Tag: vermont

Vermont Cops Terrorize High School Students With ‘Mock Shooting’

A group of Burlington, Vermont, high school students were touring a local police department as part of a forensics class this week. In the middle of a presentation from a detective, the unthinkable happened: a masked gunman burst into the room and seemed to open fire.

The students were terrified. One says she dove on the ground, hurting her knee. Another says she reached for her phone to text her mother.

But soon, the students realized that they weren’t actually being shot at. Instead, they were the victims of a bizarre “demonstration” from the local police.

According to Seven Days, a Vermont independent newspaper, the students had no idea that the presentation would involve a mock shooting. Students were watching a detective speak at the front of a room when they heard screams. Two women ran in, followed by a man wearing a ski mask, who—it seemed—began firing.

“I’m shaking and crying because I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna get shot,'” one student told Seven Days. “It felt so real.”

The students eventually realized that the shooting was fake after police officers in the room failed to do anything to stop the apparent gunman.

While performing a fake mass shooting with high schoolers was obviously a terrible idea, it’s unclear whether high school staff also share some blame for needlessly terrifying the students. 

Keep reading

Vermont’s Republican Governor Allows Ban on ‘Ghost Guns’ to Become Law

Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott has allowed a ban on “ghost guns” to become law without his signature.

The bill, S.209, prohibits Vermont residents from possessing “unserialized firearms,” such as those created with 3D printers or kits purchased online.

According to a report from VT Digger, “The legislation does not prohibit home-built guns, but it does require that a Vermonter with an unserialized gun take it to a licensed firearms dealer, who can then conduct a proper background check and inscribe a serial number onto the weapon. It also establishes higher penalties for anyone who commits a crime while in possession of an unserialized firearm.”

While allowing the bill to become law on Tuesday, Governor Scott wrote a letter to legislatures saying he was allowing it to become law because, “As a public safety measure, I agree firearms should be serialized.”

Gov. Scott’s letter concluded, “Again, while my concerns on the practical impacts and enforceability keep me from signing this bill, I’m allowing it to go into law because I understand the fears behind access to untraceable firearms and respect the effort to tailor the scope and exceptions to limit impact for law abiding citizens.”

“To allow a bill to go into law without a signature is a middle-ground approach available to the governor — in between striking it down with a veto and endorsing it with a signature” VT Digger noted. “Scott holds the record for issuing the most gubernatorial vetoes in state history: 46.”

The bill was strongly opposed by Second Amendment defending organizations, including the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs.

Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs President Chris Bradley told VT Digger that the group would let its current lawsuits challenging Vermont’s ban on high-capacity magazines and the state’s waiting period laws play out in court before challenging other “unconstitutional laws.”

Keep reading

Vermont Lawmakers Consider Removing Psilocybin Legalization Provision From Psychedelic Study Group Bill

A Vermont legislative panel continued its consideration on Thursday of a bill that would legalize psilocybin in the state and establish a work group on how to further regulate psychedelics for therapeutic use.

Though members of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee took no formal action on the measure, S. 114, they heard invited testimony and signaled their openness to making a number of changes to the underlying proposal—including removing the legalization portion and instead making that an issue for the work group to study.

“It could be that decriminalization is going to get in the way of therapeutic use,” said Sen. Ginny Lyons (D), the committee chair. “What we’re looking for is the value of therapeutic use.”

Other possible changes to the bill raised by lawmakers during the hearing included adjusting the membership of the work group, for example to remove members of the legislature and add a representative from the University of Vermont Medical School—something Lyons suggested during the committee’s initial consideration of the bill last month.

Additional members of the panel would include representatives from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the state Office of Professional Regulation and the advocacy group Decriminalize Nature.

Keep reading

Vermont House Passes Bill To Legalize And Fund Safe Drug Consumption Sites Over Governor’s Objection

Vermont’s House of Representatives has passed a bill to create and fund overdose prevention centers in the state, part of a pilot program aimed at quelling the ongoing epidemic of drug-related deaths. It’s another attempt by lawmakers to allow the facilities following Gov. Phil Scott’s (R) veto of a 2022 measure that would have established a task force to create a plan to open the sites.

If the measure, H.72, is enacted into law, Vermont would join Rhode Island and Minnesota in authorizing the facilities, where people can use illicit drugs in a supervised environment and be connected to various support services, including treatment.

