Burlington, Vermont, has a two-party system. Far-left Democrats and further-left progressives. That’s no joke. They run against each other for Mayor and elected city offices. Voters answer the question, which wingnut best represents the speed of decline that appeals to me. Hardly. The burning question is who can convince enough voters that the end of their downward spiral will actually result in the promised progressive utopia.
The answer is neither, but they don’t seem to understand that, which is why I found this so amusing.
Gov. Phil Scott acknowledged that Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak received little advance notice before his administration increased the Vermont State Police presence in Burlington, saying the state acted after hearing from residents who felt unsafe….
“We heard from many, many Burlingtonians that were feeling unsafe, again, begging us to come in and do something about it,” Scott said. “We just wanted to, again, do our part to make sure that they have a good experience.” …
“They need more uniformed officers, as do we,” Scott added. “We’re all challenged by the workforce shortage.”
The Governor says they’ve been hearing a lot of complaints about public safety in Burlington, but he also says the Mayor has been doing a great job given the resource issues and “workforce challenges.”
Hedge much?
In the wake of George Floyd overdosing in police custody, Burlington defunded their police force on purpose. Burlington IS a sanctuary city. Burlington has sex-worker laws, but you can’t enforce them, so they have legalized human trafficking/prostitution (massage parlors, etc). [Related: Ten Years Ago, Vermont Said It Was Going to Do Something About Overdose Deaths and it Did – They’ve Quadrupled]
Crime has been on the rise since the defunding, and the workforce challenges are entirely their fault. They did that on purpose. And who wants to work in a city where they know no one has their back? Where you are the scapegoat and one TikTok away from a national doxing and harassment campaign from like-minded lefties.
From city hall to city streets, Burlingtonstan is top-heavy with ignorant, police-hating, anti-ICE, DSA sympathizers. Gov. Scott just ‘Surged’ a few State Police in Burlington, very likely because business owners have been complaining for years about the bums, encampments, drugs, petty crime, thugs, and the potential for violence that it invites.
I’m not sure what they will do. The Vermont State Police have been chronically understaffed for several years for similar reasons. And Burlington’s problem is its voters. They keep asking for this, and now that they’re getting it, they keep voting for more of it.
Scott said Burlington’s status as Vermont’s largest city and a destination for students and tourists also factored into the decision to provide additional law enforcement assistance. He noted that students will soon return to the University of Vermont, Saint Michael’s College and Champlain College. …
The exchange follows the administration’s decision to deploy additional Vermont State Police patrols in downtown Burlington, an action Mulvaney-Stanak has said she welcomes even as she has raised concerns about how the decision was communicated to City Hall.
So, crime might be part of the reason why tourism in Burlington, Vermont, is down? Don’t tell the locals; they are still blaming Donald Trump’s tariffs. That’s what they were told to say. But Trump didn’t defund the cops or treat them like pariahs for left-wing resume points. He didn’t invite undocumented vagrants, encourage bums, human traffickers, or create a situation where laws against petty crime couldn’t be enforced. That was the Democrats and the progressives, just like every other Proglodyte paradise in the Lower 48.
And it’s not like Gov. Scott is going to get any more votes out of Burlington, even doing the right thing. But it is the right thing to do. Everyone in the state is his constituent, even the dopes who tossed Burlington into a dumpster, set it on fire, and can’t stop adding progressive fuel to the fire.
