An Interracial Couple Alleged Police Harassment in Bennington. Then the Selectboard Doxxed Them.

An interracial family says the Bennington Selectboard retaliated against them for filing complaints about police harassment last year by publishing extensive amounts of their personal information and livestreaming bodycam video of the encounters in question.

Cassandra Keating and Joel Fowler contend that the selectboard's decision to reveal their identities without their consent runs afoul of state public records law, which exempts from disclosure information that identifies someone who made allegations of wrongdoing against a public agency. They've filed a formal complaint against Bennington with the Vermont Human Rights Commission.

They say the town's "unwritten policy" of disclosing the identities of those who complain about police misconduct has a disproportionate affect on people of color, who are stopped by police at unequal rates.

The disclosure was particularly dangerous in the couple's case, they claim, because Bennington officials knew and had previously told Fowler that "unknown individuals may have wanted to harm" his family.

Read more: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2021/04/07/an-interracial-couple-alleged-police-harassment-in-bennington-then-the-selectboard-doxxed-them