title:  In The Midst Of Scandal, Office Containing Flint Water Records ‘Broken Into’
text: As the Department of Justice prepared to investigate Flint, Michigan s poisoned water, someone allegedly  broke into  a vacant office where the city s water records are stored.For more than 18 months, residents of the city of Flint have been sounding the alarm over the appearance, taste and smell of the water flowing through their taps.As Addicting Info reported here in January of 2014, the water had an offensive odor, foul taste and looked like  chocolate milk on tap. Yet for months officials in republican governor Rick Snyder s administration assured the public the water was safe. These assurances came even after independent testing showed high levels of lead in the city s water supply.As additional testing confirmed a sharp increase in the level of lead present in the blood of Flint s children, public outrage and heightened media attention followed.ACLU investigative journalist Curt Guyette soon uncovered a wealth of damning evidence, showing that Snyder officials knew that the water flowing into the city was not safe to drink. As we reported here the ACLU s investigation showed that officials rigged tests and falsified documents, repeatedly breaking the law, in order to cover up the fact that the water was essentially poison.On January 6, the United States Department of Justice finally announced that the agency was preparing to conduct a formal investigation into the Flint lead-poisoning scandal.Strangely enough, in the midst of all this, someone allegedly broke into Flint City Hall. On January 11, city officials confirmed that the alleged break-in targeted the vacant office where the city of Flint s water records are stored.Flint mayor Kevin Weaver and Police Chief James Tolbert have refused to say if any records were stolen from the office.When asked about security video of the break-in, Police Chief Tolbert said, The video doesn t show anything. How convenient that someone just happened to break into the vacant office where the city s water records are kept, just as those very records were about to come under intense public and legal scrutiny. The fact that the burglars managed to get in and out of a government building without being seen by anyone, or even caught on video, also seems pretty damn convenient.Across Michigan citizens have been calling for the arrest of governor Snyder, as more and more evidence emerges showing that he and his administration purposely allowed the residents of Flint to drink water contaminated with lead for more than a year, all while assuring them it was safe.Given everything we already know about Snyder, the odds that this break-in was not related to Flint s poisoned water are slim to zero.Rick Snyder s watergate scandal is looking more and more like Richard Nixon s every day.Featured image credit: Brandon Anderson, via Flckr under CC 2.0