City Council - Regular Meeting

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So, I think we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Uh, noting a quorum of counselors is present. We will call the regular city council meeting to order on Monday, March 23rd, 2026 at 5:54 p.m. The first item on our agenda is a motion to adopt an amended version of the agenda. And I'm going to go ahead and uh read the recommended action here and then we'll ask for a motion to adopt the amended agenda. Um the proposed amended agenda adds to the consent agenda item 6.26, 26 communication Robert Hooper chair retirement board regarding resignation per city council president Travers add to the consent agenda item 6.27 final report of the mayor's climate advisory group per city council president Travers and per interim chief of staff Rowi add to the consent agenda item 6.28 28 communication Ben Traverse, City Council President Katherine Shod, Chief Administrative Officer, regarding special meeting on Tuesday, March 31st per city council president Travers. Note agenda item 7.3 unaccepted private streets in Burlington DPW has been postponed to the April 13, 2026 regular city council meeting per city council president Travers. And Lori, I'm going to add one other uh proposal here just so you know. Um and for councelor's awareness, is that uh we would propose amending uh off of the agenda item 2.2, which is the previously proposed executive session on federal immigration enforcement. That is the recommended action on civic clerk plus the removal of item 2.2, to the executive session on federal immigration enforcement. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda as amended?

So moved. Thank you, Council Shar. Is there any discussion on that motion? Um, I'd like to make a motion. Uh, I'd like to move to further amend the agenda to invite Will Lambbeck of Migrant Justice to take part in our work session list under item 4.1. I second that. Okay. Uh there's a motion to amend the agenda by councelor Brderick. Uh seconded by Councelor Bergman. Um City Attorney Brown, just to confirm for our purposes here, a motion to amend the agenda at this point requires a majority or twothirds vote. Majority. Majority vote. Okay. Of those voting, I know we

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um All right. There is a motion to amend the agenda. Is there any discussion on that motion? Councelor Barlo, um, aren't we inviting migrant justice in at the special meeting that's been called for the 31st

currently? Is there a plan for that? Um without weighing into the debate in my role as chair here, what I will say is that uh if we if we amend onto the agenda, one item that we proposed is scheduling a special meeting for Tuesday, March 31st, uh which would be continued work session uh regarding the community's response to the incident of March 11, 2026. and that the intention is my role as as chair would be to invite migrant justice among other organizations. Okay. Thank you.

Is there any other discussion on that motion? Councelor Bergman, just to say that I think it's important from right at the outset that they sit at this table at at that table.

Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Any other discussion on the motion to amend the amended agenda? Councelor Sang. Um I appreciate um you know everybody wanting to have a seat at the table at this moment as um we had discussed I believe in your memo uh council president that at this moment it seems prudent that we um hear from the the organizations or the departments that have direct uh accountability to this council and to this administration. Um, and I believe there'll be a lot of things that we might not be able to discuss that could be brought up in those sessions. And so I don't think it's advisable that we have them here. And we do have a special session with other um organizations that have been uh adversely affected by what happened.

Thank you, Councelor Singh. Councelor Grant. Respectfully, I would uh disagree. Um considering the work that migrant justice has and has taken the lead in terms of being a major protector um of our immigrant community and calls of action. I we're not looking for a back and forth. Uh we're looking for them to be allowed to make a statement. Thank you, Councelor Grant. Does anyone else want to be heard on a motion to amend the amended agenda? Okay. Uh before going to a vote, I'll just ask the clerk whether or not are there any counselors online. I just want to make sure that everyone who's present is here. Okay. Um so I think uh we will go by hands then here. All in favor of uh Council Broadick's motion to further amend the agenda, please raise your hand. All opposed. Okay, so that's uh three yeses and five nos and the motion fails. Uh we do still have the underlying motion to adopt the agenda as amended. Is there any further discussion on that motion? We will go to a vote then. All in favor, please say I.

I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous among those voting. Uh we now go to our uh item two on the agenda, which originally was two proposed executive sessions. There's only one now. Uh item 2.1 as is our standard practice. City attorney Brown. uh could we turn to you first to offer some factual context for why executive session on item 2.1 titled a union negotiation update would be appropriate this evening.

Yes, thank you Council President Traverse. Um the open meeting law statute provides for exceptions that allow executive session and in this case the basis is that this is uh intended to be a discussion of a union negotiation update. um and uh pre premature general public knowledge of the status of union negotiations would put the city um at a substantial disadvantage. Um and on that basis um the statute allows for the council to receive the update in executive session.

Thank you, city attorney Brown. Uh I'm informed by the clerk I do need to go back and and correct an item from before. I think uh we did have a a motion from councelor Shaker to adopt our agenda as amended and then I think councelor Broadderick I I thought you were seconding it but but it went to a motion to amend. So I don't think I had a second on the motion to uh amend the agenda. If I could go back and correct that. Is there a second to that motion? All right. Seconded by councelor Mcnite. I think we will go back and now uh just redo the vote on that item. So the motion made by councelor Shakar to adopt our amended agenda. seconded by councelor Mcnite. All in favor, please say I. I. I. All right. Any opposed?

All right. That is unanimous. Thank you. Um and thank you, city attorney Brown. I don't think we need to redo the factual context for item 2.1. It's a two-part motion to head into executive session on a union negotiation update. Councelor Mcnite, could I ask you to make the first motion, please? Yes. I move to make a specific finding that premature general public knowledge of the status of the city's labor negotiations would clearly place the city at a substantial disadvantage. Thank you. Is there a second? Thank you, Council Parlo. Any discussion on that motion? All in favor then, please say I. I. I. Any opposed?

That's unanimous. Council Mcnite, could I ask you for the second motion, please? Yep. Based on that finding, I move to enter executive session pursuant to 1BSA 313A1B to discuss the status of bargaining a successor labor relations agreement with ASME local 1343 and to include in attendance the city's bargaining team with consisting of staff from human resources department, department of finance and administration and the city attorney's office. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councelor Barlo. Any discussion on that motion? All in favor then please say I. I. Any opposed?

