Keep Vermont Safe will hold a public workshop and panel discussion in Burlington, Vermont on Friday September 9, 2022, titled “Crime & Punishment,” to discuss the current state of public safety in Vermont, with particular focus on identifying impediments around policing, prosecuting and whether changes to the law should be made through the legislative process.
In 2020 many special interest groups around the United States began advocating for criminal justice reform. The hallmark organization leading the charge was the Black Lives Matter Organization which advocated for a “Defund The Police” Movement. The BLM movement was welcomed with open arms into many statehouses and municipalities around the United States and as a result many candidates for office also adopted similar “Defund the Police” policies. Since voting to Defund the Police in 2020, Burlington, Vermont has seen an increase in burglaries, vehicle thefts, coordinated retail theft groups, increased drug crimes and gun fire incidents in the city.
This is the first in a series of three public workshops Keep Vermont Safe will host. This format will be a panel discussion with Michael Hall, Executive Director Vermont Police Coalition, Brady Toensing, Former Senior Counsel United States Department of Justice, Christina Nolan, Former United States Attorney for the District of Vermont hosted by a moderator addressing these topics:
- A Closer Look at Crime Statistics
- Examining Qualified Immunity
- Providing Law Enforcement and Prosecutors Appropriate Tools Through Legislative Action
- How Law & Order is Being Restored in Other States
This workshop is free and open to the public, and will be held in Contois Auditorium, Burlington City Hall, 149 Church Street, Burlington, Vermont 05401 from 6 PM to 8 PM. The event will be moderated by Christopher-Aaron Felker and Ericka Redic of Burlington, Vermont.
If you are interested in attending, please register at: www.KeepVermontSafe.com
Just remember, “This too shall pass.”
You cannot keep Vermont safe because it isn’t as long as drug mules practice their trade of transporting illegal drugs and guns from out of state. Liberals call the police racist and accuse them of profiling when black gang members are arrested bringing poison into the state from Mass., Conn, and NY. This caused the defend the police BS here. Then you have the revolving door at the courthouses that release known, habitual criminals back onto the streets. But let’s all get together and talk about it.
We all see the numerous felonies that most of these people have from other states when arrested, yet they are released to continue their illegal trades. Not to mention that our governor invites illegal immigrants from 3rd world countries to Vermont who are uneducated and lack the civic knowhow to live in America, flooding the schools with and neighborhoods with people that shouldn’t be here. A country without borders is not a country.
Combine this with the lack of dollars for corrections and jails as well as non-existent mental health
facilities what would a normal thinking person expect. Instead, Vermont politicians are spending millions on chasing windmills, EVs and trying to heal a planet that’s not sick. Talk is cheap, only correstive action in the above areas will result in making Vermont safe again. And leave law-abiding people alone, no more feel-good legislation from liberal gun-haters. We are not the problem.
Maybe the slogan is part of the denial problem? “Keep Vermont Safe”? How about: Make Vermont Safe Again? And those Kesha Ram and Phil Baruth anti-Second Amendment types who blame the “availability of guns” also need to come to the realization that Burlington and Vermont dont have a gun problem, we have a thug problem. There are more guns than people in the US. Fortunately only a small percentage of the population are thugs and with the proper political will, the criminal justice system has typically in the past done a fair job of containing the bad elements of society. The combination of the George Floyd era hating on the police and the general spread of marxist thinking in the court system has brought this upon us and a majority of the voters have rubber stamped it. The Burlington City Council for instance has blood dripping from it’s hands.
Yes, Rich and something is wrong with our legislature. Voters have an opportunity to start to turn this around on November 8th, but I won’t be holding my breath. Vermont has become a progressive cult of majority voters dumbed down by the media. According to some of them, the earth will die in 10 to 12 years so they will continue to squander huge sums of money building charging stations instead of mental health facilities and continue to neglect corrections. I’m worried that without a legislative change, we are in for much worse.