By Guy Page

Happy New Year, Legislature – now will you please fix ‘catch and release’?

You can call it the ‘Michael Reynolds Law,’ after the Burlington-area transient with more than 1600 police interactions since 2012 and still going strong this month with reported abusive, disruptive, threatening behavior. 

Or you could call it the ‘Abdirahman Mohammed Law,’ after the 22-year-old Burlington man with a mere 35 run-ins with law enforcement, 11 of them violent incidents, who was released by a judge into his mother’s custody last week after being charged with a violent assault and robbery in April.

The public only knows about their multiple encounters because our overworked, shorthanded police are finally making that information public – some police (notably Burlington), anyway. 

In 2025 I wish that more police agencies follow Burlington’s lead and list the prior ‘police interactions’ of crime suspects. I hope more news media publish this information about serial offenders, and their mug shots, too. As a Sustaining Subscriber from Morrisville recently wrote, “I especially like seeing the list of criminals’ past encournters with law enforcement and the jail time. I have ofte used the phrase, ‘any reasonable person would have put them in jail,” and the list of charges, crimes and incarcerations lets people know how utterly unreasonable our justice system really is.”

Maybe growing awareness that most Vermont crime is committed by a small group of resident repeat criminals and out-of-state drug dealers will lead lawmakers to renounce the failed ‘justice’ reimaginings of Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George and her dwindling (Goodbye, LA prosecutor George Gascon!) fellow George Soros-funded “Fair Justice” acolytes and apply to caught-and-released offenders both the carrot of drug abuse/mental illness treatment and the stick of incarceration. 

When angry citizens demand bail reform, legislators like Addison County Sen. Ruth Hardy flap their hands and say the state Constitution won’t allow it. This is not true. Read our Constitution for yourself:

SECTION XXII. Excessive bail shall not be exacted for bailable offences; and all fines shall be moderate.

SECTION XXX: And all prisoners, unless in execution, or committed for capital offences, when the proof is evident or presumption great, shall be bailable by sufficient sureties [unless for capital offences, when the proof is evident or presumption great]: nor shall excessive bail be exacted for bailable offences.

In fact, our Constitution not only allows higher bail – it seems to require it! Three-figure repeaters like Michael Reynolds prove that the amount of bail imposed now is not ‘sufficient.’ The Constitution forbids “excessive” bail, leaving the interpretation of that word to legislators and judges. Over the years they – not our Constituion – have created the current low-bail/no-bail straightjacket.  

Laws can be repealed, and judicial decisions overturned. If necessary (and it isn’t), the Constitution may be amended. Most of Vermont’s ‘landmark’ school funding and gay marriage decisions have either repealed existing law or overturned judicial precedent. In recent years our social justice activist Legislature has repeatedly amended parts of the Constitution it deemed lacking in enthusiasm. 

A Legislature serious about protecting the public from assaults by Abdirahman Muhammed and Michael Reynolds and their ilk will invest their time and, yes, our money in applying both carrot and stick through  ‘catch and release’ reduction. 

Will the current majority and the new chair of Senate Judiciary (Nader Hashim, a Windham County Democrat has the inside track) take public safety and economic productivity seriously enough to stop incessant ‘catch and release’? 

We’ll see. VDC will be asking legislators of all parties what they plan to do about it and will report on their progress (or lack of it). If they do nothing and the problem gets even worse, November ‘26 can’t come soon enough. 

Click on the image below to read more VDC headlines and thumbnail descriptions about Vermont’s Public Safety Crisis. In response to reader interest, in 2025 VDC intends to be more active than ever covering Vermont’s criminal justice system, including proposed legislation.