Brian Butcher, 7th Ward
[email protected]
Q1. People experiencing houselessness sometimes set up encampments on personal or public property. These provide a sense of community and stability but also have created concerns about safety and sanitation. How do you think Morgantown should approach encampments like these?
"I believe that we should be creating viable alternatives for those that are living in encampments, at this time many have literally nowhere else to go as I have seen first hand throughout my time providing hotel rooms and coordinating mutual aid for this community. In my experience with direct outreach and housing support almost everyone who is camping in a tent would much rather enter into supportive housing programs but some are not ready, some do not trust our community to keep them safe, some simply do not have access to the programs we currently have in place because of medical or social needs, we need to ensure that these resources are readily available and are able to meet the diverse needs of our unsheltered community so that we might address the root causes of homelessness and get people off the street permanently rather than remaining in a revolving door of co occurring issues that cause people to become unhoused. While unsheltered individuals do not have the right to infringe upon others or create unsafe situations for others and those incidents should be treated just the same as any other citizen who violates the law, often it is the rights of our unsheltered neighbors which are being violated as their things are set on fire, they are attacked in the street, their belongings bulldozed or tossed in a dumpster. If encampments are causing unsafe situations for those living in and around them we must follow our existing policy to engage with outreach workers with the Coalition to End Homelessness, and working to establish new outreach programs, to ensure that people have the proper connections to housing supports that allows them to get out of the situation that they are in and into supportive housing programs, otherwise we are simply evicting people from some wooded area in the city just for them to move to another wooded area in the city, wasting our officers and public works workers time and the cities money over and over again in an endless loop as we have for several years now."
Q2. Recently, people have criticized unsheltered residents for asking for money in the downtown area and along roadways. Do you think this activity should be illegal? How do you envision addressing economic insecurity in Morgantown?
"I believe that if we can demonstrate that there are specific areas that are unsafe for folks to be standing in general irregardless of whether or not they are panhandling we should try to limit people's ability to be there such as in the median in a four lane highway. The city currently prohibits aggressive solicitation, the kind of solicitation that would make vulnerable community members unsafe both from the perspective of the person soliciting and the person being solicited, I believe that this law likely goes as far as is appropriate for panhandling in specific. I am certainly open to ensuring that folks are safe when they are performing any kind of activity within the city but panhandling laws must pass intermediate scrutiny, many laws restricting panhandling have been struck down across the nation as unconstitutional. Restricting people's rights in this way is a slippery slope and is a way of criminalizing poverty. Regardless of how one feels about the morality of these laws, the court cases in Illinois, Arkansas, Florida, Alabama, Arizona, Massachusetes, North Carolina, Missouri, etc. should show that these sorts of restrictions on speech are legally risky and ripe for constitutional challenges. To curtail panhandling we should be engaging our city ambassadors and street outreach workers with poverty stricken individuals and allow those experiencing hardship to have opportunities within our city to give back to their community. We should be giving productive opportunities to our low income residents and increasing economic vitality within our community for low and middle class workers to address the root cause of panhandling."
Q3. The Center for Disease Control advocates for needs-based syringe programs (providing access to the number of syringes needed “to ensure that a new, sterile syringe is available for each injection” with no restrictions including returning used syringes) as the best practice to reduce new HIV and viral hepatitis infections. These programs (that follow suggested best practices) have been controversial in West Virginia and in 2021 resulted in the passage of Senate Bill 334, which limits some of the evidence-based best practices.. If elected to city council, how would you view syringe distribution programs? Are there other harm reduction programs you would like to see Morgantown implement?
"Harm reduction programs are vital, evidence based approaches to keeping our communities safe. We have seen first hand what happens when these programs are removed from communities as we did in Charleston WV as they suffered from one of the worst HIV outbreaks in the country. I have proudly voted twice to continue Healthright's needle exchange program as is now required by state law. I would like to see concerted public campaigns to educate citizens in the city about substance use disorder and reduce stigma, I would also like to support Healthright's mission to increase direct street outreach in their peer recovery programs to provide support to the most marginalized people in our communities."
Q4. In 2020, the Morgantown City Council passed a cannabis decriminalization ordinance, lowering the misdemeanor crime of possession of cannabis under 15 grams in city limits to a $15 fine and no jail time. What are your views on cannabis and decriminalization of drugs for personal use? Should more be done to decriminalize the use of cannabis in Morgantown?
"Our cannabis decriminalization was an important first step and I am thankful to previous councils for taking that action but this must be advocated for state wide along with programs that work to repair the destructive effects that the war on drugs has had on communities of color. Taxes collected from the sale of cannabinoid products should be used to materially correct harms inflicted on marginalized communities through business grant programs and housing initiatives."
Q5. In 2017, Morgantown passed a Non-Discrimination Ordinance to include protections “against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations on account of actual or perceived race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, familial status, or veteran status.” The 2023 WV Legislature passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that may allow people in Morgantown to cite their religious beliefs as being in conflict with the NDO. How vigorously should Morgantown defend the NDO in light of RFRA? Do you support the passage of local legislation to support marginalized communities in Morgantown protected by the NDO who may be at risk of discrimination under RFRA?
"Morgantown should do everything we can to defend the NDO, our support of marginalized communities is not just the right thing to do but is also economically advantageous. We represent one of the most progressive communities in the entire state which is also one of the only communities that is still growing. I am open to exploring any avenue that can strengthen our NDO and protect us from the effects of RFRA."
Q6. The West Virginia Traffic Stop Study, released in 2009 (the last time this data was collected, was conducted through legislative action initiated by the ACLU of West Virginia. The report identified a significant problem with law enforcement using race as a criteria in their suspicion of criminal activity. State-level data showed that compared to white drivers, Black drivers and Hispanic drivers are 1.64 times and 1.48 times more likely to be stopped respectively. Once stopped, they were searched more than twice as frequently when compared to white drivers despite having a lower contraband hit rate. They were also approximately 27% more likely to receive a citation compared to white drivers. The study cited Morgantown as having a particularly high rate of racial disparity in stop and searches. How do you propose Morgantown explore the current state of racial disparities in policing and stops?
"I have initiated a racial equity strategic plan committee with the approval of the Human Rights Commission. The first goal set out in that effort is to perform an audit to assess racially targeted harms that have resulted as a direct consequence to policies and institutions of the city. The ACLU's traffic study will be a critical data point for this audit along with many other historical documents. I hope to develop with stakeholders and affected community members short, medium and long term goals that can create material change and redress harms that have been caused by racially targeted policies."