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by Guy Page
At his press conference last week, Gov. Phil Scott touted what he calls the biggest success story of the 2024 Legislative session: new public safety laws he and senior state officials say give our criminal justice system more tools to fight back against out-of-state drug crime.
It’s no secret that Vermont is “an easy mark” for New England and New York crime gangs, to quote VT Dept. of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs Dept. Executive Director John Campbell at the press conference. Vermont is a growing market for drugs imported from out-of-state, and has been for at least a decade. Unprecedented numbers of homeless people, overdoses and drug-related crimes (including retail theft, guns-for-drugs, kidnapping and punitive violence) paint that picture clearly.
Our justice system is lenient, compared to the federal system and surrounding states. Knowing this, drug criminals use teenagers to conduct face-to-face transactions and sometimes exact retribution against competitors or non-paying customers. The gang bosses enforcers know we lack the laws and juvy jail facilities to hold them.
Vermont criminal law has been moving away from incarceration, both before and after conviction. Pre-sentence incarceration and bail are almost impossible to impose except for cases of violence and flight risk – even if ‘social justice’ minded judges and prosecutors had a mind to use these tools, which many don’t. Thanks to repeat offenders and the Covid crash, our court system is backed up like O’Hare airport on Christmas Eve.
The drug gangs grow their base of support from ‘customers’
Like any out-of-state organization seeking to bring change to Vermont, the big city drug gangs couldn’t do this alone. They need help from the grassroots. They get it – willingly or not – from their customers.
Drug criminals needs guns, and many Vermont addicts are more than happy to trade theirs – legally obtained or otherwise – for drugs.
Drug criminals need bases of operations. Many Vermont addicts trade living space for drugs.
Vermont’s police staffing problem isn’t getting better – it’s getting worse
And while drug crime – trafficking and drug use itself, but dealers’ violence and property crimes committed by desperate customers – is up, police hiring is down. At last week’s press conference, state public safety officials reported a 23% vacancy on the state police roster. Worse, attrition exceeds hiring. Burlington Police Department also reported continued hiring woes last month.
Drug crime traced back to Mexico, and China
Vermont State Police Colonel Matthew Birmingham says out-of-state organized crime (19:40 on this YouTube video) begins with the Mexican drug cartels selling fentanyl made with precursor chemicals obtained from China.
“These are very dangerous groups that are operating around the country, starting with the drug cartels in Mexico. These are violent groups, and they’re bringing the violence to Vermont. We’re seeing it all the time here in shootings and homicides that are drug-related,” Birmingham said.
The multi-jurisdiction Vermont Drug Task Force run by VSP is “laser focused” on bringing the suppliers and supply chain “and the people who are profiting from this, and preying on victims, to justice,” said the VSP chief.
That’s the lay of the land now. Police are fighting a spirited battle. But they are losing ground to the out-of-state gangs.
New tools for judiciary
Recognizing this hard reality, the Executive Branch (Scott administration) and the Legislature worked together to give the Judiciary quite a few new tools to get tough on drug dealers.
New laws – notably S.58 and S.195 – expand pre-sentencing options and toughen sentencing for drug trafficking, use of guns in commission of felonies, and crimes committed by youth.
The Legislature expanded the use of bail. It lifted the $200 cap. Also, judges may now set bail for failure to appear in court. It’s not just about flight risk anymore.
Judges may impose other, more stringent, and hopefully more persuasive conditions of release for failure to appear.
And the Legislature created the Home Detention Program, which is “designed to provide an alternative to incarceration and reduce the number of detainees at Vermont correctional facilities by accommodating defendants who would otherwise be incarcerated or pose a significant risk to public safety.”
The State also restored the post-sentence Dept. of Corrections work crew – another more restrictive, but not quite prison, program.
Note: these Big Changes don’t include holding many more people in jail. The aim is to get people into court and to resolution, promptly. If people don’t cooperate – there will be consequences. Immediate consequences, Scott and senior officials said at the press conference.
Okay, I asked, what consequences?
Basically, more restrictive conditions of release, they said. Otherwise, their answers weren’t very specific. They hope prompt court dates and swift adjudication itself will slow down the scofflawing and unclog the backed-up court dockets.
As Campbell said, they’re hoping to make it “so that we’re not an easy mark here in Vermont.”
What else did the Legislature do for public safety?
It funded new deputy state’s attorney positions to reduce the backlog and focus more on drug trafficking.
More deputy State’s Attorneys, huh? Remembering that the Chittenden County prosecutor got her start as a deputy SA, I asked: “How are you going to make sure they are not, pardon me for saying this, clones of Sarah George, who basically don’t want to incarcerate someone anyway?”
Campbell disagreed with my characterization of George. I was told we need these new positions and they’ll be prioritizing drug crime and the catch and release epidemic.
The Legislature also classified xylazine – a horse tranquilizer known as Trank – in the same category as heroin, fentanyl and cocaine and other potent, illegal narcotics. And that’s good because about 60% of all glassine packets seized by police contain some trank.
