BRATTLEBORO-Now comes word that the former owner of 69A has been arrested for allegedly selling drugs to the very people she claimed to be helping. For the neighbors, this was not a shock. It was a confirmation.
This development came as no surprise to those of us who live near the old and new sites of this unapproved, unplanned homeless arts space. While elected officials chose to believe its founder over the neighbors who raised alarms, we were witnessing the reality on the ground every day - constant police visits, ambulances arriving to carry away overdose victims, and a revolving door of crisis that never seemed to end. Every one of those responses came at taxpayer expense.
Some will point to the judges as the problem - a catch-and-release system that returns drug dealers to the streets before the paperwork dries. But the judges are not the issue. They follow the laws they are given.
The issue lies with the lawmakers we elect - lawmakers who have embraced a philosophy of leniency toward those who prey on the vulnerable, while tuning out the taxpayers who fund their salaries and live with the consequences of their decisions.
It is time to hold those lawmakers accountable at the ballot box.
Brattleboro deserves elected officials who understand that enabling drug dealing is not compassion - it is abdication. We also deserve an honest public conversation about benefit policies that are drawing people in crisis to our community without the infrastructure to support them or protect our neighborhoods.
The human cost is devastating. The financial cost is bankrupting our town.
Neighbors raised their voices. They were dismissed. These recent events - and the bill that came with them - are what dismissal costs.
Timothy Belknap
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
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