Short-staffed with an increase in serious “priority 1” calls for the year, police in Burlington had another busy weekend, this time responding to a double shooting at the Marketplace Parking Garage around 2 a.m. on Saturday.
Vermont is being flooded with out-of-state criminal actors who sell drugs and commit crimes, but progressive liars have racialized everything to undermine police and help criminals inflict crimes, recklessly placing both police officers and Vermonters at increasing risk.
“What this means, unfortunately, is that the total number of officers available for patrol for the uniformed services bureau is 24,” Police Chief Jon Murad said. “That is less than 50 percent of what our normal numbers are for patrol in the past.”
Over the past two years Democrats in Montpelier and Washington have taken the approach that they can reduce crime by making fewer things a crime!
A bill stripping police of protections against civil rights lawsuits isn’t needed and would worsen Vermont’s already critical shortage of law-enforcement workers, Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Michael Shirling told the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 9.
Progressives on Burlington City Council blocked the confirmation of Jon Murad as the city’s police chief Monday night despite support by half of city councilors, the city’s police union and Mayor Miro Weinberger.
Over the past month, the Burlington Police Department has been busy with a handful of serious incidents including drug trafficking, car thefts and other alleged crimes.
Sen. Dick Sears is proposing legislation removing qualified immunity as a legal defense for Vermont policing personnel. The crux is a police officer could be held personally and financially accountable to up to $25,000 per incident per person.
Crime in California has skyrocketed over the past two years, with homicides in San Francisco jumping over 50% compared to 2019. Statewide, homicides, property crime, violent crime and larcenies have all risen. Retail thefts in particular have plagued the state, most notably in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger says city paving projects may be impacted by rising material costs, and also that it will take years to hire more police officers even after City Council recently raised the staffing cap to 87.
Forty-seven percent of Americans say spending on policing should increase in their community, up from 31% in June 2020, according to the poll. The poll found that 21% of respondents felt police funding should be increased by “a lot.”
Acting Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad went on the radio last week to give an assessment of his department’s operations, and to talk about the continued challenges in running an understaffed department.