That is unanimous. So the council is now in executive session. Public forum is set for a time certain of 6:45. I anticipate we will be back before then around 6:30 or so. Um just so folks are aware in case they are watching before turning to public forum. The hope is that uh we will be able to turn to very briefly a couple other meetings that the council needs to hold tonight on our local control commission, local cannabis control commission, and the board of civil authority. So, the goal will be to be back in about half an hour to turn to those meetings and then we will begin public forum at 6:45 p.m. Thank you. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey,

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patience as we wrapped up uh an executive session on a union negotiation update. I will note for uh members of the public that whereas our agenda was previously warned as also having an executive session regarding the incident of March 11th, that was amended off of the agenda. So, the council uh only met in executive session regarding a union negotiation update. Public forum is set this evening for a time certain of 6:45 p.m. The city council wears a couple different hats from time to time, though. And uh we're going to try to uh briefly uh get some other business done before 6:45 p.m. And uh with that in mind, we will uh briefly recess the city council meeting and now call to order our meeting as the local control commission. We'll be hearing from license applicants for liquor licenses and cannabis licenses. And in case the applicants are are tuned in, we just want to try to address this upfront such that they're not waiting around late into the evening. Um, with that, uh, councelor or commissioner Broadick, as chair of our license committee, could I turn to you for a motion on the agenda for our local control commission?

Uh, move to adopt the agenda. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Shakar. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. Uh, Commissioner Broader, could I ask you for a motion on the consent agenda? I move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Shakar. Any discussion? All in favor, then please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Seeing no other business before the local control commission, we will adjourn that meeting and now call to order our meeting as the local cannabis control commission at uh 5:43 p.m. Uh Commissioner Broadder, could I ask you for a motion on the agenda? 6:43 p.m.

Main one. Oh, yeah. Thank you. 6:43 p.m. Could I ask you for a motion on the agenda? U move to adopt the agenda. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Shakar. All in favor, please say I. I I any opposed? That's unanimous. Uh we have one uh license application and Commissioner Broader, could I ask you for a motion on it?

Um I I have a question about uh this motion. It says uh to move to approve and recommend that the local cannabis control commission authorize. Uh that is our body. So am I am I moving to authorize? Yes, it would be to it would be to move it would be to approve and recommend that we authorize the transmission of local approval for this entity uh for the state cannabis control board to then ultimately issue the license. So moved. Okay. Um and this is with regards to upstate elevator 701 Pine Street and a manufacturing license application. Is there a second to that motion? Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Shakar. Is there any discussion on this item? All in favor then please say I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Seeing no other business before the local cannabis control commission, we will adjourn that meeting at 6:44 p.m. And now call to order the board of civil authority where there is just a consent agenda. And mayor, you over the board of civil authority. So I'll turn the floor to you. Thank you, President Travers. I will call to order the Board of Civil Authority at 6:44 p.m. Monday, March 23rd, 2026. Our first item is the agenda. Is there a motion on the agenda? So moved.

Moved by councelor Traverse. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Grant. Thank you. Any discussion before we vote? Seeing none, all in favor indicate by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries unanimously. Our next item is our consent agenda. Is there a motion on the consent agenda? So moved. Moved by councelor Chver. Is there a second? Second. Second by councelor Grant. Any discussion before we vote? Seeing none, all in favor indicate by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries unanimously and with no other business, I will adjourn the meeting at 6:45 p.m.

Okay. Uh, thank you, mayor. So, we will now resume the regular city council meeting at 6:45 p.m. And as mentioned previously, public forum was set for a time certain of 6:45 and we will go ahead and open public forum at that time. Under our council rules, we will hear first from Burlington residents here in city hall and then among those Burlington residents online. We then repeat this process for non- Burlington residents both here in city hall and online. As a reminder, in order to participate in public forum online, you need to have signed up at least an hour in advance through the city council's website. Each speaker will be provided two minutes whether here in person or online when I call your name. If you are here in city hall, uh please come to the table. Make sure the microphone is on by hitting the push button and the green light should illuminate and speak directly into the mic. For those online, I'll let you know once you have been unmuted. When providing comments, please direct them to me as the chair and not to any other individual. It's important that City Hall remain a safe place for those who serve, those in attendance, and those watching our meetings. The council respects and values diversity of opinions and perspectives on public issues. We ask, however, that all comments be free from individualized attacks, hate, harassment, obscenities, or other derogatory language about other people or groups based on any protected characteristic. Furthermore, we ask that public comments avoid conduct which is unreasonably loud, disruptive, or discourteous. There understandably may be a number of strongly held opinions in this room tonight. I do hope we can all agree, however, that we should not allow those strong opinions to drive us further apart from each other at a time when we need to find ways to stand as a resilient community. With that in mind, we also ask that members of the public not verbally respond to any speakers comments. Thumbs up, a thumbs down. Uh, jazz hands has been a historical favorite here. All fine, but please no cheering or jeering. If I interrupt a speaker at any point, it will be because I'm providing the speaker an opportunity

to proceed in accordance with the rules as I've described them. If public comment continues in violation of these rules, I reserve the right to end public forum at that point in time for that speaker. As mentioned, we begin with Burlington residents here in city hall. Thank you for all of you who filled out these slips. The first speaker that we have and we have a number of speakers beginning uh as representatives from migrant justice as I understand them. The first speaker I have is uh listed here as as Olga uh from migrant justice but will I see you there too. So

okay if you could just make sure both of the speakers have your microphones on. I don't think it was on when you were speaking before. Will point of order. Can we just make sure that the twominut time limit does not include the interpretation please? So that people have a chance to get their full 2 minutes. I I think that's I think that's fair. So yes. Okay. Um so I I'll keep I will keep a separate timer uh with respect to well okay I will ask that the initial comment be kept to the two minutes and then I suspect that the translation will just follow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, keep it at keep it at two.

And I council president we'll be going back and forth a little bit. So if you just sort of keep four in mind um uh it won't be two then two. I I think just I think we'll keep the timer at two, but just so you know when it hits two you're going to hear a beep, but I I'll keep a separate timer around 4 minutes here. Um and uh so please just carry on through the beep and and then we'll we'll keep time over here. Does that work for you all? Of course.

Okay. Thank you. So our first speaker is Olga and then our second speaker will be Enrique Balcasar. Hello, my name is Olga. Thanks very much for giving us the opportunity to address you tonight and to talk about uh the difficult experiences that we've been going through. Um, so we want to share uh about this this really difficult experience that we experience that we that we lived through that that we witnessed uh on March 11th. Um and I I call it difficult even if it perhaps doesn't seem like it to to others from the outside. Um that for somebody even if you're undocumented uh you're you're a human being. And so for those who are supposed to be protecting our safety uh to see that our rights have been violated by them uh that's an incredibly difficult experience.

