Michael Moore Wants Snyder Arrested Over Flint Water

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FLINT, MI – Who thought filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore, a Flint native, would be the calm voice of reason as celebrities wade into the Flint water crisis?

He is, by comparison, anyway. He merely thinks Gov.Rick Snyder should be arrested — a less drastic measure than music superstar Cher called for Tuesday in a Twitter rage. She said — gulp — a “firing squad works for me.”

Snyder and other state officials are mired in controversy over Flint’s water supply after the city began getting its water from the Flint River, rather than Lake Huron, a cost-saving saving move that exposed residents of the city to lead poisoning, which can cause irreversible brain damage in children.

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• Cher: Firing Squad for Governor Over Flint Water Crisis

Moore has started a petition on his website calling for the Republican governor’s arrest on corruption and assault charges — the latter, he alleged, reflecting “the physical assault you committed against the children of Flint when you knowingly poisoned them.”

In his opening lines, Moore wrote:

“Thanks to you, sir, and the premeditated actions of your administrators, you have effectively poisoned, not just some, but apparently ALL of the children in my hometown of Flint, Michigan.

“And for that, you have to go to jail.

“To poison all the children in an historic American city is no small feat. Even international terrorist organizations haven’t figured out yet how to do something on a magnitude like this.

But you did. …”

Moore said that even General Motors won’t allow the auto parts used in car manufacturing to come in contact with Flint water because of its corrosive properties.

Snyder spokesman David Murray denounced celebs’ rhetoric, according to The Detroit News.

Near the end of the letter, Moore wrote: “You have destroyed a generation of children — and for that, you must pay.”

Though Democratic state representatives from Flint have criticized Snyder’s handling of the catastrophe, they haven’t called for his arrest.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade’s office in Detroit is investigating the contamination of Flint’s water in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Snyder has declared an emergency in Flint to deal with the crisis.

The cost to fix Flint’s lead-damaged infrastructure could soar as high as $1.5 billion, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Related

• Pediatrician Exposed Crisis of Lead in Flint Water
• State Delayed Action on Lead in Flint Water
• DEQ Director Resigns Over Flint Water Crisis
• Justice Department Looking at Flint Water Crisis
• Governor Declares Emergency in Flint Water Crisis

In a meeting Thursday with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, Snyder apologized again for the state’s role in the crisis.

The Flint Water Advisory Task Force said the state’s Department of Environmental Quality was primarily responsible for the state’s failure to deal with the crisis sooner, and last week, Snyder accepted the resignation of DEQ Director Dan Wyant.

With Weaver by his side at a new conference near his offices in the Romney Building in Lansing, Snyder said state officials are taking the situation “extremely seriously.”

» Photo David Shankbone via Flickr / Creative Commons