Post by Logan on Apr 21, 2016 0:11:16 GMT -6
For Gov. Rick Snyder, the first criminal charges filed in the Flint water crisis are an apparent vindication of his long-standing defense: that career bureaucrats, not Snyder or his top lieutenants, poisoned Flint.
And it's true that the three men charged, the first significant outcome of an investigation launched by state Attorney General Bill Schuette, fit the bill. The City of Flint's Michael Glasgow and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch are accused of crimes ranging from misconduct in office to water treatment violations to tampering with evidence, charges that reflect the trio's hands-on roles in Flint's 2014 drinking water switch and subsequent failure to properly treat its water.
Snyder has accepted responsibility for Flint. But he continues to dodge blame, which he'd prefer to see land at the feet of those career bureaucrats.
What happened in Flint is complicated, a series of disastrous decisions made and OK'd by numerous government officials, set against the backdrop of decades of urban disinvestment and regional racism.
Read more: www.freep.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/04/21/flint-criminal-charges/83293934/
And it's true that the three men charged, the first significant outcome of an investigation launched by state Attorney General Bill Schuette, fit the bill. The City of Flint's Michael Glasgow and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch are accused of crimes ranging from misconduct in office to water treatment violations to tampering with evidence, charges that reflect the trio's hands-on roles in Flint's 2014 drinking water switch and subsequent failure to properly treat its water.
Snyder has accepted responsibility for Flint. But he continues to dodge blame, which he'd prefer to see land at the feet of those career bureaucrats.
What happened in Flint is complicated, a series of disastrous decisions made and OK'd by numerous government officials, set against the backdrop of decades of urban disinvestment and regional racism.
Read more: www.freep.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/04/21/flint-criminal-charges/83293934/