Michael Moore TV - Glenn Miller - Thomas Anderson - America Unearthed TV - With Babies & Banners: Story of the Emergency Women’s Brigade 1979 - Here’s to Flint 2016 - Flint Town 2018 - Nova: Poisoned Water TV - Ancient Aliens TV -
I was a kind of a strange child. My parents knew early on something must be wrong with me. Michael Moore, Roger & Me, 1989
When I was a kid I thought only three people worked for General Motors: Pat Boone, Diana Shaw and my dad. My birthplace of Flint, Michigan, was the birthplace of General Motors, the biggest corporation in the world. There were more auto factories and auto workers here than any other city on Earth. ibid.
My uncle Vern was in something called the Great Flint sit-down strike. Just hours before the year’s end in 1936 he and thousands of other GM workers took over the Flint factories and barricaded themselves inside refusing to budge for forty-four days. The National Guard was called in. ibid.
Ronald Reagan arrived in Flint and took a dozen unemployed workers out for a pizza. ibid.
I continued my search for Roger [Smith, General Motors]. ibid.
With 30,000 jobs now eliminated, the city decided to turn to that one event that had made us so happy – the Grand Parade. ibid.
Deputy Fred Ross seemed especially busy these days. After doing twenty-four evictions in one day he arrived to evict a woman who was a month behind in her rent. She quickly got the landlord on the phone and after telling him that a film crew had arrived with the sheriff the landlord told Fred not to evict the woman and her children. ibid.
The Mayor though was having better luck with an even higher authority. He paid TV evangelist Robert Schuller $20,000 to come to Flint and rid the city of its unemployment plague. ibid.
The crowning jewel in Flint’s plan to attract tourists was Auto World, hailed by city officials as the world’s largest indoor theme park. ibid.
Auto World closed due to a lack of visitors. ibid.
Half of Flint was now receiving some form of government welfare. Meanwhile, Roger Smith gave himself a $2,000,000 raise. ibid.
I grew up in Michigan: a gun-lovers’ paradise … Everyone loves to go hunting. Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine, 2002
No terrorist organisation has yet to figure out how to poison an entire American city [Flint]. That took the Republican party of Michigan and its CEO governor to pull off. Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 11/9, 2018
Under President Obama it became OK to imprison whistleblowers more than all previous presidents combined; he used drone strikes to bomb civilian populations; and he deported a record number of immigrants and refugees: what Flint needed was for President Obama to dig up the toxic pipes and have them replaced, but instead of sending in the army corps of engineers, he just sent in the army. ibid.
I’m going to Michigan to see the sweetest gal in Kalamazoo. Glenn Miller, 1942
It’s basically Nottingham, only with bigger cars. Thomas Anderson, cited The Official Unpatriotic Americans June 2012
Isle Royale, Lake Superior Michigan – investigating the Michigan copper culture ... America Unearthed: Great Lake Copper Heist, H2 2013
A tablet with cryptic symbols ... At some point prior to Columbus coming to America, much of the Great Lake’s copper disappeared. ibid.
40th anniversary of the Great G M Sit-Down Strike: ‘… faced the buckshot, faced the tear-gas, this armband still has the tear-gas on it. The Women’s Emergency Brigade of Flint, Michigan made American history …’ With Banners & Babies: Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade, conference speaker, 1979
We were the pioneers of the labour movement. ibid. striker
The more you produced, the more likely you would keep their job. ibid.
The foremen were using the girls and holding it over their heads that if they didn’t do what they wanted to do, they wouldn’t have a job. ibid.
That’s all we had in Flint, Michigan – churches and bars. ibid.
We met in a little coalshed. ibid.
They would have done anything to turn one against the other. ibid.
That’s when we decided to form the Women’s Auxiliary. ibid.
General Motors’ goons – our lives were in danger – they actually prepared with guns. ibid.
First they turned the heat off on ’em, then they turned the water off on ’em. ibid.
The victory was won and the UAW was born. ibid.
Ambrose: We chose to use the Flint River for a short period of time …
Protester: You’re killing us!
Ambrose: I’m not killing anybody. Here’s to Flint, opening lines, 2016
… Nearly every city and school district that has had its democracy suspended under emergency management is a community like Flint, majority African-American and saddled with high poverty. ibid.
The city’s long-term water source was switched from Detroit’s regional system … [to] the highly corrosive Flint River. ibid.
‘We’re living in a nightmare.’ ibid. resident
No corrosion control was being used. ibid.
‘We’re getting poisoned water and we have no rights.’ ibid. resident
Flint river water is very corrosive to lead, and causing lead contamination in homes. ibid. caption
It was a great place to grow up. The school was less than 200 years away that I went to elementary school; down the street going the other way we had a huge park … Flint Town s1e1: Welcome to Flint Town, rozzer opening comments, Netflix 2018
This is the story about an American city in critical condition. ibid. Dan Rather news report
They had a complete lack of trust in us. ibid. female rozzer
I don’t think anyone’s coming to help us. ibid. resident
The city of Flint is under a state of emergency after poisonous lead is found in the water supply. An election for mayor is a week away leading to uncertainty for the chief and the department. ibid. captions
There needs to be seven more of me to handle the case load. ibid. Bridgette Balasko, female rozzer
Over the past ten years budget cut have reduced the Flint police force from 300 officers to 98 serving 100,000 citizens. ibid. caption
We are absolutely in a crisis with the community. ibid. male rozzer
The biggest problem we have is the shootings just at night, the shootings back and forth. ibid. resident
But sometimes it seems as if the problems have no end. Flint Town s1e2: Two Guns, male rozzer
The Flint police department sends new hires to a regional police academy for 16 weeks of basic training. There are four Flint P.D. recruits in this year’s class. They are the department’s first new cadets in three years. ibid. captions
We’re policing the community in survival mode. ibid. male rozzer
How can you trust the police? How can you? Flint Town s1e3: The Rat Pack, dude
Maria Reed … Dion Reed … Maria is Dion’s mother. It’s a first for our academy. They both did an awesome job. ibid. diploma award ceremony
… twelve of them were hit; five of them were killed and then he engaged in an extended fire fight with Dallas P D … and blew him the fuck up. Flint Town s1e4: Death & Homicide, rozzers get news from Dallas
There are just a lot more people who want to target you now. ibid. rozzer
2016 Catt Squad stats: 107 illegal guns off the streets; 560 people arrested; Arrests resulted in 619 felony charges. Flint Town s1e5: The Numbers
If you think there are problems with the way things are going, maybe not here in Flint but in the United States as a whole, come help us solve them. ibid. caption
Flint dramatically reduced violent crime in 2016. ibid. WMEN5 news report
There’s fifty calls on the board and there’s four cars to run all day. ibid. switchboard rozzer
It’s been a particularly violent weekend in Flint with detectives investigating three separate homicides. Flint Town s1e6: Devil’s Night, news report
If we don’t get the money, we’re gonna lose police officers. ibid. council member, re millage
Traverse City, Michigan: A series of strange underwater rock alignments. Ancient Aliens s10e1: Aliens BC, History 2015