By Guy Page
A new, independent, online news media outlet called “Hank with Brattleboro News” provides on-the-spot video coverage of crime and police activity that – until now – has been lacking in one of Vermont’s most drug-ridden towns.
Crime rose 16% in 2024, as both drugs and homelessness have become an open problem in the downtown of the county seat of Windham County.
Hank Poitras brings his video camera to active crime scenes and captures images of suspects being led away, blood on the pavement, etc.. Like Wayne Savage, his fellow citizen journalist in Burlington, in the time-honored tradition of the police reporter he goes where (subject to the law and police authority) the police and firefighters go, shoots what he sees, and shows it to the public – whether community leaders like it or not.
His latest video shows a new police officer and a citizen gazing at blood stains and a needle cap on a sidewalk. “The police officer did not seem to be too fazed by it,” Poitras notes on camera.
Poitras has published the Planet Hank YouTube page for about a year. Seven months ago he began publishing Hank with Brattleboro News on his channel with headlines like:
Local man causes disturbance at Catholic Church,
Break in at Humane Society leads to one arrest
Traffic stop leads to warrant arrest
Two men arrested in connection with a Burglary Assault
VDC will place “Hank with Brattleboro News” on our daily news checks of the growing number of alternative and citizen news media, and republish as permitted and warranted.