I'm a mother of two daughters. Uh, and I I can tell you that I'm I'm living in fear right now. My daughters are also living in fear. They're they're afraid to leave. Um it's it's a struggle just to leave our homes. Um, now we we've heard in public statements that the role of the police there was to protect us. And I can tell you that in in no way, shape or form did we feel any protection. Uh in fact all all we felt was that our rights as a community were being violated. Um we saw that uh this was not only a violation of our rights but a violation of the fair and impartial policing policy. A clear violation. Um, and I want to be able to to feel safe around you. I want to be able to feel feel safe here. Um, but I don't. The the the reality is that I don't. um because of what we witnessed on on March 11th. Um from from our eyes, this was a violation of the policy. Uh they were there not to protect our rights but to uh but to throw people to the ground uh

to to break down a door. Uh this is what we experienced. Um, now my daughters are here with me today and and they they feel the same fear that that I feel sitting in front of you. Uh, but I know that we had to come here to be present to speak with you today because I know if I don't speak up uh then nothing will change. If I don't try to to speak to you, then things will keep going as they have been.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Enrique Balazar, who will be followed by Christian Here and Council President Christian Here was unable to make it today. Okay. So, in Enrique Balgazar, followed by Abel Luna. Okay. Vermont.

Thank you very much to the people of Burlington and to the city council of this city, to all the counselors who are here today. My name my name is Enrique Balcasar and I'm part of the immigrant community here in Vermont. the criminal testimony. Since 2014, I have been part of the process of creating and implementing fair and impartial policing policies in Vermont. what we in Spanish call the no mass polyra or no more police ICE collaboration policies. Uh I've been to meetings with the criminal justice council throughout this time uh in order to speak on behalf of the immigrant community in the state to push these policies forward. Uh, and we worked hard to create these policies and to put them in place with the goal of ensuring that the towns, cities, and state of Vermont do not use their resources to support a federal agenda that goes against the safety and well-being of the people. uh federal agenda that serves to oppress us. Vermont,

our community is part of Vermont. Um, and what we saw on March 11th was a clear violation of the fair and impartial policing policy. And that's where why we're here today with the support of the people of this city to say no more police collaboration with ICE. No more polyra. Gracias. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Abel Luna who will be followed by Willbeck. Just want to say two minutes. It's too short to sum up what happened on that day. I'll try to do my best. Uh my name is Abel Luna. Uh migrant justice staff. Um I was there from the very beginning, 8:15 in the morning. I arrived at the scene after migrant justice got a call to the emergency line. Shortly after I arrived, dozens and then hundreds of people showed up to protect their neighbors uh and exercise the right to protest. It was a beautiful demonstration of solidarity. Throughout the day, people sang, some danced, other brought a grill to grill hot dogs. Some set up a tent to cover, others from the rain. About 15 pizzas showed up and and snacks, food, coffee, had chocolate. Neighbors who I've never met before made their house available for people to use their restroom. Um, it was a beautiful demonstration of solidarity. We did not need a police at the scene. I'm going to say that again. We did not need a police at the scene. There was very little presence of uh ICE agents at the beginning, but then after I request uh local police, state police started to show it up and it was police presence that precipitated and escalated violence. I'm going to say that again. It was police presence that precipitated and escalated violence on March the 11th. They were not there to assist us or to protect us. They were there to assist ICE in the violence they carried out against our community, neighbors, and those willing to use their bodies to protect the family inside. Police watch their with their own eyes as the brutal brutalization that took place uh and rather than doing the rather than doing their job uh and stopping or detaining ICE agents from beating, dragging and pepper spraying people, they engage in violence,

assisting ICE and state units in brutalizing our communities. They did not protect us that day. They collaborated to detain Joanna, Christian, and Camila. And let's not make excuses for what happened that day. Law enforcement from Vermont in general will try to make it look different. Pretend that they did not violate the foreign impartial policing policy. That they protect us or kept us safe. We saw the immigration machinery using state resources to carry out violence and detain our communities and families. I've been asking myself a very simple question. Will things have been different that day if there was no involvement from local police? And my answer every single time is yes. We would have been fine if we were let left alone and protest and defend our neighbors. And so is your job as elected officials to intervene to ensure accountability for violations of the fair impartial policing policy and police brutality and to ensure that police implements new protocols moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Um and I do I do recognize that two minutes is uh not nearly enough for an issue of this level of importance. I will tell folks that um at the moment we have uh over 60 individuals signed up for a public forum both here in person and online. So while I certainly respect and understand that that two minutes cannot seem like enough um such that we can ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak, we'll continue to abide by that time limit which is in place every night. So thank you for your understanding. Um, Will, uh, thank you. Uh, Will will be followed by, and the pen was running out of ink here, but I think it's, uh, Nathaniel Madison. Thank you very much, council president. Thank you, members of the council. Uh, Madame Mayor, uh, my name is Will Lambbeck, speaking from the organization Migrant Justice. Um, and I want to uh be very clear that ISIS detentions of three South Burlington residents, Christian, Camila, and Joanna, were violent and unlawful. This has now been confirmed in three separate federal court hearings where federal court uh federal judges in the district of Vermont have ruled that uh these were clear violations of their constitutional rights to unreasonable search and seizure under the fourth amendment and due process under the fifth amendment. Judge Crawford in his granting of a writ of habius corpus in one of these cases wrote uh regarding um Joanna Patine that Miss Patine's detention with no process afforded to her Miss Patine's detention with no process afforded to her violated her rights under the due process clause of the fifth amendment and that only immediate release could abate the constitutional harm that she experienced. So this is the context uh in which uh sa which the Burlington Police Department uh responded to uh this ICE raid on a home in South Burlington, Vermont. Um ISIS's unlawful actions were aided and emedded by the Burlington Police Department as you will hear through ample testimony uh tonight.

