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Two former residents of Bennington, Vermont, have filed a complaint with the state’s Human Rights Commission. They claim the town unlawfully retaliated against them after they spoke out against racist treatment by town police.
“They felt that there were numerous instances of racially motivated targeting and harassment of them by police officers. For the two months that they lived in Bennington, they made complaints, never heard back, and then two months later, without warning, their identities, personal information, status as complainants and videos of them were revealed by the Bennington select board during an open select board meeting, said senior staff attorney Jay Diaz. “This disclosure constitutes retaliation. Because, as the Bennington select board well knows, and as many people well know across the country, if people who make police misconduct complaints are afraid that their identities will be exposed, whether it s to law enforcement in the community, to town o
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BENNINGTON â Two former town residents filed a complaint Wednesday with the Vermont Human Rights Commission against the Bennington Select Board, saying town officials publicized private information about them in retaliation for their filing complaints of racially-motivated policing against the Bennington Police Department.
The boardâs action was âillegalâ and reflected systemic racial discrimination in Bennington, said Jay Diaz, senior staff attorney at American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. The organization is representing complainants Joel Fowler, who is Black, and his girlfriend, Cassandra Keating.
âThis case is not a one-off,â Diaz said during a virtual press briefing on Wednesday morning. âIt is representative of what happens in Bennington â the systemic nature of discrimination in Bennington and also the systemic nature of discrimination throughout Vermont.â
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