It is chilling, thinking what's going on.

just bullshit. And I'd wish much much worse for him but I'd probably get arrested for terrorism or something.

benton harbor is majority black. all the cities taken over by emergency managers are majority black.

I guess the game plan is to let their houses burn and let them die in fires so their property can be stolen.

because rich white people have been trying to take this property for some time.

Fascism and fascists.

So far, and I think that unfortunately, that is why there is only a few of us that are up in arms about the emergency manager. What I have seen, although I can't find it right now, is a list of cities, townships, and villages in Michigan that are at risk of failing financially. Let one of them have a beautiful stretch of beach that a developer wants to obtain, or a downtown street just right for the picking in one of these cities and see how fast they get taken over. The people who don't care now soon will.

children.'

And then it turns out it *doesn't* help, and then it turns out they want to privatize the entire public school system.

Their offer to help 'poor black children' is just a Trojan Horse, a beachhead, because they know nobody pays much attention to what goes on in poor black communities, which are *always* assumed to be defective, criminal, and in need of whatever 'solution' the PTB are selling this week.

Yes, I'm sure that white cities will also be ruled by dictators in the future, 'for their own good'.

Fuck the fascists with a big stick.

Sorry but I think you are being ridiculous to try and pose this as some kind of a racial conspiracy. The Emergency Management law was passed and signed by Jim Blanchard and was also used by Gov. Granholm and it has been used with cities in the past that do not have majorities of people of color. The city government in Detroit has proved over and over that it's a corrupt cesspool of incompetence. From Coleman Young to Kwame Kirkpatrick, previous mayors have been knee deep in corruption and scandal. While I'm not thrilled with the whole emergency manager concept, something had to be done in these communities and the State Government has an obligation to make sure that municipalities don't implode. These city government have shown their incompetence. I actually think Dave Bing could accomplish some good in Detroit but the clowns on the city council are making that all but impossible.

If you don't like the emergency manager law, what is your solution to prevent the absolute devastation that's occurring in Detroit and the other cities that are becoming almost untenable.

For the record, I've lived in Michigan my entire life and have watched Detroit become an embarrassment compared to other midwestern cities.

Is Detroit failing? Yes. Is it an inevitability? Probably. It is a slippery slope to remove democracy from the equation. Should financial success or the lack of it determine your ability to participate in democracy? All the cities which have been given over to emergency managers are predominantly black. That is a fact.

Hamtramck is predominantly black? Nope, I don't think so. It had a state appointed emergency manager between 2000 and 2004.

Certainly, the desires of the electorate are important but how long can corruption and financial mismanagement be allowed to go on? Something needs to be done in Detroit, it is the largest City in Michigan and it's financial well being or it's economic implosion has an impact on all of the citizens in Michigan. If the residents are incapable of electing a Representative government that is able to competently handle the affairs of the City, then the State has an obligation to step in and as a last resort, address the issues that are destroying that City. It's been done in the past under both Democratic and Republican Governors, so to claim that it's partisan or racial in nature, is simply not credible.

The system you were under was an emergency financial manager who's powers were limited to finance planning. In 2007 it was deemed his job was finished and he left. Now you are facing a new emergency manager with far more powers but that decision has yet to be made.

See here: It is also important to know how these emergency managers came to be. Michigan has had an emergency management system since 1988, due to Public Act 101 which “allowed an emergency financial manager to assess and manage the finances of Hamtramck.”[8] Public Act 101 gained greater strength in 1990 via Public Act 72[9], which allowed the state government to appoint emergency financial managers to towns which were having financial troubles. Yet, the modern-day emergency manager came about in 2011 when Public Act 4[10] not only gave emergency managers full-range of a town’s finances, but also surpassed and overrode Public Acts 101 and 72. It is in Public Act 4 that the EMs truly came to embody the technocratic like governments found in Europe.

I'm sorry if I misrepresented your town, at least the first type worked for you!