Um I want to focus um on the fair and a partial policing policy and cite a couple provisions in Burlington's policy. You heard Enrique speak about how this policy came about, the courageous and tireless advocacy from immigrant community members. Um, we've also heard in public testimony from law enforcement officials last year that quote, "When we think about how the fair and impartial policing policy was engineered, it wasn't for any situation that even remotely comes close to this." And that quote, "This is not a violation whatsoever of the fair and impartial policing policy." You may hear that again tonight from city officials. But I want to be clear, the provisions uh that were violated on March 11th were drafted by migrant justice specifically with these situations in mind. So I'll cite three of them quickly. Uh Roman numeral 6D9, Burlington Police Department employees shall not accept requests by federal immigration authorities to support or assistance civil immigration enforcement. 6D6 BPD employees shall not facilitate the detention of individuals by federal immigration authorities for suspected civil immigration violations and 5B that criminal uh immigration enforcement is not a priority for BPD and therefore they should not and um I'll skip a couple sentences here expend resources investigating or enforcing unlawful re-entry cases. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Um and I will so our next speaker will be Nathaniel Nathaniel Madison to be followed by Paul Fleenstein. Uh I will just note for the sake of the public that on our consent agenda this evening, I have asked the council to warn another special meeting to be held next Tuesday, March 31st at 5:30 p.m. here in city hall. Uh which if the council acts to warn that meeting tonight, we'll look forward to inviting migrant justice along with other community partners to join us at that meeting. Um so thank you. Uh Nathaniel, please go ahead.

Okay. Um so first I want to talk about the treatment of women that I saw there at the protest. Um because the wor for me personally the worst violence that I saw were directed against women. So, um, the first incident of violence that I saw that was particularly bad was a woman named Gwen who was given a concussion by officer Gonzalez, um, for trying to help a man who was being detained breathe. And um the context of this was just a bit earlier there was another woman who I don't know the name of who was being crushed by a combination of ICE Gustapo members and their local collaborators and she was yelling I can't breathe and then appeared to pass out. So that's why Gwen was probably very concerned about this man who had been detained that couldn't breathe. And then additionally, even earlier in the protest, there was a woman named Jess who passed out after being choked. And all the while, a deranged MAGA influencer cackled and yelled at ICE to finish her off. And this video has been posted on Facebook with tens of thousands of views. It's not it's not removed. They they completely allow this kind of um discourse on that social media network. It's ridiculous. Um, so then additionally I want to get into like I just wanted to apologize because I was over at the city um uh the South Burlington City Council meeting and I misspoke and it made it seem like I like I made a a terrible gaff and it made it seem like I was endorsing the use of violence by the police and ICE against peaceful protesters. And luckily I spoke to others afterwards and most people got what I was trying to say. But like that was the most embarrassed I've ever been in my life. Like I honestly thought that I would have to take a vow of silence and like quit my documentation of the pro-democracy movement here in Vermont

and possibly move out of town because I was so ashamed that people thought would think that I would be endorse this brutal violence against peaceful protesters. So I've got to ask you the question, how do the Vermont-based collaborators feel about brut brutalizing their neighbors? Maybe that's why the police chief went on vacation. bad morale can really take a toll. Or maybe you're just absolutely fine with how things played out and have no shame. I honestly can't tell which. Thank you. Uh our next speaker is Paul Fleensteinstein. Uh to be followed by Antonio Golan. I have a point of order.

Yes, councelor Litlin. Um, very respectfully, given the um, severity and the uh, importance of the comments, we have a two-minute rule that really needs to be enforced so that it's equitable to everyone, including people who may not be here tonight um, at future meetings. We need to hold that. So, I would just ask that we try to hold folks to the two minutes as much as possible respectfully.

Understood. And that that's my intention. And I think as we hit 2 minutes, it's not a hard and fast deadline. If if folks are wrapping up, I'll allow them the opportunity to wrap up and then we'll ask that folks please respectfully uh keep keep to the time. That's that's what we do at every meeting and it's what we'll continue to do this evening. So uh thank you councelor Litwin. Uh our next speaker again, Paul Fleenstein to be followed by Antonio Golan. Paul, please go ahead.

Paul Fleenstein from Burlington. For everyone committed to justice, I think it's important to know that in my hours on Dorset Street in March 11th, I saw and experienced two unprecedented things in our community. The scale of intimidation and state violence deployed against migrant workers and children was shocking. Dozens of armed police, many mass besieged a house for hours, and then violently broke in, threw immigrants to the floor, fired a gun, and abducted three people to prison without even the fig leaf, as we heard of legal justification. I saw state and local police working handin glove, many enthusiastically, with ICE to do this and to brutalize protectors. chemical weapons. We've heard about dragging people, violently shoving, knocking proctor protectors to the ground. And then I I didn't see but also the the horrible choking someone unconscious. Protectors there understood the character of ICE. Dangerous killers that operate with impunity increasingly in the service of an authoritarian white nationalist agenda. Our side acted with humanity, resolve, and courage. We attempted to protect our community and counter the violence. We believe that no human being is illegal. No one should live under the racist, anti-immigrant, apartheid laws and policies in the US that rulers use to divide, exploit, and oppress workingclass people. Whether there will be institutional accountability for enabling ICE and for the police riot remains to be seen. It will certainly not be given willingly. It'll be up to us. And it may yet be more proof that we have to defund the police and to abolish ICE. But we should all be clear. As the leaders of the fight for

immigrant rights say, only the people can save the people.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Antonio Golan to be followed by Kora Hanikford. Uh hello, my name is Antonio Golan. I'm a W three resident and I'm here to speak about the Burlington Police Department's collaboration with ICE on March uh March 11th. Uh as an active participant in that day's resistance, one who was attacked by the police like so many others that are here today, uh I accept that the city's government needs to see the results of the ongoing investigation before taking action. However, what you must understand is that for those of us that were there, we don't need any investigation. We know what happened. Uh for us, the only question that needs answering is which side are you on?

Are you with ICE or are you with the migrants that they targeted? Are you with the protectors that tried to prevent the detention or are you with the Burlington Police officers who helped carry it out? And everyone that was there, there is no doubt that the Burlington Police Department and other police forces helped these detentions occur. In recent months, the city council and the mayor have touted Burlington's commitment to not collab collaborating with ICE. I hope the city hasn't written a check that bounces now that we're here to cash it. I hope the city hasn't made a pledge that sounded good, but which in fact has nothing behind it. I hope this isn't the typical policy that seems to hold the powerful accountable, but which provides the necessary technicalities and loopholes to ensure that that never actually happens. Once again, the question is which side are you on? If you're on our side, you need to take an actions analogous to the ones we took on March 11th. If you're on our side, you need to do within the city's institutions what we did in the streets. On March 11th, protectors said no to business as usual. We need you to do the same. On March 11th, it was clear that the protectors were on the side of those being targeted by ICE. We need the same clarity from you. Being on our side means firing every single officer that participated in the March 11th operation. Every single one. No exceptions, no excuses. Again, the question is, which side are you on?

