THE CLOCK TICKS … as Detroit Marches against Tyranny

Detroit council member, JoAnn Watson has thrown her weight behind a number of events planned to protest what is being seen as the dictatorial tendency of the state governor, Rick Snyder.  Speaking with the Ethnic Examiner in a telephone chat, sources close to the indefatigable council woman said she was horrified at the Emergency Financial Manager Bills.

According to the bill, the state treasurer and the chief administrative officer of a local unit of government would be compelled to enter into an agreement that could give city manager, city superintendent, township manager, or county executive the authority to, amongst other things:

Ø  Rewrite entire contracts that were bargained in good faith

Ø  Put a local unit of government into receivership allowing a receiver to take over the entire government

Ø  Void all contracts

Ø  Abolish elected local units of government

Ø  A receivership would mean eliminating the rights of the people to collective bargaining for 5 years and allow a receiver to write local government’s budget for two years after a financial emergency is long over.

Ø  The receiver would have total control over everything the local government does and be accountable to only one appointed state official

Ø  And that the receiver would act with immunity from any civil liability and be afforded representation in any criminal prosecution by the Attorney General.

Council woman, JoAnn Watson described the bill as undemocratic, and capable of creating the first ever dictator in the country’s political history. She was of the view that the bill was in bad faith, calculated to subjugate the will of the people and therefore, subject them to the whims and caprices of an over-reaching and over-bearing state chief executive.  Mrs. Watson said that the danger with the bill is that appointees would serve at the pleasure of the governor and not taxpayers.  JoAnn Watson, known for her unremitting advocacy for the people of Detroit therefore, called on all Detroiters to join her and the organizers of the protest march AFSCME on April 13 2011, at the state capital Lansing between 12noon – 5pm. According to the council woman, history is always on the side of the people, “for when we fight, we win.”