Flint, Rick Snyder — January 14, 2016 at 2:26 pm

Is the Flint City Hall break-in the Michigan version of “Watergate”???

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– Chris

Last December, a Flint government staffer returned from the Christmas break and discovered that an office in City Hall had been broken into. So far as anyone knows, only a television was stolen. However, that same office was used to store documents related to Flint’s water system and Flint’s new mayor doesn’t know if any of them are missing:

Officials say a recent city hall break-in occurred in an office containing documents related to the city’s water system.

Flint police previously reported a break-in at City Hall, 1101 S. Saginaw St. over the holiday break, but information released Monday, Jan. 11, confirmed the break-in happened at a vacant executive office in the mayor’s suite that contained documents related to the city’s water system.

“The office that was broken into is where some water files are kept,” Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said. “However, at this point it’s hard to tell if any files were taken. The only thing we know for sure was stolen is a TV.”

Flint Police Chief James Tolbert said investigators were working to discover if any documents connected to the city’s water system were taken. […]

“The video doesn’t show anything,” Tolbert said. “Officers are now doing a security survey.”

Oddly, no other offices were broken into, even those containing computers, laptops, and other far more valuable items than a single television.

I’m also told that the investigation has been taken out of the hands of local law enforcement and has been taken over by the State Police which is, of course, a government agency that is part of the Snyder administration.

Those of us who are old enough can remember the Watergate Hotel break-in in the early 70s. The subsequent cover-up and then explosive investigation and trial uncovered all manner of shady practices and “dirty tricks” by the Nixon administration and led to his eventual impeachment and removal from office.

With the Snyder administration stalling and stalling and stalling to keep federal officials from investigating what happened in Flint that led to poisoned drinking water, this has a very familiar whiff of scandal emanating from it.

Call it Watergate II, the Flint Edition.

Governor Snyder could put much of this to rest by simply opening the books and doing away with the law that allows him to hide behind executive privilege and evade Freedom of Information Act requests. He needs to tell the world what he and his staff knew and when they knew it to prove that his claims of knowing nothing about it until October 2015 are true. Because, given the preponderance of evidence that we have now, it’s becoming increasingly hard to swallow.

Common Cause has a petition calling for Gov. Snyder to stop the B.S. and release all documents relating to the Flint Water Crisis and the poisoning of Flint residents through their tap water:

For over a year, the residents of Flint residents were exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water after the city began to draw its drinking water from the Flint River. Since the switch to the river water, more children in Flint have elevated levels of lead in their blood.

This travesty demands actions, and demands answers.

Demand that Governor Snyder release all documentation and correspondence related to the water crisis immediately!

Click HERE to sign their petition.

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