Directory of Burlington Vermont
area Web Sites and Information
Attacks On The Dwellings Of The Homeless
Very dry leaves near the blaze were not singed by flames so intense that they blackened the bark of nearby trees ten yards above the ground. This suggests that an accelerant such as gasoline or lighter fluid was used. The man does not smoke and had no stove or heater at the lean-to.
This crime is particularly disturbing in the context of other recent attacks on the homeless. One man claims he caught Burlington Ordinance Police in the act of setting his tent on fire on three occasions while another man says he caught them setting fire to his tent twice. Burlington Police say these charges were thoroughly investigated and are without merit. In the summer of 2000, The Burlington Free Press reported an arson incident by the Intervale tracks when a tent was set ablaze with three people still inside the tent. This summer another tent was incinerated a few yards from the site of the arson crime. Several homeless neighbors lost all the owned when fire blackened the interior of the railroad tunnel by the quicksand bog near the woodchip plant.
Fires have destroyed the property of homeless citizens who sought shelter in boxcars, and recently police sent an unleashed police dog into a boxcar to drive three men into the night. Tents have been slashed along the Intervale and at the foot of Colony Hill. One man says a chainsaw was used to topple a tree onto his tent. Police regularly order the homeless not to camp near the former landfill or near the bike path and waterfront.
Burlington’s homeless shelters are full, forcing many people to seek whatever cover they can find or devise. Anatole France wrote, “The law it its majesty equally forbids the rich and the poor from sleeping under bridges.” Burlington law in its majesty equally forbids the homeless from sleeping anywhere at all.
Squatters are being given the right boot of fellowship.
By Ken Lawless
A man who won a civic award in Burlington earlier this year build a sturdy lean-to last year and steep hillside above the bike path between Skate Park and North Beach. He used pressure-treated lumber and hung a tarp as his west wall. On Friday, October 19th an apparent arson fire demolished the structure with all his belongings - sleeping bag, clothes, book, papers - leaving him to begin anew with only what he was wearing.
The channel 22 News team broadcast an excellent two-part feature on local homelessness on Thursday and Friday, November 8th & 9th. Since then, all four tents in the campsite by the Intervale railroad tracks have been attacked. Timmer was among the homeless who appeared on the ABC-TV affiliate and within days both sides of his tent were slashed. On Tuesday, November 20th, five men were seen at the site smashing everything glass with a baseball bat. They fled leave two tents destroyed, just a jumble of fabric on the ground, and two others were damaged; Timmer’s tent look like a rag-bag, its zipper-front entrance torn off and contents of the fourth tent were similarly damaged. It is a crime to attack an individual’s home whether it is made of brick, wood, or fabric.
| |||||
|
Click here for full
| |||||
|
| LINKS |
| Tracking |