The plan was always to smash and grab. "The Shock Doctrine". "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". The Trend is already quite clear in Europe and now it's here. I've been screaming about the "austerity" scam on DU for years...

has seen this coming for years FWWM. It's so fucking obvious it should be on everybody's front burner.

... what was his name? Ken ______ ? I cannot remember his name! I read the book but passed it on to someone else to read. Thanks!

fire fighter. I'm surprised they didn't make him drive himself to an urgent care. When is the manager (and I use the term loosely) going to shutter the hospital?

It is a private "non-profit", so it pays no taxes. It is also the only option for 40 miles. The Republicans and Whirlpool just love it.

things should never, ever be privatized - the military and prisons are the most obvious two. Public health services may well be another. One hospital and its private. Not good. My only complaint with the President's health scheme is that it is basically a Republican style proposal. We really need a single payer system like France's. But until then I support the President's plan.

.... I can feel it in my bones. Just too too many things going wrong up there with Rick Snyder and his cabal at the helm. How far will this "emergency manager" business go before the place explodes, literally? And better yet, what the eff will AG Holder or anyone else do about it?

There is nothing they seem to be able to do. The next thing is that Michigan will be the first state to fix the elections in favor of republicans, there is already a bill in the congress addressing measures which, if enacted, would have given the Presidency to Mitt. Rachel Maddow had information on it.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/25/16700094-michigan-gop-moving-forward-on-election-rigging-scheme?lite

Before they are elevated to the Federal bench, those judges have to come from somewhere. Isn't it true that local Federal judges are typically vetted by local politicans?

As I understand it, federal judges are appointed by the President and are recommended through Congress by their State's Senators. I imagine they have some appointed by Clinton, and some by both Bushes, maybe even some further back.

Carl Levin has been a US Senator from MI forever; I can't remember who the junior MI Senators have been.
As has been explained elsewhere MI is a mixed bag re politics.
So time will tell, but , if it goes to federal court, there would likely be a hold put on any legislation.

That validates their premise of the "sub-humanity" of the poor/disenfranchised and makes harsh techniques more acceptable..

See 1968 & the right wing backlash that followed (and is still in effect)

But nobody mentions us because we are a majority white city.

It's not a job that just anyone can jump in and do. It requires extensive training and certain kind of nerve. My cousin's husband has scars on his arms from having pulled someone out of a burning camper.

but I strongly suspect it involves a lot of skills and training that non-firefighters don't get. And with all due respect to police -- and they do deserve respect -- they're police officers, not fire fighters.

What I think I know about fire fighters is that they are a very special breed. Years ago, a co-worker was eager to become a fire fighter. He was obsessed by it, and after a while passed the test or whatever it was, and left that job as happy as I have ever seen a human.

Sometimes, at a grocery store, I'll see the local firefighters buying food for their meals, and they exude an air of I just don't know what, something indefinable that is an integral part of who they are. It's almost like they are from some other planet, they are so different. I admire them enormously. I myself have never had a fire of any kind, and if I'm very lucky I'll go through life without ever needing their help. It has never occurred to me for one millisecond to question whatever part of my taxes goes to pay them and underwrite everything they need to do their jobs.

I look at our Firefighter guys/gals as our Guardian Angels. They are the salt of the earth. They walk into fires like Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo every day and save lives IF they can get there in time. And even then, they usually get the bodies out, before the house burns to the ground. Our state has had a couple horrible rural fires this week that did not turn out good. Think about the Firemen who responded to the Newtown, Ct tragedy.

Having watched Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and more, who can possibly imagine it will not cause us to suffer exactly as they.

they cannot offshore firemen and cops but they can COMBINE them??? F***!!!!!

insurance rates in towns affected in this manner.

I live in a large city in Ohio that has always had an excellent fire dept., and have been told that our household insurance rates are better than many because of this.

Now my city is projecting a deficit (thanks to our Republican governor shortchanging the cites) and the city is projecting about 80 firefighters would need to be laid off.

I have extreme sympathy for those Michigan cities under Emergency Managers.
Always have to ask, though, where were the Dem. voters in 2010, when all this damage went down.
Retaining democracy is our job every day, all day, not just in election years.

