http://rutlandherald.com/article/20130711/NEWS02/707119980
A small group of protesters walks the streets in Springfield with “Not In Our Town” lawn signs during a kickoff to help support a town Neighborhood Watch effort after the recent major drug sweep. Photo: Photo by Len EmeryPublished July 11, 2013 in the Rutland Herald Prosecutors to community: Who are profiteers? Addicts? By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Windsor County State’s Attorney Michael Kainen said Wednesday more and more drug dealers are organized “profiteers” who are taking advantage of addicts to make a large profit on selling heroin and cocaine. Modern day dealers are not doing the drugs they are selling, he said. “They may take Ecstasy, smoke a little pot, and drink, but they’re not doing the hard drugs, because they know it can mess you up,” Kainen told a gathering of more than 100 people at Riverside Middle School as part of the “Not In Our Town” group. Kainen said the serious drug dealers are giving away drugs until addicts are hooked. Kainen and David Cahill, his chief deputy who prosecutes the drug crimes in Windsor County, said that Springfield residents could help their office by letting them know who were drug dealers and who were users. Almost a month ago, Operation Precision Valley resulted in the arrest of 33 alleged heroin and cocaine dealers in the area; 22 of the people were Springfield residents. Cahill said the county prosecutor’s office was interested in getting addicts into treatment and dealers into jail. “Who is a profiteer and who is an addict?” said Cahill. Kainen said that while it may cost $1,000 a night for treatment for an addict, which is substantially more than it costs to put someone in jail for a nights at least at the end of a month of treatment there is hope that someone would no longer want to use drugs. Wednesday’s session was the second in what promises to be a series of community meetings that were prompted by Operation Precision Valley. The key to battling the twin problems of drug addiction and crime is to make the community unwelcoming to drug dealers, said Rutland City Police Chief James Baker. Baker said his community didn’t reach its “epiphany” in the fight against drugs and crime until last September, when a young Rutland High School girl was killed by a driver who had been “huffing” aerosol chemicals. The death of Carly Ferro changed everything, Baker said. “Every community has an epiphany and that was our epiphany. That changed our community,” he said. Baker said the man charged in her death had been released by a New York state court on conditions that he not use drugs. Since then, he said, Rutland City has been much more aggressive and pro-active about enforcing court orders on conditions of release from court. There is a “robust coalition” that meets twice a month to tackle all aspects of the problem, he said. Baker, who had listened to about 50 minutes of questions and answers from Kainen and Cahill before he spoke, said that Rutland City had grappled with the very same problems about a year ago. The issue can only truly be tackled on a community level, he said, because “you can’t arrest every single drug dealer in your community.” Plus, he said, the Vermont Legislature and Vermont governors have shown no support for building new prisons, hiring more judges or probation officers. Baker, a long-time member of the Vermont State Police, said attacking the problem of addiction is a societal, not a police, matter. And, Baker said, “there’s a big elephant sitting in the room, and you can only slay it one bite at a time.” Rutland has focused on the 20 percent of people who are causing 80 percent of the harm, he said. Nancy Wiese, director of the Gateway Program in Springfield schools, said that truancy was a big problem, and questioned why parents were not prosecuted. Wiese said truancy in the first five grades seriously affects a child’s ability to read, and without reading skills, a child is often forced into a life of crime and addiction. Often, Wiese said, it is drug-addicted parents who can’t be bothered to get up in the morning, wake up their children and get them off to school. Kainen said that while the Vermont truancy laws were “weak,” he did prosecute truancy cases, and had prosecuted one from Hartford schools earlier in the day.
Here is a solution... Maybe the police department should rethink about giving the D.A.R.E. program another chance. When I was in elementary school we had this program and it educated all the kids about the dangers of using hard drugs and what are the long term effects from them are. As far as I know this is just talked about in school today. When they say they town can't afford it I say we can't afford not to. All the money spent on the new radar guns could have easily been put towards the bigger problem in town... DRUGS! The cost of prosecuting, incarcerating, and time spent to catch these scumbags could have paid for this program for the next 10 years! Its time to educate and not persecute the children that are exposed to these life destroying drugs.