Due to the uncertainty of outcomes expressed at the press conference, I asked Gov. Scott if he recommends people arm themselves for self-defense? (see video at 27 minutes)
His quick answer was “I don’t.” But he also said people should do what they want, and that he himself has a gun cabinet full of guns – but he stressed, they’re in the cabinet, not lying around.
None of these changes are written in stone. The public safety people at the press conference said over and over again they will be monitoring the effectiveness of these changes and be ready to propose more if needed.
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Categories: Drugs and Crime
I’ve got a bone to pick with this title, they are doing next to nothing to fight drug dealing or crime.
Here’s some real-life notes from the ground on what is going on in Vermont, a customer told an associate of a store, here is a list of the criminals stealing from your store, they have a house full of stolen products, they knew the name of all the thieves. the police knew all their names…..they are on face book and craigslist openly selling all sorts of stolen merchandise, it’s rampant across the entire state. The criminals openly fill shopping carts and leave the premise of retail outlets, without a fear of being in trouble. They openly talk about how nothing will happen to them; they know the system.
Customers are livid.
Employees are livid
Police are livid.
Companies are livid.
Everybody is upset, except for criminals and legislature. What does that tell you?
So, what gives? What gives Governor Scott? Even if you couldn’t get laws you wanted passed, you could at the very least be screaming from the top of every dairy barn, from every retail outlet saying this ,IS NOT RIGHT!
The VtGop could be making a fuss. This is all B.S…..
It’s a start, and it’s better than nothing. Now we need to sustain it and improve on it.
It will allow 98% of the crime to continue……..but if crime is expanding, cutting 2% off of a growth rate of say 50% means, yes, they cut the growth rate of crime by 2% but it actually grew by 48%….
This is the crap the pharmaceutical companies use, our drug is 50% more effective than the predecessor, true, it went from 2% effective to 3% effective, so it’s still not effective 97% of the time.
This is smoke and mirrors, it’s really adding cover for the criminals to continue while the politicians can tout, they are being “tough on crime” but when you read the article you find they really haven’t done much of anything.
this legislation is crap.
hunter biden is found guilty of false statement on gun buying form////// will he be placed at hard labor for the next five years/// i am waiting for some justice////
Well, with Vermont enabling drug use with (free?) overdose medication and safe injection sites, I guess the welcome mat for drug gangs and drug violence is out. Thanks Montpelier.
When Jamaal from Brooklyn gets busted, will home detention be the sentence?
Will the home be in Brooklyn or will he have to stay at his ho’s place in VT?
The photo of Tucker Jones and John Campbell – the expressions say it all – good catch capturing the reality in their faces. Jones should hang his head in shame and Campbell is seeing the writing on the wall. The day of reckoning approaches.
Remember the war on drugs? The war that has lasted four decades now? Just say no? MADD? SADD? Now it’s all about GLAAD. How many Governors stood at the podium declaring the drug epidemic must be addressed? How much money funnelled to non-profiteers, NGOs, UVM, task forces, et. al. to address drug issues and treat the addicted? Was the war in Afghanistan about poppy fields and the moment the USA retreated, the country became awash in fentanyl and cocaine?
If those who could actually fix the problem were not profiteering from it or being blackmailed to ignore it, there would be no drug problem, no gang violence, or need for the medical community to pretend to cure the sick. If there were a death penalty for drug dealers (they are committing murder and attempted murder with every sale) there would be far less criminal conduct on the street and in the State House.
The problem could be fixed if those who have that ability stop being complicit and compensated for participating in it. Do the right thing. Tell the truth and come clean for once.
Here is the answer: https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2024/06/10/self-defense-is-not-a-dirty-word-armed-citizens-face-official-backlash-over-hartford-patrols-n1225200
Guy,
I just want to say thank for this article and for all you are doing to cover and help educate and enlighten us about this critical issue.
Since our first Crimes and Concerns community meeting held last August in Morrisville, I have felt that much of the recent uptick in crime the last few years in Vermont and Lamoille County is directly attributable to our state legislature which seems to create legislation which, sadly, is counterintuitive and counterproductive to public safety. And yet, I am hopeful that our governor and legislators will begin to be much more proactive in passing common sense legislation which actually makes it harder on those who are intent on breaking the law here.
I realize that there are some rogue bad actors like Sarah George in Chittenden County, or catch and release judges, who are actually working against all these good efforts. Someone, such as George, who has openly stated that the reason she went to law school was to “dismantle the system,” should never have been trusted by the citizens to truly care about justice and community safety.
Your article does a great job of underscoring this tension between the growing crime problem here and new legislation which seems to undermine the efforts and good work of our law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and judges to make our communities safer and execute true justice. And it should inspire us all to be watchmen who take action on the local and state levels to make our voices and concerns heard and taken seriously by those we have elected.
I continue to wonder why the State of Vermont officials haven’t demanded significant action against the “out of state” drug gangs? Where are the loud voices in Montpellier raging about the spineless enforcement efforts of the toothless so-called laws of this state?
I omitted my concerns about the lack of significant federal law enforcement action in addressing these out-of-state criminals! The broadcast and print media continue to be passive spectators in this public debate over the weak prosecutorial conduct of both state and federal prosecutors and the judiciaries!