DETROIT, MI — Eight activists arrested and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for blocking water shutoff trucks in Detroit last summer are scheduled to appear in Wayne County’s 36th District Court for a pretrial hearing at 1:30 p.m. Monday.
They joined about 50 protestors outside Homrich Inc., a company that executes water disconnections for Detroit, in July and have since dubbed themselves the Homrich 9.
“We are arguing for a jury’s right to hear all the evidence of how our action was intended, and did, in fact, prevent what bankruptcy Judge Stephen Rhodes has called an ‘irreparable harm’ to citizens of Detroit,” said defendant Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann, pastor of St Peter’s Episcopal, in a prepared statement. “Lives and health were imminently endangered. We acted in that knowledge and conviction.”
In 2014, 33,607 accounts were shutoff, according to Greg Eno, spokesman for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Those shutoffs resulted in an outcry by civil rights activists, many who touted the slogan, “water is a human right.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has been adamant that free water cannot be an option. It must be paid for.