A relatively routine traffic stop at Hardwick’s Jiffy Mart on Mill Street last Thursday, at about 11 a.m., generated a whole host of rumors and concern among Hardwick residents and others visiting the area.
A Hardwick police cruiser and officer was seen behind a car with no driver and an open door, while a woman and child were standing near the cruiser and reported to be talking with the officer. At that time three Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles, two black and one brown, were reportedly seen with as many white shirted and badged men, at least some of whom were reported to be armed. It was suggested an unidentified person in the back seat of one of the Jeeps was likely an immigrant.
Assumptions were made that the men in white shirts were with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which a report coming into The Gazette said was confirmed by checking one of their badges online. It was also reported that one of the Jeeps had an Arizona license plate.
It seemed an important story so we began investigating and interviewing those we could identify as having seen or been involved. First on the list was Hardwick’s Police Chief Michael Henry, but it took us some time to reach him for a comment.
Before then we heard of a group of people reported to be Mexicans, who made themselves scarce upon learning of the Jeeps rumored to belong to ICE. Another worker at a Hardwick apartment was reported to have left for an errand and never returned that day, leaving the job undone. He too was reported to be Mexican.
The person who called us to report they’d seen ICE agents at Jiffy Mart said they’d watched for a while and were then shooed away by officers.
It obviously didn’t take long for the rumors to raise concern among those in the area.
When Henry was reached, he pointed us to a press release indicating the incident involved a Glover resident who was found to have an outstanding warrant and the plainclothes officers were with the Vermont State Police.
The incident raises a number of questions that I find interesting. First, how has federal policy changed that a relatively routine traffic stop generated immediate assumptions that plainclothes law enforcement officers represent ICE, particularly since many reports of ICE activities, at least outside border areas, seem to suggest they’ve been heavily protected and masked.
Second, how is it that brown-skinned people in this area are almost automatically assumed to be Mexican despite those making that assumption having no direct interaction with them. They could just as easily be from almost anywhere in Central or South America, or even some Southeast Asian countries.
Third, it appears that brown-skinned people in the area, who might already have had reason to avoid law enforcement personnel, have developed a communication network that keeps them informed of places they might want to avoid.
For many years people in this area who speak Spanish have helped transport farm workers without vehicles to doctor’s appointments and then offered to take them shopping. I’m told by one of those volunteers that the farm workers often ask to be taken to shop at places they feel safe, so there’s been some concern among them well before the present federal administration took office. It seems only recently that other area residents might first assume ICE agents are in the area.
Here at the Gazette we do our best to assume nothing and report only confirmed fact, so, despite putting in quite a few hours of very limited time because I thought we had a whopper of a front page story, we ended up with nothing that counts as real news.
On the other hand, it’s not every week that the lobby roof at Hardwick Elementary School starts to collapse.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
