Marta Gossage engages on issues surrounding communities, both in Brattleboro and online.
BRATTLEBORO-In a Jan. 8 article in the Reformer ["Planet Hank's charge to change downtown"], Hank Poitras says his bike was stolen, and he drove around, found it, and recovered it. After that, he filmed himself chasing and following the person and making siren noises.
He said he got a lot of response to that video, which gave him a feel-good moment and he wanted to repeat that success.
I knew I'd seen that video but couldn't remember where. Last night at 3 a.m. (of course), I remembered!
In the summer of 2023, I met a woman around my age at the laundromat - it was one of those super hot nights, and we were the last people there and basically melting. While the dryers tumbled and we folded our clothes, we cracked jokes and chatted, finding out we had a lot of the same interests in common. Turns out she was homeless and living in the motel program. We became friends and would meet to catch up every now and then.
One time we were sitting and talking with another friend of hers, also homeless, and I asked how things were going. They let me know that they were scared and that the general atmosphere in town had become tense and threatening.
A group had formed on social media. It had a dehumanizing name and it was dedicated to filming while mocking, belittling, or threatening homeless people in Brattleboro. My friends pulled it up on their phones and showed me some of the videos.
One was of an elderly woman sitting on the ground against a wall and nodding off. The person filming was standing not too far from her and taunting her while filming. Another had a man following a homeless man wearing a large backpack and yelling profanities at him, telling him to get out of town and how worthless he was.
Hank's video was also posted to that group.
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As my friends showed me the videos, they would provide context. One woman, they said, had been sober for most of the year and was really getting things together but had just relapsed after the death of a loved one. Another video was of a man they knew who wasn't on any substance but was in the throes of a mental health episode.
While a lot of the videos were cruel, the comments were terrifying. One man said he didn't go to Brattleboro very often anymore, but now that he knew it was open season he'd put his bat in the car and drive around looking for targets. Another man said he always "carried" downtown, and hoped that someone would bother him so that he could "take care of the issue."
That was the general tone, and it went on and on.
My friends talked about some incidents that had already happened, such as a physically disabled man who got a full drink thrown at him out of the window of a car while walking down Putney Road, or a person who was sleeping in a tent and had someone collapse it on him in the middle of the night and start kicking him through the fabric.
A few more of their friends arrived and discussed other instances that frightened them. The conversation turned, first to what they could do for self defense, and then to how they would no longer take food from anyone they didn't know because they were afraid of being poisoned.
The responses from posting his video and tuning in to that community - that was Hank's "feel-good" moment.
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Folks who are homeless already live in fear of getting robbed or attacked. Often, they are the victims of the same people who may steal or cause problems for businesses or other (housed) residents.
But for them, it's more physically dangerous - getting jumped if someone who is violent thinks they have anything of value. Not to mention the sexual violence that affects more than 80% to 90% of homeless women.
About one man in a video, they said, "Him - he's attacked a lot of people. We wish he were locked up too."
They have watched some of the Selectboard meetings where residents complained while using derogatory or dehumanizing language and were aware of how much rancor there was (and still is) in town. They felt most people lumped all homeless people together, and the wide variety of circumstances they were in didn't matter.
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I've watched some Planet Hank videos. In one, a man getting arrested pleads with him, "Please, Hank, turn the camera off - please." In his livestreams and in his comments, he uses phrases like "de-fund Groundworks" and "compassion cartel." He channels the Hulk and rips his shirt while raging like a WWE wrestler.
What Hank describes as "cueing into the angst of this town" seems to me to be dangerous rhetoric and encouragement that can lead to violence.
When the police department hired a security company to patrol and the owner used dehumanizing language regarding homeless people at a Selectboard meeting, our police chief dismissed that company and retained another because she felt that language had no place in our town.
So now I'm confused why the police department participates in Planet Hank videos, providing an officer to give a narrative summary at the end of his videos of incidents. Cooperation with this series seems incongruent with Brattleboro's values. Allowing this person to have a starring role in "problem solving" or "making progress" doesn't seem like a good idea, either.
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I've had my car tossed when I forgot to lock it and lost something that was of low monetary value but great emotional value. A friend of mine has woken up in the middle of the night with an intruder in their house. After attending a community meeting a few years ago, I was part of a neighborhood effort to remove a drug-dealing household on my street that was causing an immense amount of problems for all of us. I've watched a sweet, lovely young neighbor descend into addiction and had my heart break every time I see their name in the police logs over the past few years.
One can be caring and also recognize how poverty, addiction, and crime affect us all. One can want to make the town safer and more vibrant without further marginalizing or harming those who are most vulnerable.
Let's not mainstream this production, because I can't see any good coming of it.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
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