NORTHFIELD — More than a dozen Northfield residents spoke out in support of the town’s first Black police chief this week, denouncing racial discrimination he has allegedly faced and town officials’ failure to support him.
“Things are happening and things need to be exposed,” Chief Pierre Gomez said during a brief phone interview Tuesday when asked about racism he has allegedly faced since accepting the job. But he declined to comment further, he said, “due to pending litigation.”
Gomez was hired in September 2023 as chief of police in this Washington County town of about 5,900 — home to Norwich University — after former chief of police John Helfant retired amid controversy in May 2023.
On Tuesday night, more than 60 residents packed the selectboard meeting held at the Brown Public Library in a show of solidarity. Many spoke in support of Gomez, condemned racism and called on the board to be more inclusive and transparent.
Several responded to a racist remark made at the April 8 selectboard meeting, where Lynn Doney, a disgraced former selectman who worked as a deputy sheriff and EMT in Washington County, took issue with Gomez wearing a grey hoodie on duty instead of wearing his uniform, “so he looks like a police chief and not a gangster off the street that’s just driving our cruisers around,” he said.
Doney was interrupted by selectboard member Merry Shernock, who said she didn’t think Gomez looked like a gangster and that police officers don’t always have to be in uniform.
“I think he follows every regulation to the letter possible,” she said in the back and forth that ensued.
Doney did not respond to a call for comment.
More than a dozen residents wore hoodies to the selectboard meeting Tuesday in solidarity with Gomez, who was also present and wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt in the back of the room.
Some who spoke at the meeting said his hoodie makes him more relatable to younger people in town at a time when there is division around law enforcement issues.
Residents who spoke during the 45-minute public comment period called for greater understanding, kindness and inclusion.
“This is not about one person or one statement,” Sarah Path said. “It is about the message that is sent to the community when such statements go unchallenged. It is about speaking up about what was wrong, and empowering and encouraging others to do the same so that we can all move forward with better understanding, kindness and respect.”
Students who spoke at the meeting said they felt comfortable wearing hoodies and that calling someone a gangster for wearing one is “unfair,” “wrong” and “racist.”
A hoodie is “pretty much the basic top of Vermonters,” said resident Matthew Fedders. “So I did have to question when I heard that comment: what is different in my hoodie and the police chief’s? And sadly, all I can arrive on is his skin color,” he said.
Mia Schultz, president of the Rutland Area NAACP, who spoke remotely via video at the meeting, indicated that Gomez has been facing discrimination in Northfield for a while.
What Northfield is facing is a pattern, she said, that unfolds often in Vermont when a person of color is placed into a position of leadership in a predominantly white community. Rather than being welcomed and supported, leaders of color “are slowly and painfully undermined, not only through overt actions that we’re speaking of today, but often through inaction, through silence, through a refusal to stand up when it matters the most,” Schultz said.
Several leaders of color across Vermont have left their positions, citing various degrees of discrimination in recent years. They include Esther Charlestin, then dean of climate and culture, leaving the Middlebury Union Middle School in 2023; the first equity directors, Yasamin Gordon in Winooski and Tyeastia Green in Burlington, leaving in 2022; Tabitha Moore quitting her leadership of the Rutland NAACP in 2021; and Rep. Kiah Morris, the state’s only Black woman legislator, resigning in 2018.
Gomez took over as police chief when Northfield’s previous chief, Helfant, a white man, resigned after his policing background and anti-transgender comments were condemned by community members and groups who called for his resignation. He had served the town for four years.
The NAACP sent a letter to Northfield Town Manager Jeff Schulz on April 13, which Schultz shared this week with VTDigger, titled “A Call for Unequivocal Support of Chief Gomez and a Safer, Stronger Northfield.”
In his emailed response, the town manager wrote that Northfield “strives to be a welcoming and inclusive community” and has adopted “a statement of anti-racism and a declaration of inclusion.”
Schultz responded on April 17 explaining she had asked for his personal stance on his police chief.
“Not a town-wide initiative. Not a future meeting. A leadership decision—yours. From what I understand, that support has not been demonstrated publicly or privately,” she wrote.
Schultz said in an interview she has not received a response. She reiterated at the meeting that town leadership needs to publicly back the chief for him to succeed in Northfield.
Her comments spurred residents to question the board further and to demand transparency.
“It sounds like there’s something bigger and that there’s more issues that I wasn’t even aware of,” said Shannon Doney, who said she is related by marriage to the former selectman. She demanded “some level of transparency” on how the board is planning to rectify the situation. “Because I think people would have come out and supported the chief a heck of a lot sooner if we were aware,” she said.
Board members confirmed the town is investigating personnel issues related to bigotry beyond the April 8 comment but did not elaborate.
In an interview with VTDigger Wednesday, Schulz said he supports all town employees, including the chief. But he declined to comment when asked if has publicly expressed support for Gomez.
He said he could not speak to any personnel investigations or pending litigation.
At the end of the lengthy public comment period, many residents stopped to chat and shake hands with Gomez, who said he was pleased to see the support but declined to further comment.
Tuesday’s meeting also included an introductory DEI training session for the selectboard by Shalini Suryanarayana from the state Office of Racial Equity.
Katie Whitney, a town resident who said she has worked closely with Suryanarayana on equity issues, said the community can do better and voiced support for the police chief.
“My family stands with you. And it is not on you to be the change. We must be the change,” she said.
The state’s demographics are challenging, Whitney said, with non-white people making up about 4% of Vermont’s population, including just 1.2% who identify as Black or African American. The numbers have not changed significantly over time because people of color leave Vermont at a rate of about 80% within the first five years of arriving, she said.
“What does that say about us? What does that say about surrounding and supporting those who don’t identify as what the majority of our population looks like? What does that mean for my two teenage girls who look like Chief Gomez?” she said.