Our next speaker is Cora Hanikford, who will be followed by Kellen Mitchell.

My name is Ka. I live in Burlington and I am a certified EMT. I was present at uh 311 and I volunteered as a medic when the police began hurting people. I witnessed multiple people get pepper-sprayed and helped flush their eyes while they writhed in agony. The pepper spray was so potent that my hands and face burned for hours afterward just from providing these people first aid who people who could not see because of how badly their eyes burned. These methods of so-called crowd control are often described as non-lethal, but we should understand them as less frequently lethal. Pepper spray is profoundly painful and can have lasting consequences. Rubber bullets have hospitalized and killed people. These methods and more were all used against us, sometimes by the Burlington Police Department, and the Burlington Police Department did not protect us, which is what they would now say they were there to do. Their backs were not to us. Their backs were to ICE. Their backs were to these other other law enforcement agencies because they were there to protect those law enforcement agencies, not us. In the past couple weeks, we the people who came out that day to protect our neighbors have heard a number of lies and recriminations. One I've heard many times is that what we did was illegal and so therefore we should be ashamed of it. But I would like to remind everyone that slavery was legal. Segregation was legal. The theft of indigenous land was and still is legal. And police violence is very much still legal as we all saw on 311. We should not define our morality by legality. We should define it by our love and our care for each other. And I saw two weeks ago the most profound expression of community love and care I have ever witnessed in my entire life. So, I would

like to echo my comrade Antonio's question. Which side are you on? Our next speaker is Kellen Mitchell who will be followed by Amina Carrington.

Hi. At 12:24 p.m. on March 11th, there was an incident of violence between ICE, sorry. At 12:24 p.m. on March 11th, there was an incidence of violence between ICE and a protector who did nothing to instigate in instigate any interaction. This protector, not protester, was tackled to the ground by more than one ICE agent. This happened directly in front of me. In the process of the interaction, I was shoved by one of the ICE agents when I, like the tackled protector, was peacefully exercising my first amendment rights. I genuinely believed I was about to witness the next Renee Good or Alex Prey. I don't know if Burlington police was on scene at the time because in the moment there was no police interaction. There was only a crowd of neighbors present to rescue the protector and to push the Gestapo back ourselves. The police were not there to protect us. The police were there to collaborate illegally with the Gestapo to detain three people who were never on the warrant they were present to execute in the first place. The police were there to unleash violence against my neighbors, to illegally detain them, to throw them to the ground, give them concussions, choke them unconscious, allow them to be nearly run over with vehicles, attack them with chemical weapons, banned by the Geneva Convention, but for for combat, but for some reason not banned for use against our country's own citizens. We know what we saw. We know what happened. We aren't stupid. We aren't liars. And we aren't taking this. Whose side are you on?

Thank you. Our next speaker is Amina Carrington. Uh, our forms are all pre-numbered. Um, so Amina is number 10. I do not have a form for number 11. Uh, so if it's still out there, uh, I do not have your form. So the next speaker will be number 12, Ambrose Moore. Uh, but Amina, please go ahead. The police claimed their role in ICE's raid was to keep people safe. The Burlington chief along with other law enforcement leadership agree that they themselves don't trust ICE and even fear them. They claimed that if it weren't if they weren't there, ICE would have murdered us. So instead of running ICE out, they did the reasonable thing and beat us so ICE couldn't kill us. A lot of people today will give testimony of how police brutalized them and stood by as ICE attacked them. I want to talk about the families that we were protecting that day. Joanna, a mother of two, had to hand off her terrified four-year-old to school officials, unsure whether she would see her daughter again. The safe transfer was supported by the community, not the police. Later, cops facilitated the kidnapping of Joanna, Christian, and Camila and terroris and the terrorization of everyone else in the house. The police and this council swore to protect Vermonters from ICE. I knew it was a lie then and I know it is now. Do you not see our immigrant neighbors as Vermonters? Who protects them? Because it definitely wasn't the cops. There's proof that ICE was going to retreat. We had the numbers. We were too organized and strong. If it weren't for the manpower that local and state police provided, we would have ran ice out. But evidently, a cop is a cop is ICE. This council will likely echo rhetoric put forth by law enforcement, including things like, "There were outside agitators who escalated things, and we should have kept things peaceful." This

language is eerily similar to the rhetoric put out by the White House after ICE murdered Renee Good and Alex Prey. Call them violent or a terrorist, and their murder and brutalization is justified. I demand that police stay out of the way unless the cops are there to actively block or arrest ICE. I don't want to see them in any icy situation. To the community, do not let the cops or this council gaslight you into complacency. We know what we did on March 11th is something we should be proud of. We fiercely showed up for our neighbors and stood up to fascists. We must continue to organize and remember they don't protect us, we do.

Thank you. Our next speaker, please. Our next speaker will be Ambrose Moore who will be followed by William Cornish. I'm Ambrose Moore and I'll be writing a statement on behalf of an anonymous Burlington resident who is present on March 11th. I am quote, I am a UVM student and one of the many people here who went to defend my community from ICE on the 11th. I first want to say that I voted for Emma Emma Mulaney Stannic in 2024 because I thought her opponent would, among other things, represent the interests of the police above our most vulnerable residents. After seeing the mayor defending BPD's action on Dorset Street, it feels like I voted for nothing. Much of the violence I witnessed, your cops commit will be corroborated tonight by other people. For my part, I want to address the mayor's implication that the presence of Burlington police made people safer. For starters, I did not show up there seeking safety. I showed up there to stop ICE from kidnapping my neighbors. ICE kidnapped three people that day and local journalists have reported that ICE was so badly outnumbered by the community that they would have likely called off the raid if local and state police had not come to to their aid and beaten us up while using riot mutations. The only people made safer by the presence of your cops were the ICE agents. I don't expect much from the cops or the mayor, but to everyone I was there with that day. Remember that both ICE and the cops were doing what they were trained for, and we should be better prepared next time. Thank you. Our next speaker is William Cornish, who will be followed by Elliot Hungerford. All right, I'll keep this brief. Uh, my most vivid memory from Wednesday is facing a line of enforcers, federal, state, local alike, telling them they'll be remembered alongside the Gustapo in history. Nice agent stared at me. grinned and said, "What are you going to

