By Matt Agorist
By now, nearly everyone knows multiple government officials in Michigan knowingly poisoned thousands of men, women, and children after the city switched its municipal water source from the Detroit water system to the Flint River. Now, however, as if poisoning residents and their children weren’t enough, the city of Flint is threatening to take people’s homes for refusing to pay for the tainted water.
Although Flint — which blew wide open a year ago — is largely out of the headlines, the crisis is still unfolding. Residents are still unable to drink the water, leaving most families to rely on bottled water for everything from brushing their teeth to cooking and bathing.
In spite of multiple officials facing criminal charges, there hasn’t been a single conviction. The only people to face any consequences thus far over the atrocity in Flint are the citizens who are forced to pay for unusable water.
After the city made the switch in 2014, Melissa Mays, 37, said she and her family began developing rashes and their hair started to fall out. Her neighbors all had the same issues. Once she realized it was their tap water, Mays turned into a clean water activist.
“I got scared, for probably the first time since this all started, this actually scared me,” said Mays.
As NBC 25 reports, Mays received the notice in the mail Friday stating that she must pay nearly $900 by May 19 to avoid a lien being placed on her property.
The Mays are not the only family who stands to lose their home for refusing to pay for tainted water either. In fact, over 8,000 people got a notice this week just like the one Mays got.
For those who refuse to pay their bills in full by May 19, they city will foreclose on their homes and take them.
Mays will now have to compromise her principles to avoid having the government steal her home.
“While I understand this is the way the law reads we are in a totally different situation,” said Mays, noting that she’d been poisoned.
Government officials remain entirely unapologetic. In spite of the EPA awarding a $100 million grant to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to fund drinking water infrastructure upgrades in Flint, city leaders say they need the money.
“We have to have revenue coming in, so we can’t give people revenue, I mean excuse me, give people water at the tap and not get revenue coming in to pay those bills,” said Al Mooney, City of Flint Treasury Department.
Mooney says the shut offs are already working in the city’s favor. Last month Flint brought in nearly $3 million for water. That is nearly $1 million more from the month prior when they only collected $2.1 million, NBC 25 reports.
Mooney hopes that threatening to steal people’s homes — for refusing to pay for poison water they can’t use — will result in a windfall for the city. He noted that those 8,000 plus tax liens would bring in nearly $6 million for the city.
To be clear, no one here is advocating for people not to pay their bills. However, choosing not to pay for a terrible and dangerous service — that you do not want and is forced on you — is hardly unethical. In fact, had there been competition in water services, this problem may have never happened.
When government knowingly poisons you and your children to save a buck — and then tells you they are going to steal your house when you refuse to finance said poisoning — something has gone seriously wrong.
Please share this article with your friends and family to let them know how the government of Flint is treating its citizens.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.
This article first appeared here at TheFreeThoughtProject.com
Activist Post Editor’s Note: Here is an excellent graphic we were sent that makes a nice companion to the article above: https://www.thewaterfiltermen.ie/reverse-osmosis-water-filters
But almost the entire nation is being forced to pay for fluoridated water.
Proving that shutting the purse strings is about the only way to push back, short of lock and load.
Yes.. And with THAT move being met with further punishment, I don’t see how these people can avoid an old fashioned lynch mob to stop the corruption..
Short of armed revolt each and every homeowner should file documents to raise up the land patent for their property in their names. Then let the officials try to take their homes. They can not .
NO! Flint cannot take their homes. A lien is simply a charge that must be paid before title of the property can transfer. Time for a class action (I’m not talking court) to let the city know that the people are done with extortion.
A class action suit against the city should be filed by all of those people harmed by the tainted water.
Government only functions without competition.
Why can’t they have the city water shut off, pay their final bill, and tell Flint to take a long walk off a short pier?
Why bother? Stephan Hawking tells us we have a century to find and inhabit a new planet. Unless the people that caused the destruction of our home planet are eliminated, we will just repeat the same old failures.
The city has no authority to foreclose.
They can put a tax lien on the property,buts about it.
I say to the residents..stand your ground