The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Burlington Police Department will be working together in an effort to curb rising gun violence in the Queen City through the creation of the Chittenden County Gun Violence Task Force.
Last week, the pro-police advocacy group Keep Vermont Safe held an event to highlight some of the biggest hurdles to restoring public safety in Burlington amid rising crime owed largely to the “defund the police” movement.
According to a legal agreement between Travis Trybulski and the State of Vermont, the incident involved his decision to stop and search for drugs (with the owner’s approval) a car with New York license plates. The decertification vote, which bars Trybulski from working as a cop in Vermont, was nearly unanimous.
Three people have been murdered by gunfire in Burlington this year. All three deaths reflect longtime, ongoing social problems common not only Burlington but all of Vermont and the U.S.
Burlington’s 23rd gunfire incident of the year occurred over the holiday weekend shortly after midnight on Sunday morning — it was a homicide, right in City Hall Park.
The Council on Criminal Justice reports the homicide rate is 39% higher in 29 American cities than during the first half of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Council also reported increases in aggravated assaults (+4%) and robberies (+19%), residential burglaries (+6%), and motor vehicle thefts (+15%) all increased in the first half of 2022.
Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad gave his monthly report at Tuesday evening’s Police Commission meeting, and once again he discussed trying to run the department effectively amid staff depletion and rising crime.
In an appearance on “The Morning Drive” radio program Wednesday, Gov. Phil Scott addressed a series of topics ranging from rising crime and homelessness to the results of last week’s primary election.
Governor Phil Scott today issued his 10-point public safety enhancement and violence prevention action plan, laying out the framework of a comprehensive response to address violent crime and other public safety concerns across the state.
We’ve been charting the Democrat decline of Burlington, Vermont, for a few years, and it is swirling the bowl as predicted. Property crime has been rising, and now gun crime is becoming a problem, but the local police department lacks resources. Can you guess why?
The Burlington Police on Monday responded to an incident in which a former University of Vermont student shot and killed a current UVM student and seriously wounded another victim before turning the gun on himself.
“The Ferguson Effect is a real thing. Police officers started to back away from enforcement,” Knezovich said. “You saw it across the nation. You wonder why you see less and less enforcement and more and more crime, it’s woke politicians and activists and the media have made it so.”