do about it?" The answer, of course, was nothing, because what could I do about it? They responded to us lightly shoving them with tear gas. What would they do if we lashed out at them? All I could do was stare down a fascist and the BPD officers guarding him. Violence is loosely the exertion of physical force. A lot of people are not going to agree with this framing, but if somebody shoves you and you shove back, you are exerting force. You are being violent. We were violent and we had every right to be. The alternative would be to stand by and do nothing. We are not allowed to be violent. There's a line where our self-defense becomes criminalized regardless of what we're defending ourselves from. ICE, VSPD, and BPD are allowed to cross that line. They can beat, they can rape, they can kill, they can do all of it with the knowledge that their qualified immunity will shield them. Simply put, they have the monopoly on violence. So to speak directly to the Vermont State Police, to the Vermont local police, to all of them, when we are not allowed to even form a barricade without being called violent rioters, you criminalize our self-defense, a defense that you are refusing to provide in ourstead. You are the sole people allowed to use force. So who are you using it on, and what are you using it for? If ICE had pointed their guns at us, where would you point yours? If they started shooting us dead in the streets as they have done before, would you, the sole group in Vermont authorized to use lethal force, start shooting back at them? Would you even stand in the way? Cuz if you're not going to defend us, you have no right to police us when we defend ourselves. And we, like all people in the world, have the right to resist.

All right. Please, please. Thank you. Uh, our next speaker is Elliot Hungerford who will be followed by Brooke McKeen. Hi, I'm Elliot and I'm a Burlington resident who was present on Dorset Street two Wednesdays ago. Recent publishing from The Rake has confirmed what everyone present that day knew to be true. The police openly collaborated with ICE, that the violent kidnapping of three of our neighbors and the brutalization of so many others was in practice a joint operation. I experienced this firsthand as state police officers removed items of my clothing while an ICE agent stood behind them taunting me by licking his lips. Shortly after, another ICE agent pulled me out of the crowd and pepper- sprrayed me point blank. The agent who was taunting me ran over with an officer from BPD's quote unquote long-standing mutual aid partner, SBPD. The ICE agent lied to Deputy Chief Brisco, saying about me, "He assaulted an officer. He kicked him in the balls." Brisco then told the ICE agents, "Okay, let's arrest him." and the three of them began to do so. In the process of which they removed the rest of the clothing on my upper body and nearly ripped my pants off entirely, either due to the optics of the situation or to friendly fire pepper spray, Brisco then ordered the ICE agents to let me go. To our mayor, governor, council members, and various police departments who have spread the narrative that the police were there to protect protesters, your gaslighting and lies wreak of tied hands and powerful interests. or at the most generous, a disconnect with the reality in your constituents so strong that it should immediately qualify you disqualify you from public office. Let us all remember the lengths to which the police went on March 11th between the amount of money and resources used, the amount of community members assaulted and abused to ensure that ICE could illegally detain and forever impact three of our immigrant neighbors. And let us all remember how so many people in positions of power immediately attempted to cover up the police's role in this blatantly racist, horrifying event. And let all of us who are on the other side never forget the lengths we went to

keep each other safe. Between cooking food, taking off work despite many of us living paycheck to paycheck, and putting ourselves directly in harm's way, we were and are practicing real versions of solidarity and mutual aid, not the co-opted versions our elected officials refer to. I can't stop thinking about what we could do with the money that our city and state spent on just that day. We keep us safe. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Brook McKeen, followed by Ashley Smith. Good evening. My name is Brooke. I was present all day on Dorset Street on March 11th. I would like to firstly acknowledge that what took place outside of the house and on the street before, during, after the kidnapping of three of our neighbors was not a protest. That was community self-defense. That was a beautiful, courageous, loving example of what it looks like to show up for one another, to protect each other from harm, and to be part of a community rooted in care. The whole day was also a really striking example of why the police are not capable of real protection from harm. As regular community members, we were doing the job that Burlington police and South Burlington police think they're doing and claim to be doing when they show up to work every day. Meanwhile, they were actively trying to prevent us from doing that job of protection. Our mayor, our city council, our governor, our local police departments have publicly condemned ICE and the actions of federal agents on March 11th, yet refused to acknowledge the very crucial roles that our local and state law enforcement played in this whole operation. Why did our local law enforcement officers stand by ICE agents all day long, allowing agents to make the calls and then obediently complying and assisting in carrying out their operation? Why did no BPD officer question or raise alarm when federal agents and state police entered the home with an il illegitimate warrant for one person and walked out with three people in handcuffs? Why were Burlington and other local law enforcement facing so-called protesters at all times and never facing federal agents? There's plenty of footage of local and state police forming protective bubbles around federal agents while facing community members, which paints a pretty clear picture. Why did our local law enforcement officers sit around for 10

hours while federal agents illegally surrounded the home with people inside with no warrant to be there? We know why. because we've seen the photos of text messages between ICE agents and their higherups just after 9:00 a.m. that morning, saying they needed backup from local and state police to carry out their abduction. The illegal kidnapping of our three neighbors and the following escalation that ended in widespread injury and trauma would have never happened without the collaboration of BPD and state police. Thank you. We know this. We have seen the evidence. We were there all day long.

Please wrap up. And I don't doubt any of your capacity to care about this issue. But I do I also do not doubt the lengths you will all go and the contradiction you will ignore in order to stand firmly behind our police department and their actions even in the face of such clear violations and wrongdoing. Until you stop doing that, do not expect the trust of your constituents and our faith that your top priority is our collective community safety.

