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BENNINGTON â The Select Board has unanimously approved a settlement agreement concerning a complaint to the Human Rights Commission from former state Rep. Kiah Morris, her husband, James Lawton, and their son.
The settlement, which requires the town to pay the family $137,000 and issue a public apology, was in relation to Morrisâ complaints that Bennington Police did not adequately investigate online and other racially motivated harassment prior to her decision to leave the Legislature amid a campaign for re-election in 2018.
The family has since sold their home on Morgan Street and moved to the Burlington area.
Bennington agrees to pay $137,000 to Kiah Morris, family reformer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reformer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Two former residents of Bennington, Vermont, have filed a complaint with the state’s Human Rights Commission. They claim the town unlawfully retaliated against them after they spoke out against racist treatment by town police.
“They felt that there were numerous instances of racially motivated targeting and harassment of them by police officers. For the two months that they lived in Bennington, they made complaints, never heard back, and then two months later, without warning, their identities, personal information, status as complainants and videos of them were revealed by the Bennington select board during an open select board meeting, said senior staff attorney Jay Diaz. “This disclosure constitutes retaliation. Because, as the Bennington select board well knows, and as many people well know across the country, if people who make police misconduct complaints are afraid that their identities will be exposed, whether it s to law enforcement in the community, to town o
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BENNINGTON â Two former town residents filed a complaint Wednesday with the Vermont Human Rights Commission against the Bennington Select Board, saying town officials publicized private information about them in retaliation for their filing complaints of racially-motivated policing against the Bennington Police Department.
The boardâs action was âillegalâ and reflected systemic racial discrimination in Bennington, said Jay Diaz, senior staff attorney at American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. The organization is representing complainants Joel Fowler, who is Black, and his girlfriend, Cassandra Keating.
âThis case is not a one-off,â Diaz said during a virtual press briefing on Wednesday morning. âIt is representative of what happens in Bennington â the systemic nature of discrimination in Bennington and also the systemic nature of discrimination throughout Vermont.â
ACLU expected to file rights complaint against Bennington benningtonbanner.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from benningtonbanner.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.