BRATTLEBORO-Residents are angry about what is going on in their town, with drugs and crime heading the list.
And Hank Poitras, 42, otherwise known as Planet Hank, knows how to rev them up.
On Friday night, he filled American Legion Post 5 to overflowing with people who wanted to express their outrage at open drug dealing, needles on the ground, people defecating and urinating on Flat Street, and their extremely high taxes.
At least 200 residents, including police in uniform, attended the meeting to hear Poitras and his speakers talk in front of a banner with the words "Real Progress" repeatedly printed on it.
The speakers: former Selectboard member Tim Wessel, who is again running for the board; Elizabeth Bridgewater, the executive director of the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust; Twice Upon a Time owner Cindi Krug; attorney Spencer P. Crispe; Jill Stahl Tyler, who is also running for the Selectboard; and Peter Johnson, owner of Emerson's Furniture.
Poitras, who runs a media production company, follows the lead of a police scanner, filming police actions about town, and broadcasting brief reports online that rack up several thousand views.
He has 17,000 followers on Facebook, 982 followers on Instagram, and 3,200 subscribers on YouTube.
Poitras emerged on the local media scene less than a year ago with his first 1½-minute "Brattleboro News" video, with a "breaking news" chyron that reads "Local resident reports blood spatter on Flat Street."
He has quickly divided opinions between those concerned that his videos exploit vulnerable people with the blessing and cooperation of the police department - one online commenter called them "bullying trauma porn" - and those who believe that by pointing his lens at police in action he is shining a blindingly bright light on the problems downtown.
Following the Real Progress event, a discussion thread on the private Brattleboro, Vermont Facebook group ran the gamut, from members who have taken exception to Poitras's online behavior to full-throated support for his work and the Real Progress meeting.
"I am a content creator covering all types of independent media," Poitras says online. And after the meeting, he described himself to The Commons as "an influencer" who might someday run for public office.
Such engagement was an important theme Friday night. Petitions for Representative Town Meeting member candidates were being handed out at the door, people were being encouraged to get involved, and at least two of the speakers are running for the Selectboard.
Wessel, who is one, said "We're all here for real progress," and "The Representative Town Meeting is broken."
Cheers and applause greeted his comment.
Krug, the second-generation proprietor of an antiques store, spoke about the difficulty of running a downtown business in the same vein as her recent commentary in The Commons ["I'm fighting back. Will you?," Voices, Jan. 8].
She said people - sometimes children - are finding needles on the street. Visitors may watch drug sales and open prostitution as they sit in a restaurant on Main Street. Parking spaces are difficult to find, and the Selectboard has just raised the parking rates and instituted a new payment system, making parking confusing and more difficult.
She said that young women are being catcalled on the streets by men with mental health issues. Popular Main Street restaurant Shin La has been broken into four times. The Latchis Theater is losing customers because people don't want to go downtown, she noted.
"Crime and homelessness are two separate problems," Krug said as the crowd applauded. "We've left downtown for the tourists and the homeless. Compassion is needed."
Krug explained that when businesses fail, besides leaving empty storefronts, they also stop paying taxes. These losses have to be made up by the property owners who remain. That is one reason why taxes are so high in Brattleboro, she asserted.
"We need to attract new businesses," Krug said.
Speaking of older businesses, Johnson runs a furniture store founded by his grandfather and father in 1947. Poitras described an event where two women under the influence of alcohol fought in front of the store, and one pushed the other into the big plate-glass front window. It was boarded up for weeks until it could be replaced.
Poitras recorded the altercation, and it was one of his most watched videos on YouTube.
Johnson said that his business is off by 30%.
"We can't afford to lose Emerson's," Poitras said.
When it was her turn to speak, Bridgewater said she was "in despair about what is happening in town and in some of our properties."
The housing trust owns a substantial number of affordable properties in town, and some of these have attracted drug dealers.
"We take a chance on people," Bridgewater said. "That's our mission. But sometimes things go wrong or their lives go sideways."
She described the difficulty of eviction and how it can take up to a year in the courts to achieve one. In the meantime, a drug dealer remains in the apartment and the other residents are frightened and feel unsafe.
Bridgewater said she wants Vermont to move in a "no trespass" direction and make it easier for undesirable tenants to be evicted. She suggested that Vermont consider a law similar to a Massachusetts statute that forbids undesirable tenants to remain in their apartments while being evicted.
"People think the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust is doing nothing," Poitras said. "But that is not the case."
In his speech, Crispe asked for compassion for downtown storekeepers and blamed what he called "the radical left" for not enough focus on shopkeepers and people.
"Why is there no compassion for them?" he said.
Crispe called for more policing downtown. "Police deserve our unwavering support," he said to major applause.
At the end of the meeting, Poitras announced another for Friday, Feb. 28. He also suggested to The Commons that "Real Progress" may coalesce into a lobbying group.
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.