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By Guy Page
At Monday night’s Burlington City Council meeting, some Progressive city councilors and attendees mocked Democrat city councilors’ ‘Burlington Forward’ public safety plan as ‘Burlington Backward.’ They claimed the plan would return Burlington to an era of incarceration and forced removal of homeless encampments – both of which they deplore and insist won’t work.
The epic five hour meeting included about three hours of public comment by about 100 people, some claiming it would ‘return Burlington to a police state.’ In the early morning hours of Tuesday, August 4, the council referred ‘Burlington Forward’ to four committees for further review. (See Burlington Daily News coverage for more details.)
Yesterday, the Vermont Police Association weighed in on the ‘Burlington Backward’ claim. The VPA was established in 1949 to represent the law enforcement community, promote community relations and “to establish a commitment of excellence for all citizens of the State of Vermont,” according to its Facebook page. On the same page, it blew the whistle on ‘Burlington Backward.’
The Facebook post is published below in its entirety:
Burlington is at a critical breaking point.
City councilors keep saying what’s being done isn’t working but they don’t want to go backwards. Backward to what? When Burlington was safer, cleaner, and thriving?
Burlington became the only municipality in Vermont to defund its police department. Since then, we’ve all watched as officer staffing plummet and the people who do put on the badge have too often been treated as the problem instead of part of the solution.
In the 1990s, New York City dramatically reduced crime by taking public safety seriously and addressing the visible signs of disorder alongside more serious crime. Burlington doesn’t have to be New York to learn from what works.
Supporting public safety isn’t a radical idea, it’s common sense. Safe neighborhoods, thriving businesses, and vibrant downtowns don’t happen by accident. They happen when laws are enforced, people are held accountable, and police officers are supported instead of vilified.
Burlington doesn’t need more excuses. It doesn’t need more negative rhetoric directed at the men and women who protect our communities.
It needs leadership to take accountability, show appreciation, get back to the basics, and restore the Queen City to the place people loved.
It’s time to stop kicking the can down the road.
Burlington deserves better.
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Categories: Burlington, Law Enforcement
In a democracy the people get what they deserve…………..
The big con is “democracy”, it sounds innocent, true and is being taught across the US, but it’s the sinister play of words used by the community organizer, either as an innocent mistake, useful idiot or ones who truly know the plan, to subvert the republic. How can a short video shine so much light? Truth.
Vermont….what Burlington used to be
What happened in China, is happening world wide now. It’s no coincidence they want to get things on line with AI and erase all the books, note all the book burning in the videos
Easiest way to explain a Democracy, is that if 51% of voters vote to take away Jim’s car, Jim no longer has a car
And you fuel the engine with greed and envy, seeing Jim’s brother, Tim has a prosperous company, you tax him more so the 51% can get a raise. If Tim doesn’t comply you seize his property. And this is route of our Vermont problem.
It’s a man-made problem, which is easily solved, we just need to change our minds. If we had a brain on our VTGOP side, we’d use their own plan against them and watch them self-implode and tear themselves apart, using their own statements of greed and envy against them.
How much does that high school teacher get with benefits and retirement per year?
Can we have a great influx of minorities in Union Jobs?
Can we have the illegal immigrants take the union jobs first?
Can we expose lobbyists and “nonprofits”?
See how quickly falls apart? It’s like a tornado coming through a house of cards, there is no substance, no truth, no love.
Two quotes from opponents of Monday’s resolution say it all about those who do not value law and order and public safety. Sounds like they are folks who have not been crime victims…yet. Too bad, but it seems that Burlington needs to hit bottom like NYC under Mayor Dinkins:
“Instead of doing that, we should do the obvious. Tax the rich. Fund social programs. Fund job programs. Fund education. Fund services directly targeting homeless people. Fund affordable housing. That’s what we should do,” said Ashley Smith, who opposes the resolution.
“Let’s talk about more policing and you want to put a hub for the police right in [City] Hall Park. That does not make me feel secure; that makes me feel threatened and intimidated,” said Sherry Wormser, who opposes the resolution.
Timeline:
June 8, 2020: Local residents and activists were publicly calling for a 30% cut to the Burlington Police Department budget.
June 12, 2020: A resolution emerged in response to those demands, proposing a 30% reduction in sworn officers through attrition, ending the school resource officer program, and redirecting some funds toward social and racial justice initiatives.
June 29, 2020: The Burlington City Council formally resolved to reduce the police department’s authorized headcount by 30%, from 105 to 74 officers, via attrition.
June 30, 2020: The council approved the resolution in a 9–3 vote after a long late-night meeting.
Afterward: The department began shrinking through retirements and departures rather than layoffs, and later city reports noted the headcount decline and its operational effects. Then we got more visible homelessness and public disorder downtown, more overdoses and drug use concerns, and a police department less able to respond quickly to lower-priority problems. A 2026 Atlantic piece described Burlington as having very high overdose counts and said officers were often too short-staffed to do much more than respond to the most urgent calls.
Ah, yes, Miro Weinberger, the Dr. Fauchi of Mayors!
…and given the climate and culture of hating on the police in Burlington, it’s amazing that anyone would want to or be willing to work under such conditions of dis-appreciation. Hey Burlingtonians of the lefty persuasion, when you hear some brazen junkie kick in your door at 3am, call Howard Human Services.
I used to say the same thing in school board meetings in regards to addressing lack of academic proficiency. “We have the model. It’s the model from 30 years ago. It’s not perfect but it’s much better.” They’d say, “we can’t go back.” If the past is better than the present, going back should be the future.