PUTNEY — Here is a thought experiment for Vermonters:
Picture, if you can, Daniel Banyai, owner of the Slate Ridge property in West Pawlet, as a Black man.
How long do you think an illegal firearms and militia training school would last? And how would the national media portray a Black man offering classes in carjacking?
That alone would be an international story for the far right to share: “The snowflake government of the state of Vermont is allowing a thug to teach carjacking.”
What if a Black man threatened surrounding residents with death? How restrained would the state police be? And what about a Black man swearing at and generally disrespecting the different judges who have been forced to issue rulings that the state just ignores?
We see an epidemic of judicial and executive support of far-right white privilege in this country: Ammon Bundy, Kyle Rittenhouse, and so many others commit serious, violent crime and walk away, often to fame and fortune.
As many have said, imagine if a Black Lives Matter group had broken into and vandalized the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Everyone knows it would have been a bloodbath.
These cases link together because it appears that the states and the federal government are complicit in empowering these dangerous far-right criminals, whether out of fear or agreement with their goals. It must stop.
It is time to enforce the law in West Pawlet.