Led by Rep. Taylor Small (D) and 28 other co-sponsors, the bill in its current form would earmark $2 million to support the creation of two overdose prevention centers along with $300,000 to study the impacts of the program.

After adopting a number of amendments, the full House passed the measure on Thursday, advancing the proposal to the Senate.

“People around the country are acknowledging that old, stigmatizing approaches aren’t working, while evidence is clear overdose prevention centers save lives,” said Grey Gardner, senior policy council for the advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), which supports the legislation.

Since 2010, Gardner noted, overdose fatalities in Vermont have climbed by nearly 500 percent.

“The priority needs to be saving lives, improving connections to care, and benefiting communities,” he said, “and that’s exactly what overdose prevention centers are proven to do.”

Among the more notable recent changes ahead of House passage, an amendment offered by Rep. Eric Maguire (R) added a local opt-in provision that would allow sites to open “only upon an affirmative vote of the legislative body of the municipality.”

Earlier House amendments to the bill doubled the funding for the sites—from $1 million to $2 million—and directed that funding to study the pilot program should come from the a state opioid abatement fund.

Even if the overdose prevention center legislation passes the Senate, where it has been referred to the Health and Welfare Committee, it still faces a possible veto from Scott.

“I just don’t think that a government entity should be in the business of enabling those who are addicted to these drugs that are illegal,” the governor said of the measure, according to WCAX.

Scott wrote in his 2022 veto message on the earlier legislation that “it seems counterintuitive to divert resources from proven harm reduction strategies to plan injection sites without clear data on the effectiveness of this approach.”

Though Rhode Island and Minnesota have state laws on the books allowing safe consumption sites, New York City became the first U.S. jurisdiction to open locally sanctioned harm reduction centers in November 2021, and officials have reported positive results saving lives.

Keep reading

Video Shows Vermont State Trooper Arrest Man for Flipping Him Off

Newly released video footage shows a Vermont state trooper arresting a man on disorderly conduct charges for the First Amendment–protected activity of flipping him off.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment advocacy group, released dashcam footage today showing the 2018 arrest of Gregory Bombard, who is pursuing a lawsuit alleging his free speech rights were violated by the arrest.

Bombard was driving through his hometown of St. Albans, Vermont, on February 9, 2018, when he was pulled over by Vermont State Trooper Jay Riggen. 

Riggen accused Bombard of giving him the finger. Bombard denied it, but he was incensed about being pulled over for such a trivial matter. “That would be considered freedom of expression, so I’m going to file a complaint against you,” Bombard said.

“And you’re more than welcome to,” Riggen responded. “So here’s the issue: Although it may be freedom of expression, it’s so unusual that it requires intervention to make sure you don’t need help of some kind.”

As Bombard’s lawsuit explains, Riggen’s reasoning was legally deficient. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which covers Vermont, held in 2013 that the middle finger’s “nearly universal recognition” as an insult made it unreasonable for an officer to interpret it as a distress signal.

Bombard tried to continue the conversation, but Riggen concluded the traffic stop and walked back to his car. Bombard was not content, however. As Bombard pulled away, he actually did flip Riggen off.

“It looks like as he pulled away he called me an asshole and said, ‘Fuck you,'” Riggen relayed into his radio. “Flipped the bird. I’m going to arrest him for disorderly conduct. There were multiple people around there.”

Keep reading

Bernie Sanders funneled $200K in campaign cash to wife and stepson’s nonprofit institute, records reveal

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders quietly funneled $200,000 from his campaign’s coffers to his wife’s nonprofit institute, which appears to do very little work and pays six figures’ worth of compensation to her son, Fox News Digital has found.

The independent senator’s committee cut two $100,000 checks to the Sanders Institute for reported charitable contributions in January and March, its Federal Election Commission records show. The expenditures are the largest from the Sanders campaign to any entity this election cycle.

The senator’s wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, and stepson, David Driscoll, co-established the Sanders Institute in 2017 to act as a think tank to promote progressive voices, The Washington Post wrote at its launch. 

“The purpose is to revitalize democracy in the support of progressive institutions,” Jane Sanders told the Post. “Our feeling is at our point in time, our country is at a crossroads, and people are engaged in a political process that can be opaque.”

Keep reading

Vermont bans owning, running paramilitary training camps

Vermont on Monday made it a crime to own or operate paramilitary training camps in the state after Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed legislation introduced in response to a firearms training facility built without permits that neighbors called a menace.

