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This was a massive mess up on an epic scale, and I agree with you that criminalizing opponents is a very bad thing. However, the Michigan water crisis is not si

This was a massive mess up on an epic scale, and I agree with you that criminalizing opponents is a very bad thing. However, the Michigan water crisis is not simply a matter of one party accusing another party of misdeeds baselessly. There was a systematic negligence of duty throughout a prolonged period of time from 2014 to 2016. Experts were repeatedly brought in to assess the situation and offered professional recommendations that were ignored by elected officials. This negligence directly lead to the deaths and permanent disabilities of people. This is not a political issue. Officials were warned that the Flint River was not adequately treated for legionella, and they did nothing. Officials were warned that lead pipes were leaching into the water supply because of the more acidic water from the Flint River and they did nothing. Simply because they wanted to save money by switching off of Detroit's treated water. This is negligence and the officials responsible deserve to be held accountable. The charges aren't even that steep; $1000 or up to 1 year in prison. Given that they are elected officials they'll probably get off with a slap on the wrist fine. Sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-michigan-governor-rick-snyder-facing-neglect-charges-over-flint-water-crisis/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-michigan-governor-rick-s... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis https://www.npr.org/2021/01/13/956592508/new-charges-in-flint-water-crisis-including-former-michigan-gov-rick-snyder https://www.npr.org/2021/01/13/956592508/new-charges-in-flin...

roenxi 6y ago
> This is not a political issue. It is a political issue. There are political factions that explicitly want complete negligence by government and/or want the government shut down. Small, but nevertheless valid, political actors. Now the situations are very different, but that doesn't change the fact that bringing charges against politicians for negligence is crossing dangerous and uncivil lines. One persons negligence is literally another person's vote winner. Furthermore, politicians can reasonably be incompetent in the face of crisis and should not be held accountable for that - they are at the end of the day just ordinary people. They don't know any more than we do what is going to happen in their term. It isn't fair to punish them for negligence if there isn't some formal standard of competence in appointing them (which is a totally silly idea and would be abused like mad in any political arena). "I don't understand water and chemistry and these experts looked untrustworthy" is a totally acceptable political defence, no matter how stupid that sounds or how damaging the outcomes. It is simply a matter of fact that politicians make decisions about things they don't understand and regularly make bad (read: horrible, horrific) decisions.

roenxi 6y ago

> This is not a political issue. It is a political issue. There are political factions that explicitly want complete negligence by government and/or want the government shut down. Small, but nevertheless valid, political actors. Now the situations are very different, but that doesn't change the fact that bringing charges against politicians for negligence is crossing dangerous and uncivil lines. One persons negligence is literally another person's vote winner. Furthermore, politicians can reasonably be incompetent in the face of crisis and should not be held accountable for that - they are at the end of the day just ordinary people. They don't know any more than we do what is going to happen in their term. It isn't fair to punish them for negligence if there isn't some formal standard of competence in appointing them (which is a totally silly idea and would be abused like mad in any political arena). "I don't understand water and chemistry and these experts looked untrustworthy" is a totally acceptable political defence, no matter how stupid that sounds or how damaging the outcomes. It is simply a matter of fact that politicians make decisions about things they don't understand and regularly make bad (read: horrible, horrific) decisions.