Tag Archives: Chad Whitehead

Remember the Great Anti-Police Protests in St. Johnsbury? Yeah, Me Neither.

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Ah yes, the golden days of the early ’20s, when hordes of left-wingers took over the streets of St. Johnsbury and the town’s progressive leadership responded by cutting the police department’s budget.

Oh wait, you say that didn’t happen?

Well, then explain this.

The briefly (and marginally) successful “defund the police” movement in Burlington is being blamed — several years later — for the Queen City’s struggle to fight crime, substance use, vandalism, and fears about public safety. And yet, according to VTDigger’s Kingdom correspondent K. Fiegenbaum, the town of St. Johnsbury is suffering from exactly the same suite of problems.

As are most or all of Vermont’s other cities and towns, from Rutland to Bennington to Brattleboro to St. Albans to Montpelier and beyond.

It’s almost as if the root causes lay beyond a certain city’s brief dalliance with trimming police budgets. It’s almost as if the problems are systemic, statewide, beyond the capacity of any local or county official to control. Even when, as in St. J, St. A, and Rutland, those officials are predominantly Republican and not at all “woke.”

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From the Dept. of Utterly Predictable: Small Towns Dealing with Rise in Homelessness (UPDATED)

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This space, April 11, regarding the Legislature’s intent to end the motel voucher program:

Much of the impact will fall on municipalities. You’d think the Vermont League of Cities and Towns might declare an interest in preventing their members from taking it in the shorts. You’d think the mayors would be tramping to the Statehouse to beg the state to bear the responsibility instead of fobbing it off.

Well, the mayors did not, in fact, tramp to the Statehouse, nor did the very influential VLCT bring its considerable muscle to bear. Cue the consequences.

WCAX: “Smaller Vt. Towns Now Coping with Unhoused Population.” Comment from St. Johnsbury Town Manager Chad Whitehead: “This is happening across the entire state. I have talked with numerous town managers, and many population centers have been having this issue.”

The Journal Opinion: “For the second time this month, community members asked the Bradford Selectboard for help in addressing escalating homelessness in town.”

UPDATE. WCAX just ran a piece about downtown Burlington merchants “experiencing some challenges with foot traffic,” according to Colin Hilliard of the Burlington Business Association. One merchant reported “an increased population” of the unhoused on Church Street because of changes in the voucher program.

Yep, those merchants and their organizations should have been in there fighting for shelter, but they weren’t.

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