ReplyDeletere Anon 12:21 PM
DeleteThere's one problem with your suggestions... they're too logical :-)
Something our town seems to be lacking at the top.
The DARE program was proven not to work. Nobody uses it anymore. The HCRS therapist who spoke at the forum Wednesday night said the prevention that works is engagement: keep kids busy at learning to do things they might find more enjoyable than drug, in other words. Rutland's police chief said, "Don't expect the police department to solve the problem," because it requires more than that. It takes a community, guys.
DeleteWhere is the proof???? Are drugs more prevalent now or when the DARE program was being used???? That is just propaganda so the cops don't have to go to school and learn how to educate others about the problem. They don't want to go out of their way by spending our taxes on a proactive program that might intrude on their monthly quota. Education is the most important thing in life.
DeleteThe proof is there isn't a single DARE program still in operation. Get out of the times people!!!
Delete10:05, you must remember, many of this town's residents believe the machine tool industry is coming back to Springfield sometime real soon.
DeleteDealers have a way of finding towns with high poverty and high unemployment. They setup shop and profit on the depression that hangs over the town, especially towns that have little hope.
ReplyDeleteSeemed like there were some circular arguments being made, Baker kept saying that this was not simply a police problem -- but he always seemed to circle back to the fact that they had to tackle the violation of conditions of release by having the Town monitor the individuals and picking them up regardless of the fact that the Court might release them again on conditions. Which sounded like a police problem to me. The prosecutors were interrogated fairly harshly, probably due to the fact that they were ducking actually responding to the questions or proposals asked or made. They left it very unclear how they intended to tackle the problem of violation of conditions of release. Baker's approach of picking them up every weekend would probably be a deterrent, but it also shifts the financial and resource consumption for the Court enforcement from the State to the Town.
ReplyDeleteAt the first forum, when I suggested home visits to the known druggies and pushers, it was met with scorn, but Baker pointed out that Rutland cops apparently visit people known-- or strongly alleged-- to be involved and lay out their options: leave town, clean up or get into worse trouble. I think that's an excellent start. When most people know they're in a fishbowl, they think hard about whether to change their behavior.
DeleteThe next thing is addressing those who haven't left and haven't started cleaning up-- their most effective motivation is provided when they find out they've hit bottom. How can we help make that happen?
Finally, "idle hands are the devil's workshop." Kids who have nothing else to do will try all sorts of bad stuff. So, how do we evaluate idleness in kids and provide age-appropriate stimulation to their innate potentials and need for competence?
The neighborhood watch program is basically an extension of the police by providing them with additional eyes and ears. The key, however, to this is that the people who are answering the phone at the police department have to be on the ball. Right now there is a tremendous apathy in the Town for calling in suspicious behavior, in fact some say they just won't do it anymore because of the brush off they have gotten in the past. They may need to reallocate some officers regarding who is answering the phone and how they follow up with people who call in. Otherwise, the whole Neighborhood Watch thing is going to be dead on arrival and will just cause the frustration in the Town to increase. The Selectboard, the Court System, the Shumlin Administration, and the various mental health "not for profits" do not seem to fully understand that they have a major public relations problem on their hands.
DeleteI've learned from past experience that you should not bother with the dispatcher who answers the phone, ask to speak with an officer. Don't take no for an answer.
DeleteAnnon 9:02 this is a common complaint, it is one that should be brought to the attention of the Selectboard in a rather forceful manner. I would encourage people to record their conversations with the dispatcher. The dispatchers are key persons in this situation and the complaints in that regard have been so numerous that the Selectboard should have been conducting an independent investigation and putting the Police Chief's feet to the fire on this issue a long time ago. It gives the entire department a bad reputation and is a major part of the public relations problem that the Police Department has.
DeleteHell even Doug Johnston has told me not to bother talking to the dispatcher after I complained about her blowing me off. Why can't they just fire her? She acts like her job is to make sure nothing gets reported to SPD.
