By Michael Bielawski
Some members of the controversial 2022 St. Albans Belonging, Equity, and Inclusion Committee website have established “St. Albans Hate Watch,” a public hub where locals can report alleged hate crimes.
As reported in VDC, the city Belonging, Equity and Inclusion Committee and the City Council kicked off a black member, Keith Longmore, because they found him insufficiently committed to its interpretation of the advisory committee’s principles. Two of the members were Eliana Castro and Reier Erickson. Both are connected to St. Albans Hate Watch and its parent organization, Neighbors for a Safer St. Albans.
“We are moved by compassion and a commitment to equity,” their hate-watch site states. “We affirm that Black Lives Matter and we stand in solidarity with the global movement for Black lives. We care immensely about our entire community. We believe it is the responsibility of the citizens who employ the police force to question the institution and our local government.”
Region familiar with social justice controversy
The June, 2022 VDC story quoted Longmore saying, “This is without a doubt the most egregiously racist, age-ist thing to ever happen to me in Vermont. The fact that an all-white City Council chose to remove me, an elderly African American, from a Committee named Belonging, Equity and Inclusion is shocking enough.”
Reier Erickson is a founding member of the hate-watch site. VDC has reported on Erickson during his time on the aforementioned BEI committee.
Erickson is quoted saying, “I want to see the Juneteenth flag and I want to see a sign that says Black Lives Matter. Easy enough, we’re going to stand up for Juneteenth. And I think we should celebrate the day when black lives kind of started mattering a little bit.”
Community reporting system
The Hate Watch website has a reporting section so if there’s an incident that’s suspected or deemed to be a hate crime, it can be known where it happened and other details.
Below the interactive map, it states, “White supremacy is a hodge-podge of fascistic, racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic beliefs disguised with misleading rhetoric. Unfortunately, white supremacist groups and activity are on the rise in the United States, and that includes Vermont.”
Some of the reported incidents include stickers found from the alleged hate group Patriot Front, an organization widely believed among pundits to be a fed-run operation. One report says, “Patriot Front Poster (removed)” and there are photos of the stickers.
Another report says “Anti-Semitic poster (removed)” and shows a stop sign where a sticker had been ripped off. It does not give more details other than “On the front of the stop sign. Asks viewers to search for a 12-hour long neo-Nazi film.”
Another says, “Young man w/ fascist tattoos at BLM rally” and states “White supremacy is a hodge-podge of fascistic, racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic beliefs disguised with misleading rhetoric.”
Another incident regards homemade incendiary bombs that failed to detonate in 2020. The media did not report any apparent suspect or motive.
Who started this?
Although the site itself may lack recent activity, its founders continue to have active lives in Vermont.
According to a St. Alban’s Messenger report, the founders include Reese Kelly who is CEO and founder of Embodied Values, a business in Burlington that focuses on influencing culture and values within other organizations. And in addition to Erickson. another founder is Eliana Castro, an Assistant Professor of Secondary Education and Curriculum and Instruction at UVM.
Erickson was vice chair of the Belonging, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Neither he nor Castro sit on the committee now.
In the Messenger article, Castro indicates that she influences her students’ political world view. She tells the Messenger that every student should have “a chance to learn about injustices and how communities, collectives — not mere individuals — can shatter oppressive systems and disrupt the harm they do.”
Anti-police rhetoric
The organization has postings on various political causes, including on its Instagram page. Some posts concern School Resource Officers, currently the only armed defense option for public schools in the face of school shooting threats.
A post states, “I will fight to remove SROs because kids who are disabled, BIPOC, or LGBTQIA are more likely to have negative interactions with these cops than their white, hetero and neurotypical counterparts.”
Another post suggests that policing overall is corrupt. It states, “Policing is an institution that upholds imbalanced power structures and systems of oppression. The problem with police should not be seen as situational or temporary but embedded in the fabric of the police.”
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle