General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn ugly racial incident in Vermont- and the state reacts with fury
Vermont has all of two PoC in its House of Representatives. That's bad enough, but this is just disgusting:
From a local selectman to the Speaker of the House in Vermont, officials are denouncing a local man's tweet directed at state Rep. Kiah Morris as "racist" and "pure hate in plain sight."
Max Misch of Bennington posted on Twitter last week a cartoon caricature of a black person, with the caption, "S---, I be representin dem white m---f--- of Bennington, gnome sayin?" The Banner dashed certain of Misch's words for publication.
The tweet was in response to the news that Morris, who is black, had won the Democratic primary in her bid for re-election as a local state representative. The message was tweeted at Morris.
Morris posted a screenshot of the image to her Facebook page on Tuesday and wrote, "Haven't been on my Twitter in a few days, thought I would share this." As of Wednesday afternoon, her post has been shared 27 times and has more than 85 comments, universally in support of Morris.
It drew the attention of several political figures who roundly castigated Misch. They posted their comments in replies to Morris' Facebook post.
"He's not just ignorant, he is a racist pig," said state Rep. Rae Fields of Bennington, who also recently won her primary for re-election.
"This, Kiah, is the lowest of the low ... pure hate in plain sight," said Bennington Selectman Michael Keane. "It is time to make this matter extremely public and subject the person(s) doing this to you, Kiah, to chastisement. The only way to pull out the roots of ugliness and racism are to acknowledge and identify them. You can't heal a sickness with a band-aid."
"This is abhorrent," said Speaker of the Vermont House Shap Smith. Smith was recently defeated in the Democratic primary race for lieutenant governor. "Thankfully, the majority of the people in your district know how incredible you are."
<snip>
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_30260020/legislators-react-strongly-racist-tweet-at-vermonts-rep
chillfactor
(7,566 posts)he has to be one of t-rump's deranged followers.
Blue Idaho
(4,988 posts)Trumps embrace of the Breitbart wing of the Republican Party will embolden the violent racist scum that follow his every word.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)And a hard-core racist and anti-semite.
His Twitter feed is scary.
cali
(114,904 posts)<snip>
The person responding from the Max Misch page said he was unhappy with Morris.
She tweeted recently about her support for the resettlement of so-called refugees to V(ermont,) when its been reported that some of them have deadly communicable diseases, such as active tuberculosis, he said.
The comment appears to refer to the Syrian and Iraqi refugees who are expected to arrive before the end of the year in Rutland.
The man asked if he could add another comment.
Her ethnicity also tends to make her much more lenient toward the predominantly black/hispanic criminals who bring heroin up to Bennington, pushing it on white kids and destroying many lives/families all around our community, he said.
Asked if he had reason to believe that Morris held those opinions or if he was basing his comment on her race, he said he was not aware of anything Morris had done as a legislator. But he said those are her strongly-held beliefs based on a victim culture, as a member of a supposedly oppressed group in this country.
<snip>
http://www.timesargus.com/article/20160818/NEWS01/160819607/0/NEWS
ProfessorPlum
(11,252 posts)That asshat doesn't know anything about her beliefs or how she legislates. He just assumes, and hates her for it. And it's fascinating how sure he is about his assumptions.
Terrible.
a la izquierda
(11,784 posts)I am so done with people. I don't even know what else to say to this.
Mendocino
(7,430 posts)of Bennington VT who pleaded not guilty in a first degree aggravated domestic violence assault charge? He allegedly tried to strangle his girlfriend.
cali
(114,904 posts)Mendocino
(7,430 posts)find his twitter account. UGH!
cali
(114,904 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)http://digital.vpr.net/post/police-data-show-racial-bias-what-about-rest-criminal-justice-system#stream/0
http://www.zuckermanforvt.com/zuckerman-campaign-discuss-racism-vermont/
http://www.vtcucc.org/Uprooting_Racism_Task_Force.html
Driving up North Street in his black SUV the afternoon of July 1, Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo spotted one of his rookie cops talking with a Somali American man outside the Community Halal Store. Del Pozo, dressed in his dark blue uniform with expertly burnished tuxedo shoes, pulled over and walked up to them.