DeleteNow Jean, Chief is just a good ole boy wouldn't want to rock the boat none. That's what dispatchers are for to brush off the citizens so the police don't get distracted from their radar guns. Just think of all the fun the Dispatcher is gonna have with all those new people from the Neighborhood Watch areas calling in and expecting something to happen. Why we wouldn't want to get the Selectboard distracted with something like this when they have Boardmember Yesman out there making sure the slumlords are protected would we? Now that Chief Baker needs to go back to Rutland, the idea of mapping out the hotzones and identifying the landlords who are harboring drug dens has already been mentioned like a zillion times, and how many times does Yesman have to tell you people that such is just unAmerican interference with private property. Besides what are we going to do with all those unemployed people if they shut down the demand for drugs by evicting people -- why it would be absolute economic disaster for Springfield's most profitable business. Well almost most profitable business, those addiction recovery folks at the not for profits now that is a really inventive way to make money legally. Everyone says that Springfield is a center for inventiveness, and don't it just make your heart swell with pride how they have reinvented a new industry. Makes you tingle all over. Now if we can just get the ministers to turn this new industrial revival into a spiritual event -- why it will be the best thing since the Native American Church invented the peyote cult.
DeleteWe are marching to save the poor, the despised, the wretched, and the teeming masses. Here take this pill and we will pray your addiction away! Amen and pass the collection plate please.
I have to laugh at this...just a bunch of backwoods people chasing their tails. Lets see, first we were told by the police and the town and their many forums etc that there WAS NOT a drug or gang problem here. Oh whoopsie that bit them in the ass.
ReplyDeleteNow we have the State and the politicians doing another snow job on the taxpayers softly and gently shoving the blame on idle hands and kids who have too much time on their hands. You better read into what they ACTUALLY are pushing are the social programs. More drug rehabs etc etc. Who talked at this? The political realm..HCRS the state leaders, Wendy Germain. Because the whole system is dependent upon each other to make money. The next bill of goods they are going to sell you are more prisons, a women's prison, some methadone clinics. They are worried about the next election cycle and that is it. Because if Vermonters are sick of high taxes, high crime, bad services, and a court/legal system that is failing them and the politicians are worried they will be replaced the next cycle.
So, here we have a bunch of springfielders following like sheep, carrying signs and falling right into place where they are expected to be. Works every time! You voted in 200K plus in extras in your town budget didn't you? LOL dumb and dumber!
Although we should be somewhat skeptical about this being a push to increase not for profit revenue streams, and certainly some of the players deserve some lack of trust in this regards, there is a potential for some of their ideas to work and they should not be completely written off. If it motivates the Police Chief to get out and start knocking on the doors of the known drug dens, well then that is a good thing. If it causes some kind of shake up that calls for fast track trials of people charge with violating conditions of release, that is a good thing. If it results in a shake up at the police department so that we have more responsive people manning the phone banks, then that is a good thing. If it spawns a bunch of active neighborhood controlled groups aimed at cleaning up the hotspots, then that is a good thing.
DeleteHowever, if it becomes apparent that the real push is to start an HCRS controlled methadone clinic, then that is a bad thing. If it means that the police and Selectboard are going to offload onto the community and the not for profits, then that is a bad thing. If it appears that the not for profits are going to try and control the neighborhood groups and use them as feeder satelite programs, then that is a bad thing.
I for one am willing to give Trevor the benefit of the doubt, Wendi Germain is probably another story she is already caught up in the revenue stream thing. But we should give this movement a chance and let it show whether it is something good or just another not for profit HCRS type thing.
Is Springfield becoming an addiction recovery for profit based economy? I don't think this is the case, but why are there so many not for profits working this issue. Someone suggested that this is what has happened, but I am not sure. HCRS does appear to have a massive presence here.
DeleteWe have built it, and they keep coming.
ReplyDeleteThanks to our prison, this is the type of citizen Springfield is attracting...
ReplyDeletewww.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/upper-valley-wnne/high-risk-sex-offender-to-be-released/-/9277648/20986690/-/5uo5d3z/-/index.html