CARTOON/CAMP PROMISE
Flint police use physical abuse and harassment to silence public
Editor’s Note: as we go to press, the County prosecutor decided not to pursue any charges against the six who were arrested. But the City can still charge them.
FLINT, MI — Just days before the three-year commemoration of the living Hell known as the Flint water crisis, six residents were arrested. The arrest took place at a local church. The meeting was called by Flint’s Mayor to hear public comments regarding the future of Flint’s long-term water source.
The meeting was already primed for police aggression. The Flint Police Department had officers lined up in the large foyer leading to the sanctuary. They wore Bullet proof vests, standing in formation as if they anticipated a social upheaval to ensue.
Some members of the public were told by the police they could not go inside unless they removed their hats, which also set off tensions. The atmosphere of harassment and intimidation escalated when the Police Chief Johnson opened the session stating:
“Please don’t be in here trying to disrupt this meeting . . . I’m going to escort you out and I’m going to take you to the back door and then you’re going to jail.” (One woman was asked to leave when she uttered a curse word during the comment portion.)
Six people were indeed arrested and supporters gathered at Flint Police Station waiting for them to be let go. The next day, dozens gathered at City Hall denouncing police tactics in general and the arrest of what is now called the Town Hall Six in particular. One of those was manhandled and bruised to the point where she had to be treated at a local hospital after she was let out of jail.
After suffering water poisoning, threats of water shutoffs and liens, health challenges, with no democracy in sight, do we now face police brutality and intimidation for speaking out about it? The Town Hall Six, as of yet, have not been charged. The local Michigan ACLU has stepped forward to defend them if needed.
Nevertheless, the Town Hall Six are an expression of the growing mass of resistance against the Emergency Manager political regime here in Michigan that denies us democracy and the water wars it has wrought. Other Flint Voices in this fight such as Gertrude Marshall, Councilman Eric Mays, Pastor Reginald Flynn have also been arrested or jailed for daring to speak out. The Homrich 9 of Detroit (case pending) as well as the Reverend Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor (currently incarcerated) join these.
Meanwhile the fight for water, water rights, real democracy, and healthcare continues.