First Detroit has always been strongly Dem and still is, however it has been shrinking for years due to the slump in manufacturing and outsourcing. In the rural areas of Michigan it is very conservative, and very racially prejudiced. I believe that many in rural Michigan were voting against President Obama's race and saw the white self professed nerd, Snyder, as a hedge against Obama. In medium size city's like Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor there are more young Dems who worked very hard for Dem candidates. To describe Michigan as a Blue State is misleading.

Ohio has the same mix, and we got screwed badly in 2010, as well.

I'll never understand why the Dem. organization that worked so hard for Obama in 2008 was not there to work for state Rep. and Governors in 2010, for it was no secret that redistricting would happen following the census of 2010.

The damage is great, and not easily undone.

The Dem candidates lost by only 2000 to 3000 votes. This is much better than past elections. My area is considered unwinnable by Dems. The old joke goes that you couldn't get elected dog catcher here, well it's true.

who I never in a million years would have thought voted for Snyder, but a year or so after the fact they told me they did. I was shocked. These are people I know to be staunch Democrats but who were hoodwinked by Snyder.

be in a state of permanent fire sale to the private sector. In TN they let a man's home burn down because they said he hadn't paid. Just stood there with the hoses and watched it burn. No sense of decency or common good. That the EM has decided it was all good, is even more appalling. The residents of BH have been disenfranchised. This privatization. The argument will be they should have paid for this somehow. Belle Isle was the public park given away by Synder. It appears that the citizens of these cities are now completely beaten down by the 'majority' voter who voted in Synder. I don't believe that they will be able to resist in any way, legally or illegally. I am of the opinion that they want them all to leave or die. I hope the fireman sues. There is nothing can be done in a state like this that is run by Rethugs. We are the United States, and each state makes its own laws. Horrible to see this and I predict worse things will happen.

.... will suffer right along with everyone else. Imagine what they will do when their house burns to the ground? Or suffers from uncountable other decrees from the "Emergency Manager," re Snyder's cabal. Like if they need the police for whatever reason (home invasion or traffic accident) and they are not available because they are off fighting a fire somewhere?

...of this big "Emergency Manager" Tony Saunders? He's not an emergency manager... he's a business manager/dictator. How much you want to bet this man has absolutely NO ,i.e. zero, experience in actual emergency management. Has he been a Firefighter? A police officer? Has he had HazMat training? He says that training police to be firemen is a good "model", and that this model is really "gaining steam" around Michigan. Really? (And of course, the reporter just repeats his words and does absolutely no research to back up ANYTHING that he says.) And this is his final lame statement of defense that really doesn't make allot of sense: that what they want to do is "make sure that we are putting enough resources to take our public safety to the next level." What next level? What's so good about that next level? I'd say it's taking it down a level! And another thing... are the employees under this new "model" going to get a raise for doing two jobs in one, and for the added pressure that this big change brings????

I wonder how this is going down in the town of Benton Harbor?

Thanks, einlough, for sharing this article. I bet neighboring towns will have to come and help fight fires in Benton Harbor, since BH's only experienced fireman is recovering in the hospital. This is just a nightmare scenario for that community. I can imagine those police trying to do it on their own. I just hope the police stay safe.

Or is that no longer allowed in a town where democracy is dead?

but I agree it is unsafe and negligent to only have 1 firefighter. Call Edgar.

When the people of Benton Harbor fill the streets and reclaim city hall, it will stop.

I wonder when we (all of us, across the country) will reach the tipping point.

I hope I'm around to witness and participate.

This nonsense that business people can run everything because they know how to cut costs is destroying this country.
It is implanting a psychopathic management plan to replace the one that served the people.
Until our elected officials are no longer making money off of this scheme, it will only get worse. It is hands OFF all psycho management in order to save the ones in their portfolios.

A town of 10,000 probably can't afford a paid full-time department.

Most small towns around here have volunteer fire departments and EMS squads.