The trial of the Homrich 9

Latest

PT.2016.02.05_Detroit
 
Editor’s note: This is an interview with Marian Kramer, one of the Homrich 9 water warriors in Detroit, MI, arrested for disorderly conduct while blocking city trucks setting out to do mass turn offs of people’s water. Marian and defendant Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellerman requested a jury trial. Marian explains what happened.
People’s Tribune: What strange things occurred in this trial?
Marian Kramer: We weren’t allowed to say the words civil disobedience, civil rights, or the name, Martin Luther King, or the fact that I’ve been part of the movement for 50 years. We weren’t even allowed to mention the name Nicole Cannon, a plaintiff in a suit against the city of Detroit who died as a result of fighting her water shut off. And these were all the reasons we were out there protesting.
PT: So things were getting political?
MK: Yeah, just as the jury was about to deliberate, City lawyers said that testimony from the victims of the water shut offs had tainted the jury, so they had a judge from a higher court come in and shutdown the trial. Lawyers, court clerks, even police said they never saw anything like this before.
PT: What is the significance of all this?
MK: They have us in legal limbo. We are charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. But it’s bigger than that. It’s about the Emergency Manager system denying water to the poor and then privatizing it for the corporations. Look at what they did to Rev. Pinkney in Benton Harbor. He was also charged with misdemeanors for protesting this sort of thing but now sits in prison. This is fascism creeping in. These corporations aren’t going to let anything stand in their way, not the public health, not dead bodies not even the law. I think one possible outcome of this is going to be anyone who protests against corporate power using civil disobedience will be denied trial by jury. If they can get away with this in Detroit, then it won’t be long before they can go anywhere in America and get away with it.

PT Logo collage
+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

An All-American Nightmare

The machinery of mass deportation has been set up in a nightmarish fashion. It is meant to be impossible to stop — or to appear that way. But, like any machine, it can be brought to a halt, when understood.

As ICE Jails Palestinian Protester, Universities Must Commit to Academic Freedom

University faculty call on everyone, on behalf of Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia graduate detained by ICE, to organize on behalf of those who are today's targets, supporting academic freedom and free expression before it is too late.

‘Fetal Personhood’ Laws Could Lead to Death Penalty for Abortions

Lawmakers in nine states have or are working to introduce bills to allow homicide charges against people suspected of having an abortion. Six of those states all have the death penalty for homicide.

Black History Month 2025: Now More Than Ever!

Black History Month 2025 is taking place in the midst of a vicious campaign by the Trump administration to incite hatred against African Americans and other people of color. From colonial times until the present, the attacks on the working class as a whole have always started as attacks on Black workers.

‘Jocelynn Deserves Justice!’: 11-Year-Old Texan Kills Herself After Bullies’ Deportation Threats

An 11-year-old Texas girl took her own life after being bullied by classmates who threatened to call immigration authorities to deport her mother.

More from the People's Tribune