Justice Delayed is Justice Forgotten
The documentary I decided to watch was Flint’s Deadly Water, which fits in with the topic of class and crime. The documentary discusses the issues with Flint, Michigan’s water crisis and how it has led to an outbreak of a disease called Legionnaire’s. Legionnaire’s disease is a deadly form of pneumonia that was caused by waterborne bacteria that was growing in the water pipes for over a year before it was made known to the public and to the residents of Flint. This documentary also talks about how state and local government officials failed to stop this water crisis that caused a large number of casualties.
Flint, Michigan is home to about 96,000 people, with 53.7% of its residents being African American and about 40% of them being in poverty. The city of Flint itself was in poverty and considered to be one of the poorest cities in America, which is why the government officials of Flint decided to switch to a new water pipeline that was supposed to be cheaper, several million dollars cheaper. Flint originally got their water from a Detroit water supply, but officials decided to switch to temporarily getting their water from the Flint River while the new pipe was being built. They had to go back to using an old water treatment plan, however, the plan had not been used in almost half a century. Many people, including Matt McFarland and Mike Glasgow, had concerns about this new plan for the water, concluding that the water was not ready to be used and there was not enough staff to help ready the water, but officials overlooked their concern. Mike Glasgow even said that if the water plant were to open on schedule, it would be against his direction, but he never received a response to his suggestion. Within weeks of the opening of the water plant, residents began to send in reports of the water being brown and foul-smelling. By the end of 2014, there were 40 confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease, along with 3 confirmed deaths. A woman from the health department claimed that this deadly outbreak could not be from the water since the water was never tested. No government officials took this seriously, in fact, a letter was drafted to alert medical professionals about this disease, but the letter was never sent because the person in charge was absent that day. So, only 15 people were notified about the problem. Dr. Stout, Director of the Special Pathogens Lab, insisted that the CDC be contacted, but a letter sent to them stated that Flint did not need the CDC’s help and if they did, they would contact them. The CDC responded by saying that they saw an urgent need for an investigation since this was one of the largest outbreaks in years. However, once high levels of lead in the water were made public, the local and state officials had no choice but to confront this water problem. At this time, Todd Flood was brought in to do a criminal investigation on the water. Todd’s investigation was bringing forth evidence of misconduct and negligence, and that he believed that the government tried to cover up the water crisis. In fact, Frontline found dozens of other deaths due to Legionnaires’ disease, which was reported as death from pneumonia. After the investigation, the judge ordered Dr. Wells and Nick Lyon to stand trial, however, both appealed, which caused the trial to take even longer. When a new Attorney General was appointed, she appointed new prosecutors who dropped the charges against both Wells and Lyons. That is why I believe that no justice will be served in this case. There was no point to completely just throw the case out, especially with all the evidence that showed Lyon and Wells tried covering up the crisis. I believe they deserved to be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
A government-appointed civil rights commission in Michigan claimed that systemic racism played a major role in the Flint water crisis and that the emergency manager law is disproportionate and hurts people of color the most. I believe that the water crisis has been going on for so long because the majority of their residents were poor, African American families. If this water crisis happened in a rich, predominantly white neighborhood, the issue would have been fixed very quickly. The problem with this whole outbreak was the fact that the government officials knew that there was a Legionnaires’ outbreak, but instead of alerting the public, they decided to keep it quiet. If the government officials alerting their residents of this deadly disease, so many innocent lives could have been spared. Nick Lyon was so unbothered by this whole crisis that he said that people are going to die of something someday. That just shows how little care he had. Jasmine McBride was one of the people who contracted Legionnaires’ disease, and for a few years, she was surviving with this disease. Even though her lungs were failing, her heart was failing, she was on oxygen, and in need of a transplant, she was still fighting to stay alive. Unfortunately, her body was under so much stress that it caused her to have a cardiac arrest and die.
I think it is important to watch this documentary because it shows just how the government can betray its people, especially those of a lower class. This documentary has given me even more reason to believe that America does not care about people who do not have a high-class standing. Knowing that the government sat back and watched hundreds of people die, it is hard to believe that they actually care about their people.
References
Ellis, A., Ruble, K., Carah, J., Childress, S., & Koughan, F. (2019). Flint’s Deadly Water. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/flints-deadly-water/
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