His death is unexplained. He was 42. Foul play is not suspected. He was one of those interviewed by the Attorney General in the ongoing criminal investigation. This is probably nothing. Or maybe not.
Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:
In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle
or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
How convenient
Saves money to prosecute & incarcerate…
Is it so surprising that a city with lots of lead water pipes still has lead contaminated water? Besides the problem of corrosive water chemistry, you have to think about galvanic action and maybe abrasion from grit in the system, and then there is old sediment that can get disturbed by changes in water flow, and how, BTW, do you flush the sediment out of every nook and cranny of an ancient water system, and, oh yeah, biological action causing production of acid. Sheesh, what a nightmare.
What I find particularly disturbing is that nobody in the the whole hierarchy of Flint water engineering and government had enough knowledge, intelligence, and human concern to make sure that this disaster didn’t happen. America, the land of scientific illiterates? Racist indifference by engineers and techs? Or maybe the land of chronic lead poisoning and concomitant neurological decay, causing a lot of really bad decisions. Whatever the cause, this is a troubling situation, just like the situation where scientific illiterates like Lamar Smith and Ted Cruz head government science committees. Very troubling.
Mebbe the plant foreman was making the mistake of drinking the water himself… Leaving him too brain-addled to make any decisions, and ultimately causing him to croak.
OTOH, he may not have been drinking the water, realized what he had allowed to happen, and –ridden with guilt– drank himself to death.
If this was a Democratic governor there would be a huge cry of ‘conspiracy’. If a Clinton was the governor the claim of there being a conspiracy would be well on its way to becoming accepted as fact part of the GOP catechism.
But, seeing as that this is a Republican administration, and IOKIYAAR, I expect it to die out quickly, assuming more evidence doesn’t come out.
I read that one of the three being charged had actually warned that Flint was not ready to switch off of Detroit water.
But when ordered to do it anyway he did – and now the theory is he should not have followed an illegal order – so is liable.
So some (at least a few) were smart enough to see what was coming – but went along with the upper level decision making.
I kind of feel sorry for the guy being charged even though he is on the record recommending against doing what they ended up doing.
I loathe conspiracy theories, particularly of the anti-science type (e.g. anti-vaccine). But this situation stinks to high heaven, and the FBI should swarm Flint until they have answers.
Let’s be really clear about this: poisoning the brains of a generation of black youth qualifies as a crime against humanity.
Imagine that your IQ was reduced by 10 to 15 points by someone’s deliberate act, and that you’re stuck with that for life. That should be particularly poignant here on a blog written and read by working scientists.
Whether it’s ever prosecuted as a crime against humanity remains to be seen, and I’m doubtful. DOJ’s usual method is to bring whatever charges are likely to result in the most efficient route to convictions and prison sentences. Or in prosecutions of municipal governments, such as for police shootings of unarmed black kids, “consent decrees” that essentially amount to completely overturning the agencies in question so they look more like America, and racism can no longer rear its ugly head in a uniform.
So we may (probably will) see what looks like an unexciting compromise ending to this story, but in fact it produces real, complete, and irreversible reform.
In the midst of all of this, a man whose testimony may be vital to the case, dies unexpectedly at a highly improbably young age.
That is inherently suspicious, like someone dying shortly after their cheating spouse took out a life insurance policy on them.
There are dozens of ways to kill someone without leaving any obvious trace, so we can hope that the autopsy and toxicology workups are not only thorough but relentlessly so.
I believe we can trust the FBI and DOJ to get to the bottom of this, and I’ll accept their findings in the case.
But if they don’t get the chance, if Michigan government buries the body along with the case, then I’ll have to conclude that this was a convenient murder.
The decision to move Flint from Detroit water back to Flint river water was made by the emergency manager Governor Snyder appointed. That manager also stopped the water treatment that had been done for several years – both were described as “cost cutting” decisions. That manager also dismissed reports of contaminated water when they first appeared, and dismissed the vote of the (powerless, so the vote was symbolic and nothing more) city council urging that the city switch back to Detroit water as a “mere political act.”
When the Flint story was began getting large amounts of attention he was removed and made manager for the Detroit Public School system (that was January 13, 2015). In February of this year he resigned, after news came out that while he was “fixing” Detroit’s schools reports about the number of high-paid school administrators he had fired were (depending on how you phrase it) falsified or greatly in error – the number of dismissals reported was larger than the actual number. The guy is a real piece of work (but so is the whole “emergency manager” crap).
By the way, Michigan is now involved in a Federal lawsuit over the emergency manager law – the accusation is that it removes the right of people in the affected areas from choosing their own local government representatives.
The state’s defense: The law gives voters the right to select state governmental officials but not local officials.
Things the top here in Michigan really, really, suck.
“Woman, 19, who filed first Flint lawsuit against government is MURDERED just days after suspicious death of foreman at city’s water treatment plant
Sasha Avonna Bell, 19, sued government officials and six companies for allegedly causing her toddler to suffer from lead poisoning
She was found dead along with another woman on April 19 in a Flint home
A young child was found alive in the home but has not been identified
Her death came days after Flint water plant foreman was found dead ”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3554797/Woman-19-leading-Flint-water-crisis-lawsuit-murdered-week-suspicious-death-man-wanted-questioning-lead-poisoning.html
Just sayin…
Ron #9:
It could be a conspiracy.
However, it could just be a typical day in Flint Michigan.
As of late last year, they were on their way to being the most dangerous city in America:
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/09/homicide_rate_spikes_as_flint.html
Probably just a coincidence.