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Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
First, let me state that we, as members of the Brattleboro Police Department, both personally and professionally find the offensive and threatening anti-Semitic statements that were written to be heinous and unacceptable. They espouse a type of hatred and intolerance that has no place in our community.
The Brattleboro Police are investigating this incident in order to make contact with the perpetrator so that we can conduct a threat assessment and determine the risk of violence posed by this person.
Arlene Distler and Steve Minkin are correct that police are not investigating this incident as a criminal offense. It is inaccurate, however, to assert that the police made this decision.
In State v. Schenk, the Vermont Supreme Court explicitly stated that speech (including writings) must meet a certain threshold in order to be considered a threat. In that case, a person distributed flyers from the Ku Klux Klan, a hate group factually known to have murdered minorities, to African Americans in Burlington. The suspect was charged with hate-motivated disorderly conduct.
A few weeks ago, during a trip to Boston, I picked up The Boston Globe to read coverage of the Patriots' unfortunate loss to the Denver Broncos. On the front page, above the fold, a headline read “Police look to cut a backlog: Complaints against officers to be mediated.”
