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 136 | View Replies]

To: Darksheare

No doubt.

My next idea is to turn on a public spigot. Homes will be provided with 2 buckets to transport the water back home.


138 posted on 06/29/2014 4:33:43 AM PDT by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 137 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Detroit River is large enough to allow ocean going vessels to pass through. I don’t know how potable it is, but it costs money to bring it up to first world standards. The author either does not know or does not care about this.


139 posted on 06/29/2014 4:35:25 AM PDT by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
“RIGHTS”, “RIGHTS”, “RIGHTS”. It is my God given RIGHT to use utilities and NOT Pay for them! At some point, Detroit will either sink into the muck or juts stand as an edifice (for future archaeologists) to a once productive power house gone broke due to every vice known to Man.
I grew up there but when you don't feel safe going to a sports event, it's all over for any city.
140 posted on 06/29/2014 4:40:33 AM PDT by Netz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-164 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson