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 Recently the owner of Adagio's Trattoria was quoted in an article in ibrattleboro
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20090703001550991/print
as saying,
" that people had been told at the time not to complain because the kids hanging out in Harmony Lot were “nice kids” and should be allowed to be there. But, she said, “They don’t deserve it. None of those people deserve it. It is too dangerous. Keep everyone out. We have too many drug dealers in our bars.”
Besides the ridiculous unfair and harmful lumping of all kids in the Harmony lot into one despised group
the horrible irony, of course, is that bars are legalized drug dealing establishments. Alcohol is the drug most associated with violent behavior.
In an article in the Rutland Herald
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090616/NEWS04/906160357/1003/NEWS02
Detective Eric Johnson was quoted as saying
""In speaking with Andrew Sheets I could smell an odor of alcohol from his breath."
(Sheets may also may have done cocaine the night before.)
Andrew Sheets is the man accused of killing David Snow on Elliot.
One of the things that Brattleboro needs is a zero tolerance policy for public drunkenness where it occurs the most, on Elliot Street.
What would this look like?
At least one officer on foot patrols near the bars on Elliot Street, every night, He could walk from Addagio in the corner of the Harmony lot, the to the Weathervane, then up past Metroplolis and Kiplings and MacNeils. Every night. One officer for the short distance between the 5 bars. 1 officer for 5 bars every night. This seems an almost meager ratio but it would be a start.
On Friday night after the animation festival, I walked down Elliot Street and observed drunken people yelling at each other in front of Metropolis.
"That mexican, he's the one that was bothering me!" called out an apparently drunken woman. (I did not administer an alcohol breath test). "Don't you start fatty" the gentleman replied.
Harmless stuff? Maybe. On a different night I saw a man get kicked to the ground on Elliot Street. If you want a little light reading check the police reports and search on the term "Elliot Street" and "alcohol."
No fight ensued on this night. But everyone knows that Elliot Street is where violence occurs, and everyone knows that it is no coincidence that this is where the booze is sold. No policeman was there to witness or put a damper on this type of hostility from escalating the way it sometimes does.
At least one other death besides that of David Snow's has resulted on Elliot Street, outside a bar. Numerous assaults by drunken patrons are on record.
If we are going to allow alcohol to be sold, (and we are) it needs to be policed properly, and vigorously and proactively.
If you go to the site
http://www.brattleboropolice.org/press2008.html
and search on the term Elliot Street, you will notice a pattern. Over and over, our police are "responding to a report" of a fight, or an altercation. It appears to be usually reactive, not proactive.
If foot patrols on Elliot street had been present on Elliot Street at the time of our only murder this year, would David Snow still be alive?
We can't know. But we can try to act to prevent violence.
One officer. 5 bars. Many, many incidents.
If you are drunk and yelling or otherwise appear intoxicated in violation of the law, it's time for a breath test from a an officer who is always nearby between the hours when bars are selling their product.
Seems obvious.
Rolf
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People who fight fire with fire usually end up
with ashes.
~Abigail Van Buren
To love a person is to learn the song that is in
their heart and to
si