Abdinur Hassan greeted the chief like an old friend. "Abu Zane!" ("Father of Zane!" he called out, referring to del Pozo's young son Zane.
"I was just learning about Islam," explained Vincent Ross, a lanky officer assigned to patrol North Street on foot.
"Are you observing Ramadan?" del Pozo asked Hassan. Then he added, switching casually to Arabic, "Ba'ad sitta ayoum, inta khallas, nam?" ("After six days, you're finished, yes?"
"Yes, yes, khallas," answered Hassan.
In the year since he arrived in Burlington, del Pozo has become a ubiquitous presence in the city, equally comfortable talking about Islam outside a halal shop, debating drones with privacy advocates or discussing film with a reporter.
The energetic Brooklyn native, an 18-year veteran of the New York City Police Department, was picked by Mayor Miro Weinberger to replace outgoing chief Mike Schirling. It was a controversial choice. Del Pozo endured intense grilling, but in the end he won over the city council. Even so, Burlingtonians may not have fully understood what they were getting: a chief with big ambitions to position this small city at the vanguard of American policing reform.
The Ivy-educated del Pozo is working on a PhD in philosophy and has a book deal with a prestigious publishing house. He's an "intellectual with a badge," says a New York acquaintance, writer Gary Shteyngart.
Hardly an armchair chief, del Pozo combines a philosopher's appetite for discourse with a cop's inclination toward action.
Since his arrival, he's put his department at the center of efforts to address opiate addiction and mental health crises. He has equipped all cruisers with the overdose-reversing drug Narcan. He's created new positions to address domestic violence and community affairs, ramped up online data and increased officer training and foot patrols.
Del Pozo's dogged outreach he invites imams to lunch; he meets with antipolice activists and then tweets about it isn't mere image burnishing. It's precisely the kind of community policing he wants his officers to master.
New Haven, Conn., Police Chief Dean Esserman calls del Pozo "one of the future great American police chiefs." Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a progressive policing think tank in Washington, D.C., calls him a "rising star" and describes his approach to policing as "iconoclastic."
Del Pozo has become a law enforcement leader during a particularly fraught time in American policing. Last week, police officers killed two black men in Baton Rouge, La., and outside St. Paul, Minn. Then, at a protest in Dallas on Thursday night, a gunman shot and killed five police officers. The events brought the rift between cops and communities of color into sharp relief.
"Every police department is now inextricably a part of a national debate, and we're no different," del Pozo said during an interview Monday. "There's no room for complacency in American policing right now."
His conclusion: "I believe that, at the root of it all, communities of color and police officers are all good people, and familiarity goes further than anything else in bringing them together. Cultural competency training is crucial, but it's more about citizens and police sharing spaces and experiences day after day." He added: "We can accomplish that."
<snip>
http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/scholar-in-chief-burlingtons-top-cop-del-pozo-aims-to-rewrite-policing/Content?oid=3476938
That's the chief of the largest "city" in Vermont. And recently, police and criminal justice figures, such as lawyers, judges and advocates met at Vt law school to discuss working on these issues.
We may be largely white. We may have our problems with racism, but there is a concerted statewide effort to face it directly and work on it. And don't forget, twice, Vermonters voted in greater numbers for President Obama than any other state outside HI and DC.
Vinca
(50,168 posts)I live in a NH town on the Vermont line. We're the epicenter of the heroin crisis. People come up from the cities on a daily basis to sell their wares and they get busted. I see it in the local paper every day. It appears many of those people - not all - are POC. That would account for what appears to be (but isn't) racial bias.
Grins
(7,132 posts)You "built that!", GOP. And no one else. Heckofajob!
cali
(114,904 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)That twitter feed is disgusting.
cali
(114,904 posts)and on Kiah's page. My state rep, liked my post and Vermonters all over fb are expressing their disgust. But I want this creep off Twitter.