The Shock Doctrine 3: Drought Of Democracy
Since its mid 50's peak, Motown's population has dwindled from roughly 1.8 million to 700,000 of which 83% is African-American.
About 80,000 of 176,000 Detroit residential accounts are past due, so the city is turning off their taps. Between March 25 and June 14, 12,500 customers had their water shut off.
Shut off electric or gas, no heat, no A/C, no refrigeration, no washer, no dryer, no cooking, no lights. In one manner or another, all of these obstacles can be overcome.
Shut off water, no clean dishes or clothing, no domestic cleaning, no human bathing, no toilet.
These obstacles cannot be overcome, as the sign front center below states the obvious. The UN has called the shutoff a human rights violation.
Judge Cox's actions allowed the breaking of union and pension covenants, and led to the privatization of Detroit's water and water treatment infrastructure. But that was just the tip of the iceberg...
Remember the Emergency Manager and the "Plan of Adjustment"?
Ending Michigan's EMS
More to Come in Part 4
About 80,000 of 176,000 Detroit residential accounts are past due, so the city is turning off their taps. Between March 25 and June 14, 12,500 customers had their water shut off.
Shut off electric or gas, no heat, no A/C, no refrigeration, no washer, no dryer, no cooking, no lights. In one manner or another, all of these obstacles can be overcome.
Shut off water, no clean dishes or clothing, no domestic cleaning, no human bathing, no toilet.
These obstacles cannot be overcome, as the sign front center below states the obvious. The UN has called the shutoff a human rights violation.
Judge Cox's actions allowed the breaking of union and pension covenants, and led to the privatization of Detroit's water and water treatment infrastructure. But that was just the tip of the iceberg...
Remember the Emergency Manager and the "Plan of Adjustment"?
This was enabled by the passage of Public Act 4, Michigan’s EMS - Emergency Manager System under which the state has the authority to place cash-strapped cities and school districts under the stewardship of Emergency Managers (EMs).
A city’s EM has the power of the mayor and the city council combined, and then some; they’re even allowed to unilaterally rewrite public union contracts.
Essentially, placing a city under emergency management suspends the powers of its elected officials and invests all that authority in a single, un-elected figure.
Public Act 4 granted the emergency manager (Kevyn Orr, more on him later) complete authority over local officials, the power to nullify public rulings and bodies, and to strip unions of collective bargaining rights and health benefits.
In the space of three and a half years, under Public Act 4, which Republican Gov. Snyder approved shortly after taking office in 2011...
City agencies and entire school districts have been outsourced or privatized; public employees have been laid off in droves; municipalities have sold off vast swaths of public land; and city employee unions have seen their contracts whittled down to nothing.
The system has been described as “financial martial law,” and it is the force behind Detroit’s recent bankruptcy negotiations, pension cuts and water shutoffs.
Ending Michigan's EMS
More to Come in Part 4
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