Thank you. Um, again, I do know that the uh two minutes are are are tough to stick to, but I will continue to ask that uh we abide by it. But thank you very much for the comment. Uh, Ashley Smith to be followed by D. Graham. Six years ago in the first Trump administration, I was part of an organization called Community Voices for Immigrant Rights and we campaigned side by side with migrant justice to pass a nos polygra resolution in this city council. It passed 11 to1. What did that resolution do? It closed loopholes in the fair and impartial policing policy to prevent ICE and the local police department from collaborating. That is exactly what we saw on March 11th. The state police, the South Burlington police, the Burlington police worked hand and glove with ICE and Border Patrol to illegally carry out an arrest of three people who were not on a warrant. They brutalized people. They tear gased people. They pepper-sprayed people. They shot a gun in somebody's house without cause at all. Everybody's seen it. It's all over social media. It's been on TV. You're going to hear countless accounts of this today. An investigation needs to be done. Really, the community has had an investigation. The Burlington Police Department is guilty of violating the FIP. There has to be a correction and consequences. The correction is on you, the city council and the mayor to enforce the FIP and bar collaboration

between BPD and ICE. There has to be consequences. That officer, Gonzalez, should be immediately fired along with all the other police officers that brutalized our community. Now is a time to draw a line in the sand. You are either with the people in this city or you are with Donald Trump, ICE, and his Gestapo attack on all of our rights. Thank you. Our next speaker will be D. Graham to be followed by uh Finn Lester Niles.

Hi, my name is D. Graham. I'm a W3 Burlington resident. On March 11th, I alongside hundreds of community members witnessed violence at the hands of not only federal law enforcement, but local law enforcement, too. Three of our neighbors who weren't even named on the warrant were violently ripped away from their families, and countless community members were harmed and assaulted. And this wouldn't have been possible without the Burlington Police Department. The Vermont Fair and Impartial Policing Policy states, "Because partnership with Vermont residents is the most effective way to ensure public safety, maintaining the public's trust is a primary concern." I want to ask everybody, what did BPD do to partner with Vermonters? What did they do to ensure public safety? Instead, three of our neighbors were kidnapped and dozens of community members were assaulted, brutalized, and traumatized by federal and local law enforcement. Many of us here experienced this firsthand and many others have seen the footage of everything and all the testimony you are hearing today. And again, what did BPD do to protect us? They allowed this to happen. They are complicit. Without their mere presence, the violence committed wouldn't have been possible. Let's also not forget they directly perpetrated violence themselves. Pepper spraying, violently throwing community members to the ground, assisting ICE arrests, forcibly making a clear path for ICE agents. Mayor Emma said in her press release that the BPD protected the community by preventing more serious injuries, including death. Is the violence enacted on our community on March 11th not disturbing enough? So much harm was committed and trauma inflicted, but it's okay because you draw the line at murder. Do you realize how that sounds? I am in no way surprised by the actions and inactions of BPD. What they do and what they stand for is inherently violent. But please stop the handbringing about ICE and other law enforcement agencies while pretending that BPD isn't equally responsible. I am so very grateful that our three neighbors are now free and I'm so

grateful and proud for the ways our community showed up, took action against the violence that was enabled by and committed by the Burlington Police Department. We continue to care for each other in meaningful and material ways. Strong communities keep us safe and we keep us safe. Thank you. Our next speaker is Finn Lester Niles who will be followed by and sorry if I mispronounced this or any last names this evening Traxxler mens Traxxler mens.

Hello, my name is Finn. I was on Dorset Street on March 11th um for close to 11 hours and I can say uh because I witnessed with my own eyes as many people in this room did that ICE would not have been able to carry out the illegal detentions that they did without the direct aid and collaboration of the Burlington Police Department. Um, I want to know, um, you know, there's there's been a lot of justification saying that ICE was or, uh, BPD was there to help with a a criminal warrant, but, um, those um the our neighbors were were abducted at at 5:30 and it wasn't until after 6:15 that the cop cars that were on Dorset Street were able to leave the scene. because of the solidarity of the community. So that's almost 50 minutes between when ICE officers came out with three people and when the police aided in them getting away. And that's 50 minutes when they could have realized that, you know, there was only one name on the warrant, but three people taken out. At that point, they were enforcing a civil immigration uh matter, which is a clear violation of the fair and impartial policing policy. Um, I also wanted to speak towards my personal experience when I was on the street there, um, engaging in peaceful protest. Um, a Burlington police officer, Officer Gonzalez, removed the goggles I was wearing and pepper sprayed me directly in the eyes at point blank range um, in order to get me out of the way of the car, which again, um, that car was holding our neighbors. It was it was holding someone who whose name was not on a warrant. Um, and we were there to keep keep us safe. Um, their backs were to ICE agents. They were facing us, Burlington police. They were spraying

us. Um, and so, yeah, I I want to echo the question that's already been asked. Which side are you on? Next speaker is Ellie Traxxler Mens, who will be followed by Adam Fron. Um, my name is Ellie and I'm here to just say that the police are lying. The police have always lied and they will always lie. The outside agitators were not the community members. They were protecting their neighbors. The police violated the fair and impartial policing policy and they are lying to protect only each other. Um, and that's all.

Thank you. Next speaker is Adam Fron who will be followed by Kristen Fior.

Hello. I want to read a statement from one of my co-workers who is there alongside me on Wednesday, March 11th. DHS attempted multiple times to intimidate the ring of peaceful neighbors that formed around the house. I first came during my lunch break and when I left, the people were steadfast in their singing and solidarity. By the time I rejoined after work, the energy was incredibly tense. After VSSP and ICE broke through our neighbors in front of the house, we all ran to the street to prevent them from unlawfully detaining three residents of the house. VSSP and tactical helmets and gear were head-to-head with unarmed residents. Behind them were the Burlington and South Burlington police in line formation. Finally, protected at the very center were ICE, ERO, and other DHS units in their vehicles. What is remarkable is that in the moment one could not distinguish between ICE, VSSP, BPD and SBPD. It is only in re-watching the videos from that night that I can tell based on their uniform because of how locked up they were in finding us protesters. We were unarmed, wearing sunglasses and face masks. The brutality that was exhibited is not surprising, but it is disappointing. Whatever you think won't happen in Vermont because we are so kind will happen. They tried to make a lesson out of kind Vermoners, but the love we have for our neighbors is greater than their hate. Thank you. Our next speaker is Kristen Fior to be followed by Chrissy Rose. Public safety that has been the justification. Tonight you will hear plenty of clear examples of police action that refute that claim. And I'll share my own in a moment. But what first treats me more than anything has been to hear police and our representatives use the goal of

