DRUG DEALERS INFLICT 'TERROR' ON BRATTLEBORO

BRATTLEBORO -- Saying the town's drug problem had deteriorated to the point
that people were afraid of leaving their houses because of drug dealers,
the Brattleboro Select Board on Tuesday took what it promised would be the
first step toward making Brattleboro a very unfriendly place for drug dealers.

With about 50 residents on hand for a discussion of the town's drug
problem, the board agreed to set up a task force to make all Brattleboro
neighborhoods safe from drug dealing.

"People are afraid in their homes," Town Manager Jerry Remillard said.

One woman who lives on Elliot Street, which many people consider the center
of the drug trade in town, said she had faced vandalism to her home and her
car.

"I live on Elliot Street, the DMZ," she said. "I live next to a crack
house. It's not just a matter of people destroying their lives, it's
violence, it's very dangerous."

Someone shot at her dog with a hunting arrow while it was in her backyard,
she said.

The four tires of her car had their air let out. Her house has been egged
and splattered with paint balls, she said.

Remillard said Brattleboro will never be able to tackle the problem unless
people realize it is a townwide problem, not just in the traditional
trouble areas of Elliot Street, the Harmony Parking Lot and the Clark-Canal
neighborhood.

Brattleboro Community Television, the local public access station, took the
unusual step of agreeing not to televise the faces of the people speaking
about the drug problem.

The problem has gotten so bad in Brattleboro, people said, that they are
afraid of reprisals from drug dealers.

The problem, as it was described by several people, is not of marijuana,
but of crack cocaine and heroin, and a criminal justice system they claimed
has no consequences for drug dealing.

In Remillard's words, Brattleboro was under the threat of "domestic terrorism."

Remillard said that Brattleboro has long had a drug culture, but he said
the situation was a far cry from the days of "love and peace," in his words.

Now, he said, it is fear.

Several community groups have been working for more than a year on the drug
problem, including one headed by Harriet Tepfer of Putney.

Tepfer said the problem was obviously complex, but that the Brattleboro
police were hampered by lax drug laws in Vermont. Tepfer also said that
Brattleboro's location on Interstate 91, and as a gateway from the cities
to the south, made the town particularly vulnerable to drugs.

And, she said, many people wanted to come to the meeting, but were afraid
of reprisals, ranging from vandalism to threats to physical harm.

Police Chief John Martin said the drug culture was fostered by the more
than 200 people on parole or furlough in Brattleboro. "Brattleboro may have
voted against having a jail, but it has one. It just doesn't have walls,"
he said, criticizing Vermont's "catch and release program" for criminals.

Most of the known drug dealers in town have been arrested at least once, he
said.

Martin said no real change would come unless there were tougher laws.

Christine Hart, executive director of the Brattleboro Housing Authority,
said that in Moore Court, one development, 25 families were afraid of the
three families that were actively involved in drug dealing.

On a unanimous vote, the board agreed to form a community drug task force.
The actual formation of the committee will come later this week, according
to Chairman Greg Worden.

The board, earlier in the evening, approved applying for a state grant to
establish a community restorative justice center, which will act as a local
clearinghouse for conflict resolution.

The idea is to get people talking to each other to solve their problems
before the problems land in front of police or the court system. The
$60,000 grant will come from the Agency of Human Services.