[B]RATTLEBORO — Monday’s featured speaker was supposed to be former Bennington state Rep. Kiah Morris, who a week ago was addressing a press conference about racial harassment against her when a white male antagonist stepped forward to trigger a war of words.
But the person who elicited the most emotion at Brattleboro’s 11th annual Martin Luther King Jr. interfaith service wasn’t Morris — who did spark two standing ovations — but instead her husband, who surprised a capacity crowd at downtown’s Centre Congregational Church by offering impromptu words through tears.
“You’ve only heard 20 percent of the stories … and the nightmare is not really over,” James Lawton told several hundred people from the pulpit. “It’s not so much him that we’re afraid of. It’s the threats he’s bringing from all over the country.”
Morris, the first person of color elected state representative from Bennington County, served from 2014 until she resigned last year after a series of escalating events. In a 10-page report publicized last week, the Vermont attorney general’s office said the incidents, dating back to the winter of 2016, ranged from paintballing one of her political signs to a break-in and burglary of her home.
In addition, one man — previously ordered to stay away from Morris for a year — has attacked the family on the internet through a string of Facebook and Twitter messages such as “stop pushing ‘social justice’ on your nearly entirely white constituency” and “I will troll the hell out of you.”
(“I’m not even to grace this place with his name,” Lawton said Monday.)
Local and state authorities have yet to determine suspects for the home incidents or find legal grounds to prosecute any of the social media commenters.
“The online communications that were sent to Ms. Morris,” their report concluded, “were clearly racist and extremely offensive. However, the First Amendment does not make speech sanctionable merely because its content is objectionable.”
“The fact that a number of messages were directed at her role as an elected official raises the issue of whether they were intended to express political opposition through the use of hyperbole and insult,” the report continued. “There appears to be insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges under Vermont law.”
Those findings, as well as the antagonist’s arrival at last week’s press conference, have proved too much for Morris’ husband, who is white.
“He got more protection in the end than we did,” Lawton said Monday. “Nobody in the law enforcement community could come up with a way to stop this man. Everything is under the guise of political dissent. This wasn’t about free speech. It was about harassment, it was about terrorism. It’s got to change.”
Morris began her own speech by reading a tweet she shared on social media that morning.
“I don’t want to see your clever MLK memes today,” she posted. “Doesn’t mean a damn thing if you aren’t having this conversation year round. These adrenaline shots of social justice convos on this day are detrimental when the works of your hands are empty for the other 364.”
Morris punctuated her point with the hashtag #StopPimpingMLK.
“I’m not here to recount my pain,” said the former legislator, choosing instead to read the King quote “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
“How long is this arc supposed to be,” she then asked. “When does someday become today?”
Monday’s program, sponsored by the area Interfaith Leadership Association, also featured newly elected state Rep. Nader Hashim, D-Dummerston, and Brattleboro Town Manager Peter Elwell.
“If we are to achieve greater racial and social equity in our society,” Elwell said, “we — especially white people, men, people of financial means and people in positions of authority — must recognize systemic racism and work collaboratively to eliminate it.”
That could be seen by the uniformed and plain-clothes police officers guarding the church entrances and exits. Asked if they were reacting to last week’s press conference, each nodded affirmatively.
“I just don’t want that to happen here,” Brattleboro Police Chief Michael Fitzgerald said.