Violators face up to five years in prison or a fine up to $50,000 or both, according to the law. It prohibits a person from teaching, training, or demonstrating to anyone else the use, application, or making of a firearm, explosive, or incendiary device capable of causing injury or death that will be used in or in furtherance of a civil disorder. It also bans a person from assembling with others for such training, instruction or practice.

The gun violence prevention group led by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, of Arizona, who was forced to give up her political career when she was disabled in a 2011 assassination attempt, praised Vermont’s law.

“Today, Vermont joins 25 other states that prohibit firearms training for anti-government paramilitary activity,” said Allison Anderman, senior counsel and the leader of Giffords’ Guns & Democracy project. “Private paramilitary activity is illegal in Vermont and has been associated with the intimidation of people exercising their constitutional rights across the US,” she said by email. “This is a commonsense policy that will help reduce the spread of dangerous, illegal, and anti-government firearms intimidation.”

The Vermont law does not apply to legitimate law enforcement activity or lawful activity by Norwich University or any other educational institution where military science is taught. it also doesn’t apply to self-defense instruction or practice without the intent of causing a civil disorder; firearms instruction that is intended to teach the safe handling and use of firearms; and any lawful sports or activities like hunting, target shooting and firearms collection.

Keep reading

Vermont Bill Would Legalize Psilocybin Despite Federal Prohibition

A bill filed in the Vermont State House would legalize the use of psilocybin – the psychotropic substance in “magic mushrooms,” setting the stage to nullify federal prohibition of the same in practice and effect.
A coalition of 31 Democrats and one Republican led by Rep. Joseph Troiano (D) filed House Bill 371 (H371) on Feb. 24. The legislation would amend existing state law by removing criminal penalties for the “possessing, dispensing, or selling” of psilocybin. The bill would also establish a Psychedelic Therapy Advisory Working Group for continued research into the beneficial effects of psilocybin.

Psilocybin, often referred to as “magic mushrooms,” is a hallucinogenic compound found in certain mushrooms. A number of studies have shown psilocybin to be effective in the treatment of depression, PTSD, chronic pain and addiction. For instance, a Johns Hopkins study found that “psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer.”

Efforts to legalize psilocybin in Vermont follow a successful ballot measure that decriminalized a number of drugs, including heroin and cocaine in Oregon. In 2022, Colorado voters passed a ballot measure decriminalizing several naturally occurring psychedelic substances. At least 14 cities including Detroit, Michigan have decriminalized “magic mushrooms.”

Psychedelic decriminalization and legalization efforts at the state and local levels are moving forward despite the federal government’s prohibition of psilocybin and other psychedelic substances.

Keep reading

Former Vermont Police Chief Cited For Sexual Assault Of Minor During Ride-Along

Following a yearlong investigation, the Vermont State Police has cited Jeffrey Noyes, 54, of Bloomfield, Vermont, on a charge of felony sexual assault arising from an incident that occurred in October 2017 involving an underage girl. Noyes is the former chief of the Brighton and Canaan police departments and was on duty at the time of the incident.

The incident was reported in February 2022 to the Vermont State Police, which opened an investigation. A detective from outside the area was assigned as the lead investigator, with assistance from the Technology Investigation Unit and troopers from the Derby Barracks. VSP worked closely on the case with the Lamoille County State’s Attorney’s Office.

According to the findings of the investigation, Noyes and the victim knew each other, and she had accompanied him on multiple ride-alongs in his cruiser. In October 2017, Noyes was in uniform and on duty when he drove with the victim to a remote area and had sexual contact with the victim, who was under the age of consent.

Keep reading

Noncitizen Voting in Vermont Part of Democrats’ ‘Long Game’

Noncitizens will be able to vote in two Vermont cities as part of a growing national trend, unless lawsuits prevent new laws from taking effect.  

The cities of Montpelier, with about 7,375 residents, and Winooski, with about 7,335, both will allow noncitizens to vote in local elections for offices such as mayor, city council, and school board. 

Related changes to the two city charters required the approval of voters as well as the state’s Democrat-controlled Legislature, which in June overrode a veto by Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican.

“These are very liberal cities with progressive Democrats,” Rob Roper, president of the Ethan Allen Institute, a free-market think tank based in Montpelier, told The Daily Signal. 

“Throughout much of the state, there is a general distaste for allowing anyone other than citizens over the age of 18 to vote,” Roper said. “Many oppose the idea [of noncitizen voting] and worry about the precedent.”

Keep reading