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By Guy Page
A video about human trafficking seen already by more than 70,000 viewers on the O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) YouTube channel raises questions about the role of the Vermont State Police preventing investigative journalist James O’Keefe from approaching the home of the Swanton Sector Border Patrol chief, after he had already approached two other BP supervisors’ homes.
Was VSP merely responding to a homeowner request, or was there more coordinated VSP involvement and interaction with the Border Patrol? Does Vermont’s status as a Sanctuary State have any bearing on VSP stopping press from asking BP officials at their homes? VDC has reached out to the state police (see below) and will publish responses as soon as received.
The video depicts a Vermont State Trooper first asking investigative journalist James O’Keefe to leave, then detaining him, then giving him a notice of trespass. The encounter came after O’Keefe approached two other Border Patrol supervisors at their homes, in pursuit of a story about human trafficking.
The video shows that on Saturday, September 21, Vermont State Trooper Daniel Bohnyak first told O’Keefe to leave, then – after O’Keefe refused to leave – detained him, noting that his vehicle was in the road. O’Keefe and Bohnyak are seen standing outside of (O’Keefe says) Border Patrol, Swanton Sector Chief Agent Robert Garcia’s home.
A VSP statement earlier this week said the encounter took place in Jericho. “ Further investigation suggested one member of the group approached the homeowner feigning car trouble. When the homeowner offered assistance, the group began to question the homeowner on a completely different issue relating to his occupation,” Major David Peterson told VDC. and that O’Keefe was there in a matter related to the resident’s employment. Border Patrol was not mentioned.
Peterson said that “One of the individuals was reported to be holding a microphone. The homeowner requested the group be issued a notice of trespass for his property.”
The feigning of car trouble is consistent with O’Keefe’s undercover style of investigative journalism, which he made famous when associated with Project Veritas.
On the video, O’Keefe is seen telling Bohnyak – son of longtime Orange County Sheriff Bill Bohnyak – he’s there to ask Garcia for comment on Border Patrol Agent Zachary Apotheker’s comments in O’Keefe’s film “Line in the Sand,” now on the Tucker Carlson Network, how underage girls are being sent to unknown locations without proper biometrics and MS-13 gang members are receiving free healthcare.
O’Keefe said he visited the homes of three Border Patrol supervisors—Michael Shick, Richard Fortunato, and Garcia—seeking comment on the circumstances behind the cease-and-desist letter sent to Apotheker, who exposed misconduct at the northern Vermont-Canada border.
The video shows that O’Keefe first went to Shick’s home. O’Keefe asked, “Are you Michael Shick?” Shick, visibly uncomfortable, responded, “No, I’m not.” As O’Keefe pressed further, showing Shick’s photograph to confirm his identity, Shick got on an ATV parked nearby and drove away.
At Richard Fortunato’s residence, O’Keefe and his crew were met by Fortunato’s wife, who opened the door and immediately ordered, “You need to leave!” As O’Keefe attempted to explain that he was there to speak to her husband, she became louder, saying, “I’m going to call the police!” She also threatened to let the dogs out.
When O’Keefe later arrived in Garcia’s neighborhood, the Vermont State Police were waiting in the street, in the front of his house. “We’re simply asking for comment,” O’Keefe stated, emphasizing his rights as a journalist. Initially, Vermont State Trooper Daniel Bohnyak told O’Keefe and his crew they were “free to leave,” but moments later changed his stance, saying, “Right now, you are not free to leave.”
The stated reason for detaining O’Keefe was that his car was allegedly “parked in the middle of a public highway,” though O’Keefe says it was actually on a neighborhood side street. It is unclear from the video how far O’Keefe’s car was pulled over onto the side of the road.
Despite standing on public property, O’Keefe was issued a trespassing notice, warning him not to return to the homes of the Border Patrol officers. Reflecting on the incident, O’Keefe remarked, “In a world where 500,000 children are being moved in three years… the Vermont State Police are spending their days detaining journalists for asking questions.”
VDC emailed Peterson and Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison at 10:30 AM this morning, requesting answers by noon to these questions:
1) Is it true that VSP sent officers to most or all of BP officers’ homes Saturday night? If so, was this in expectation of contact with O’Keefe?
2) Was this assistance requested by BP in an organizational capacity, or by the individual members?
3) Requested or not, why did VSP see the need to send out troopers proactively to BP homes?
4) Vermont is a sanctuary state – generally speaking ‘hands off’ on participating with federal immigration officials, including BP. While the Model Fair and Impartial Policing statement doesn’t specifically cover running interference between BP residences and reporters, it does promote a ‘let them do their job and don’t help them do it’ approach. Is VSP’s intervention in agreement with the spirit of the Model Fair and Impartial Policing statement?
As of 12:57 PM VDC had not received a response to the 10:30 AM request.
Some content in this story has been republished from the OMG YouTube page.
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Sanctuary State. I have a feeling this is not going to end well.
Go get them James and let’s get to the bottom of this because it’s very very fishy!
A strange car or person enters my driveway they are generally greeted by me carrying a shotgun especially at night
Don’t forget to turn in your mancard when you vote Kamala.
This is not the first time the VSP has been caught acting as the puppets of DHS! Remember when VSP and the local Attorney General conspired to coverup the crimes of Will Hoyt? Crimes committed in VT, attempted kidnapping, child molestation, and crimes in Massachusetts where Hoyt was a DHS agent molesting children while wearing a DHS uniform in Western Mass schools under ” Project Safechild”. VSP doesnt work for the the people of Vermont, and neither does the Attorney Generals Office; they are nothing but thugs, whose strings are pulled by DHS!
