Chittenden County Superior Court. Social media images courtesy of Steve Polli

By Rachel Feldman, Raychfeldman.com

A Vermont man was cited to appear in court for an alleged hate-motivated crime after Hinesburg Police say he sent threatening Facebook messages to a Jewish man.

Cameron “Cam” Locarno, 20, of Barre, faces two charges for sending a series of threatening antizionist Facebook messages to Steven Polli, of Hinesburg, which Polli reported to law enforcement on June 9.

Police cited Locarno to appear in Chittenden Superior Court on July 23 on charges of disturbing peace by use of telephone or other electronic communications, and a hate-motivated crime.

Read the redacted police report and full description of citations.

Polli, who owns Polli Construction in South Burlington, Vt., says he never interacted with Locarno before receiving the messages, neither personally nor through his business.

“He doesn’t know me at all,” Polli said.

He said he suspects Locarno’s messages were brought on by a comment Polli made on social media about “being a Jew and proudly flying the [Israeli] flags in my home and business.”

Upon receipt of the first three Facebook messages, Polli looked up Locarno. Polli’s girlfriend reached out to Locarno’s family via social media to tell them about the exchange.

“They seem like good people,” Polli said of the family. “I don’t put this on them.”

Polli says Locarno then sent him a fourth message after Polli’s girlfriend reached out to the family. That’s when Polli went to law enforcement.

“I have to keep my family and business safe,” he said, “and that means I have a right to be a Jew without being threatened.” Polli moved to the United States from Scotland in 1986. “Growing up in Scotland was an extremely antisemitic experience for me, with several school fights because I was Jewish. I would never have expected that what I believe to be the best country in the world – the United States of America – would ever permit such public hatred based on utter lies.”

Polli continued that the media and elected officials are largely responsible for spreading the antizionist libels he received in the messages.

The Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s office will decide whether to pursue the police-recommended hate-motivated crime enhancement when Locarno appears in court.

Vermont first defined “hate-motivated crime” in statute in 1990 as an enhancement to an underlying charge. In 2025, the statute was expanded to apply enforcement more broadly to state that an individual’s protected status need neither be the predominant nor sole motive in pursuing the hate-motivated crime enhancement.

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