BRATTLEBORO-Stop making Brattleboro a dumping ground for all the greater region's criminal and drug population. Other towns need to share in the effort to combat these societal problems. It cannot all rest on Brattleboro's shoulders.
Otherwise, Brattleboro will eventually collapse under the weight and become a dystopian hellscape of crime, drugs, and homelessness, as Portland, Oregon has become and as Burlington, Vermont is becoming.
To be clear, homelessness does not always coincide with drug behavior and crime, but it is nonetheless a societal problem that the greater region is shouldering Brattleboro with disproportionately.
As a downtown business owner, I have front-row seats to what goes on down here every day. If you are not here often, please do not comment on that which you do not know about.
A considerable number of bad actors downtown deserve long prison sentences, and that cannot happen soon enough. Yes, we can arrest our way out of a lot of these problems, and we absolutely should.
Incarceration for criminal behavior is not only good for our community, but in many cases is the best thing for the person to spend time in the state corrections system.
Human nature is to respond to consequences. Without consequences, many never modulate their behavior.
Compassion for criminals that creates cruelty to law-abiding citizens is fundamentally illogical and unjust. You're entitled to your own freedom, not to take others' away.
Criminals, drug activity, and vagrancy are a blight on our town and harm hard-working, good people trying to earn a living and provide for their children.
Enough is enough. We are getting tougher, but we still have a ways to go in getting truly tough on addressing these problems.
We can start with a statute greatly limiting panhandling. Our town needs to stand up to the often-radical and extremist American Civil Liberties Union, which doesn't seem to care about the suffering of hard-working, law-abiding citizens and the destruction of their communities.
We need to get the message out that in many cases when you give money to panhandlers, you are directly funding heroin. Often, the most harmful, least compassionate thing you can do for panhandlers is to give money to them. If you want to truly help a panhandler, donate food or necessities, or direct them to one of the myriad social services offered in this community, such as Groundworks.
Next, we can continue to add police officers. The police are already doing a great job, but they are stretched, so adding officers to make as robust a police force as possible will help.
Thirdly, other towns need to contribute to assisting the unhoused. Brattleboro is carrying more than its fair share. It's not right. We can house people and end homelessness much more effectively if it's not just Brattleboro doing all the work.
Lastly, we should expand the State's Attorney's Office in Brattleboro, giving its staff more resources to vigorously prosecute criminal behavior. Let's work together to send a message - You are going to lose. You are going to jail.
Let the message reverberate in the region that criminals and illicit drug behavior is thoroughly unwelcome here.
Spencer Crispe
Brattleboro
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