This is the story of how VSP did DHS bidding by making Sure no charges were ever filed against Will Hoyt. Why arent the taxpayers angry that VSP isnt doing the job they are supposed to do; protecting them, and instead is behaving as the puppet of DHS, spending all their time and taxpayers money covering DHS criminal employees?
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/state-police-to-investigate-their-investigation-of-former-bellows-falls-homeland-security-cop/
While I do not know details about the alleged illegal child trafficking, a police officer can issue a notice of trespass to anyone at the request of a complainant, especially if they feel threatened, or just don’t want them on the property. Even if O’Keefe was not on the property, a trespass notice can still be issued. It does appear that O’Keefe was on the property though as he was met at the door of one residence.
My original understanding of a trespass order is that you have to have been asked to leave by the owner/agent and chosen not to leave before a trespass is issued. Since he presumably (they really should release less edited video as we really don’t know what truly happened here) was never asked to leave he can’t be trespassed.
Then I went and read VT specific law and voila you are correct in VT the officer can issue the trespass order for the landowner/agent.
https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/13/081/03705
Another law I think is unconstitutional in VT, who would have thought.
So does this mean if a politician who’s party I do not like knocks on my door, I can call the State Police and they will come and deliver a Notice of Trespass document to that politician even after they vacate my property?
O’Keefe should really be visiting mayors of Vermont cities and demoprog legislators who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to welcome vagrants, including the undocumented into our once-great state. Border patrol officials take their orders from the Biden administration and can’t really be help responsible for the inherent ineptitude.
Is this being covered by Vermont’s MSM? I live in Tennessee.
Thanks,
Interesting.
Wow, Vermont is a self proclaimed sanctuary state that forbids state officials from cooperating with immigration officers. So, Customs officers and Border Patrol agents have been advised by their superiors not to enforce 8 U.S.C. § 1324, which would incarcerate most of our Vermont officials, including the Governor, and many business owners were it to be enforced. Vermont is the problem, not the BP. who has to grin, bear it, and stand by. If a BP guy tells a reporter to go away, at least the trespass laws still apply.
8 U.S. Code § 1324 – Bringing in and harboring certain aliens
Re: ‘…advised by their superiors…’
No. They are never ‘advised’. They may ‘misunderstand’. Or, as democrat ‘deep state operative’ Senator Chris Coons of Delaware articulated just today, they may ‘misremember’. Or they are ‘incompetent’, as the DHS, FBI and USSS want everyone to believe.
We don’t even know who ‘their superiors’ are anymore. Does anyone know who is running the country – really?
Connect the dots. It’s called ‘plausible deniability’. Nothing can be proven. Nor can anything be disproven.
So, …here we are. Lawfare has degenerated into lawlessness. Just ask NYC Mayor Adams. If Governor Scott gets involved, he knows what’s next for him.
We’re on our own.
Whatever it takes to help us bring the state back i’m willing to help!
Thankgod this is the tip of the iceberg! Just wait till the rest of the country see the amount of pedophile/traffciking scum came here with disposable incomes thinking they can geta way with here what they couldnt elsewhere. Im here to show em they are wrong! I will support any vermonter trying to stop the cycle of bullchit!
Well, well it looks like little Vermont has the same corrupt members doing the bidding for the Biden administration border scam………………..
We all know what’s going on, and O’keefe is shining a light, shame on the VSP for covering for these scum bags !!
Put them all front & center so we can get to the bottom, Illegals are just that, and if you are hiding the children, you need to be fired and locked up yourself, border patrol leadership, corrupt puppets and cowards to hide from the press…………….
I was raised here and spent a good portion of my life up in North Hyde Park where the Garfield road turns to dirt with the mcfarlands in the Emerson’s and the sawyers and I’ll tell you what I don’t know how these predators and vampires have weasel their way in under the nose of heart heart and loving people but we’ll go out of our way to remove them it’s going to take time but they got to go they don’t belong here
Don’t forget – the Feds set up permenant shop here through FEMA (Homeland Security) and FBI investigating the hate crime shooting in Burlington not long ago. The good cop/bad cop battle is commencing in your jurisdictions invited or not. Still haven’t figured out why National Guard personel from other States are milling around.
The trick will be to figure out if they represent the UN or the Republic of the United States of America. If lockdowns commence due to a “contested election”, a plandemic, a false flag psyop, mass casualty event…there may be no telling who is for us or against us….praying it doesn’t unfold that way…prepare accordingly nonetheless.
The home is our sanctuary for our children and family. Leave the children alone!
Notice/// the longshoreman are set to go on strike October first and shut down the ports. Should this happen you can expect more supply chain problems and this will effect Vermonters. This will bring more federal oversite to Vermont which we do not need. Remember the last time this happened.
Don’t forget who the Border Patrol council (union) is supporting for President— Trump. And there’s a good reason for that—- Most of the rank and file want desperately to just do their jobs, and the last four years their hands have been tied by bad policy on behalf of BIDEN/HARRIS. If this reporter wants to knock on doors, they should be on the porches of ALL the Vermont judges who have purposefully allowed charges to be dropped and sentences to be reduced of immigrants and illegals for the express purpose of avoiding deportation. THAT, I promise you is a rabbit hole that goes DEEP.