Vermont Senate spends final day of 2021 session passing social justice-themed resolutions

The Vermont Senate finished the 2021 legislative session Friday much the way it began, focusing on social justice themes, including one resolution condemning anti-Asian hate, and another marking the anniversary of the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.

On May 25 of last year, Floyd, an African-American, was arrested by four officers for allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a store. Floyd resisted arrest but was pinned down by the knees of arresting officer Derek Chauvin.

According to an autopsy, Floyd’s heart stopped while he was pinned, leading to his death. In April, a jury found Chauvin guilty of second and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

RACISM: The 2021 legislative session for the Vermont Senate centered on social justice resolutions and bills — even during the final day of the session.

This Tuesday marks the 1-year anniversary. On Friday, on the Senate floor, Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, presented the resolution S.R.11 “honoring the memory of George Floyd by designating May 25, 2021, as a Day of Remembrance and Action.”

Brock recalled the incident.

“Scores of people saw George Floyd die, and millions of people have seen the ample video of that death,” he said. “Now some would say that George Floyd was a criminal, that he was accused of a crime of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, that he may have been at least at one point uncooperative with police officers. But the underlying answer to all of that is that Goerge Floyd was murdered.”

Opinions on the technical causes of Floyd’s death vary. A Science Times report states that “George Floyd officially died from a heart attack while under arrest with evidence of fentanyl and meth use.

The report continues: “After the initial autopsy by Hennepin County Medical Examiner finding ‘no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxiation or strangulation.'” Floyd’s family’s lawyers disputed those findings.

One opinion writer suggests that because of the high publicity of the case, Chauvin’s chance at an unbiased trial was unlikely.

“Involuntary manslaughter is the only charge that should have been on the docket. Involuntary manslaughter is reckless disregard,” wrote Peyton MacKenzie for Liberty.edu. “They could argue that even if Chauvin did not intend to kill Floyd, by not getting up sooner than he did, his recklessness led to Floyd’s death.”

The other social initiative of the day was resolution S.R.10 “condemning anti-Asian and anti-Pacific Islander hate in the United States and recognizing May 2021 as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Vermont.”

An emotional Sen. Kesha Ram, D-Chittenden, read an account by a Tai American woman in Ohio whose father died because she said he was denied basic medical care for COVID-19.

“He died of simple dehydration after multiple denials of service by the healthcare system,” Ram said. “This is just one example of the multiple forms of bias that my family experienced in seeking appropriate medical treatment during the pandemic.”

The resolution’s text suggests that Asian hate crimes are rising.

“Whereas, the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center reported 6,603 incidents of hatred directed at Asian Americans from March 19, 2020 through March 31, 2021, with the number of these incidents having “increased significantly … during March 2021,” it states.

One highly publicized hate crime is disputed. A police investigation into the shooting of six Asian women at a spa in Atlanta indicated that the attack was not racially motivated.

“During his interview, he gave no indicators that this was racially motivated,” Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds told media. “We asked him specifically and the answer was no.”

The Vermont resolution cites the Atlanta shooting incident as one of the justifications for this action.

Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.

Image courtesy of Public domain

6 thoughts on “Vermont Senate spends final day of 2021 session passing social justice-themed resolutions

  1. We are living in a place where up is down and down is up, where common sense is no longer common. A place where people are dumbed down by the censorship of the corporate media and the woke CEOs that tell their potential customers that they are racists with manipulative advertising and shaming. A place where good people are told they are bad and bad people are celebrated as good, where the police are demeaned for trying to stop poisonous drugs from cities being transported in to kill our youth. A place where criminals carry illegal guns and the law abiding are told by agenda driven politicians that they must surrender their rights to defend their families and themselves. A place where the climate cultist believes they can change the earth’s weather by punishing people who need warmth and energy security. A place where work is bad and laziness is good, a place where business is punished and taxed out of existence and drives other businesses to go elsewhere to thrive. A place that was once known for it’s strength, honesty and rugged individual freedom. Yes, a place now that has been invaded by agenda driven social justice progressives. A place where the government has been infested with politicians who came here because of what they found and to escape the nightmare they created elsewhere only to destroy their new home and to remake it into the place they escaped from. Welcome to the Vermont progressive Twilight Zone, a place and a time that history will record as how to ruin a state.

    • Very well put Dano. I must add that some of the social justice progressives causing these problems are local Vermonters. In fact, many locals in my area are liberals that love Bernie. I was happy to get away from the hundreds of illegals that congregated on street corners in my hometown, waiting to be picked up for cheap labor. I went home two years ago and the Township is unrecognizable….illegals flooded that once beautiful area of Long Island. A lot of the fault for the change in this state are teachers. Many of them are also your Reps and they are trying their best to “diversify” Vermont.

      I just came back from a trip down to the Carolinas. Let me tell you….the black race is not having any problems financially. They are doing very well down there. The majority of the stewardesses on my flights were black. The majority of families at the resorts I went to were minorities. If I was a minority, I would be offended at how this administration is portraying blacks. Oh, and no masks have to be worn. You can go shopping and go out to eat mask free. I went to a club with wall to wall people (99% minorities) mask free.

      I think the Republican party is very weak and we don’t stand a chance of getting our country back again. The loyalty to the party is not what it used to be. It scares me.

  2. Maybe Randy should be listening to Candice Owens, a real Black Conservative, instead of the lying lame azz media. Celebrating a thug who like all Blacks that get shot because they simply didn’t give up. The main stream snooze cut out the part where he kept struggling for a good 5 mins before he was finally pinned down. They also fail to report the toxicology report which showed lethal amounts of drugs in his body…. Just give up instead of trying to run and there would be no criminals getting shot.. simple except of the low IQ to comprehend.

  3. Mr. Brock, I guess you only listen to CNN. It was proven that the thug Floyd would have died anyway because he was high on drugs and overdose… They treated him like he was a hero. He doesn’t deserve any recognition, Any man that would stick a gun in a pregnant woman’s stomach and threaten to shoot her unborn baby if she didn’t tell him where they kept their valuables is nothing but a POS
    They did a GO FUND ME for him. they got 25 million, they had him on display in a GOLD casket. They even had his funeral on TV.. ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!!!

    “honoring the memory of George Floyd by designating May 25, 2021, as a Day of Remembrance and Action.” Excuse me what about all the policemen who were murdered by thugs.. wheres the Day of Remembrance for them. ???

    Sorry, Mr. Brock but you are so wrong on this one. Let’s do a Remembrance Day for my son who was in the Army for 28 yrs, who fought in Iraq and wasn’t a thug. He was killed..

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