One Indiana City Shows America—Third-World Country
On Friday, residents and activists from East Chicago, Indiana, protested outside the offices of Mayor Anthony Copeland and the city Housing Authority.
In both locations, predominantly poor, African-American people protested their forced evictions in fewer than 10 days from the lead-contaminated West Calumet Complex to dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago and elsewhere.
In July, 2016, revelations of severe lead contamination rocked the complex: In the soil, lead levels 212 times the “allowable” limit were found (the complex was built on the site of an old lead-smelting plant). Residents were told the complex would be demolished and they had six months to find new homes for their families.
Residents, who were never told about the lead-contamination risks, were scared and confused. Most had never lived anywhere other than East Chicago and didn’t have the financial or educational resources to find new homes and schools for their families.
They received housing vouchers with little else: Scarce assistance in finding new homes, transportation to open houses, etc.
At the time, an EPA official told me the problem in East Chicago was exclusive to the soil and there was no water issue. Three months later, lead was found in drinking water.
This week, residents learned they’d be moved against their will to cities not of their choosing. Attorneys for the residents had been negotiating with the city to let the remaining 81 families in West Calumet Complex stay through the end of the school year, to avoid children being plucked from school with just two months left and key tests approaching.
But the mayor, with the approval of Ben Carson’s HUD, arbitrarily decided to forcefully evict these families, offering no assistance for school placement for children in their new cities, no assistance for Medicaid transfers across state lines, etc.
Essentially, after knowing for decades about the threat of high lead levels and contamination from the site’s industrial past (and continuing to move residents in anyway), the city is now giving these poor black residents a swift kick in the ass on their way out.
Bigger than just the city, Vice President Mike Pence, who was governor when the horrific lead and arsenic revelations came out, did nothing for East Chicago. He never came to speak with residents nor did he grant an emergency disaster declaration, which would have provided much-needed money for residents (new Governor Eric Holcomb has, although residents have seen no money to date).
Contrast that with Pence’s swift action in the face of a lead issue in predominantly white Greentown, Indiana: He quickly met with city officials and, within two months—problem fixed.
Pence, who could potentially be president one day, has never been taken to task by media or elected officials for his clear case of environmental racism.
And it was his inaction that stuck in my mind Friday as a chaotic scene erupted around me.
As protestors demonstrated outside the East Chicago Housing Authority, the executive director of the agency, Tia Cauley, ducked out of the building into her car.
Known for being unresponsive and rude to the residents she is supposed to be helping, Cauley was met by residents surrounding her car, trying simply to hand her a letter expressing their opposition to being forcefully evicted to cities not of their choosing.
Instead of speaking with residents or simply taking the letter, Cauley drove off, nearly running over residents in her path.
“I am absolutely appalled,” said Sheilah Garland, from National Nurses United, after the incident. “These adminstrators are so callous to what’s happening to the residents out here that they would choose to run us over than to take a piece of paper from us. So now I think the media, the world, as this goes out, will get a small glimpse of what the residents have been dealing with.”
Scenes like these, where officials devoid of self-awareness or empathy (or awareness of their jobs), happen across America on a daily basis, while main culprits responsible—like Vice President Pence—escape focus or criticism by a corporate media more focused on faux scandals and presidential tweets than on American cities and citizens being treated like third-world countries.
Three years ago it was Flint, which still can’t safely drink water and whose citizens have not been made whole. Today it’s East Chicago. As Reuters reported, over 3,000 cities in America have lead levels higher than Flint.
And the ultimate question comes down to this: If your city is next, will you accept subhuman treatment like residents of East Chicago have experienced?
Or fight back?
Join Jordan Chariton Tuesday at 8pm eastern, for a live Young Turks event — Flint: The Young Turks Town Hall. You can watch it live on Facebook.com/TheYoungTurks.








