WDIV reporter Hank Winchester’s suggestion on MSNBC that some Detroiters are delinquent on their water bills because they’d “rather spend money on cable” has drawn some angry responses.
Among those arrested were pastors and seniors, who were placed in the backs of police cars and hauled off.
Often lost in the discussion about Detroit’s bankruptcy is the scope of the city’s troubles following six spiraling decades of job losses and residential flight.
Maureen Taylor pulled no punches, saying the WDIV reporter “doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”
When we launched Motor City Muckraker in the summer of 2012, we wanted to explore Detroit in ways that the local media hadn’t.
This isn’t the 1967 riots. There’s no smoke or soot billowing into the air, but Detroit is still being looted by desperate people.
With roughly 215 murders so far this year, the city is on pace to eclipse homicides in each of the past three years.
Who are the scrappers? They are laid-off autoworkers, drug addicts, high school dropouts and others trying to get by.
While residents are deprived of a safe, clean environment, the company is raking in federal tax subsidies for low-income residents and people with disabilities.
Feds went undercover to investigate protests over the emergency manager, wages for teachers and city workers, inadequate transportation and rising poverty. No violence ever broke out.