protecting me as justification for actions which led to the kidnapping of my neighbors. If you cannot keep me safe without endangering my immigrant neighbors, then you cannot keep us safe. Far more violent than the flashbangs and pepper spray was witnessing our local police escort ICE to the front door of my neighbor's house and then escort them out with innocent people in handcuffs without a warrant. Public safety. Do you want to know why we are so constantly frustrated with police? It is because we watch their adherence to a badge outweigh their investment in what is right. I've watched countless members of my community put their jobs and safety on the line to stand up to federal officers in defense of my immigrant neighbors. None of them were police public safety. After the last federal agents had driven off, leaving behind a dozen or more members of my community in the street. Gone to were our local and state police. I dawned my gloves and eyewash in the northbound lane of Dorset Street to assist two people crying red streaks down their faces, blinded by chemicals. I was not surprised there was no police there to help. In more than 20 years of activism, I've never seen police come back to help protesters after an escalation. What happened next, however, did surprise me. I looked to my right and I saw headlights. Not only had the police left us to care for ourselves, they had opened the road to live traffic public safety. It was dark and with people in the street who were unable to see and actively receiving medical care, there were incoming cars. This may seem small to you. It is not. You cannot take even a basic first aid or CPR course without knowing the first rule of care. Scene safety. I had seen safety. Our local police took it away. I dare you to use public safety to justify those actions.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Chrissy Rose to be followed by Leonor Tahia.

My name is Chrissy Rose. I live in the old north end and I was present on Dorset Street for most of the day on March 11th, including the end of the day when police pepper-sprayed people right in front of me. We've been told that state and local police are not assisting ICE in their operations and that their purpose on the scene was to keep the public safe. What I witnessed was the opposite of that. I witnessed police actively helping ICE and harming members of the public. I filmed video of state police holding the door for ICE to drag people out of the house. Those people were not on the warrant. They were kidnapped and the police held the door. I do not see how we can plausibly call that anything other than assisting ICE agents. The only people on that scene trying to keep anyone safe were the neighbors who showed up to do so. We were not there to protest. We were there to protect. And we might have succeeded if the police had not been there. I watched a person in the crowd fall to the ground unable to breathe because they had been choked by a state trooper. Neighbors surrounded this person to shield them and offer medical assistance. State police violently shoved the crowd back into them. I implored the local police officer closest to me to tell the officer to stop that there was a person on the ground in danger of being trampled and he replied, "I can't. I wish I could. We're being told completely contradictory things. We're being told that the police were on the scene to maintain public safety, but also that they have no authority over ICE. If police help ICE take people without a warrant, that's not fair and impartial policing. If police don't even have enough authority to order an agent not to trample someone, then they have no ability to protect the public, even if they intended to. To say that that was their purpose on the scene Wednesday in that case is a farce and an insult to the people who were taken and harmed.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Leon Artia, who will be followed by Forest Richard. I was there at the end of the day on 311. I experienced the tear gas so thick on Dorset Street that it stung my eyes and my hands. And frankly, the fact that no one was killed is just as much due to luck as it was to any restraint shown by any police officers or federal agents on site. Since March 11th, we've been flooded by statements by officials, some of whom are in this room right now, about allegedly violent protesters who supposedly escalated the events and who are apparently to blame. As someone who works in the mental health space, there is a simple acronym from the domestic violence world that describes what's going on here. DVO, deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender. I want to make it clear that these allegedly violent protesters are actually civilian and community members who were bravely and courageously standing up to intervene in an act of state violence. The legal issues here have been covered. What I want to speak to is the fact that this is a cultural moment. You as the city council are in a position to either defend our constitutional rights to protest and to take a stand ultimately for the morality and the humanity that was shown when people showed up and fought like tigers for one another. You can either do that or you can legitimize the use of police brutality. You can underscore the police's right to stand with ICE and and turn their and stand with their backs to them. Or you can recognize the cultural moment that this

is when the optics are such that ice is so low in favor after we've seen nationally multiple people be murdered by them on the streets. This is a cultural moment and your voice matters. So I ask you once again, whose side are you on?

Thank you. Next speaker is Forest Richard who will be followed by Lee Morgan. Hello, my name is Forest Richard. I'm a Burlington resident. I live in W 3. I was at Dorset Street on March 11th. I went over as soon as I was done with work. When I arrived around 3 p.m., protectors were peacefully circling around the house, singing, playing music, cooking food for one another, handing out personal protective equipment, and checking in with one another. I buddied up with a medic, and we were circling the house, checking in on people, and making sure everyone was safe. I ended up at the front of the house when the tactical team pushed their way through the crowd and ICE and state police began battering the door down. After agents and police detained the family in the home, the crowd moved toward the street to make sure the family was safe and keep police accountable. It was around this time that police started to escalate things. I witnessed police shoving and assaulting a civilian and moved toward them to help. One ICE agent and four police were in front of me. And when I tried to move past them, the ICE agent pointed at me in the direction of police officers said they just tried to assault an officer, seemingly giving direction and consent to the local police to arrest or assault me. Just to be clear, I did not even touch an officer. It was then that the four officers and one ICE agent piled on me, started pushing and pulling me from all directions, and threw me to the ground as I struggled to protect myself. I managed to run away, and another civilian came to check in on me. Not a single local police officer checked on me. They were not there to protect anyone. They were there to escalate, protect and collaborate with ICE and to assault civilians without even trying to break up the crowd, deescalate things, or frankly, in most cases, even arrest people. They were simply assaulting local civilians on behalf of the federal agents who were too afraid to even do the assaulting themselves. Time and time again that night, officers lied, saying people tried to assault officers and making local police do the dirty work for them. and officers, particularly BBT, BPD officers, seem to revel in the ability to enact on local enact violence on local citizens on behalf of the federal agents. After the events of Wednesday,

I've been in constant pain. I received a concussion from the whiplash of being thrown to the ground. I pulled muscles in both my legs as well as my back and my neck. I have I've had respiratory issues for nearly two weeks now from the pepper spray. Police didn't show up to save lives, and I'm not better for being assaulted by local police on behalf of ICE, despite the claims from local government that police were simply there to protect us. From what I could tell, Burlington police were by far the most violent amongst every agency that was there today, particularly against women and people of color. City council and our mayor need to take serious steps to ensure this never happens again. And there need to be serious consequences for what has already happened. I simply would not have been able to do their job without support of Burlington police in clear violation of the fair and impartial policing policy. Okay, please.

I'm not okay and you shouldn't be either.

No, we we we got to hold folks to two minutes. I appreciate folks cooperation. Uh our next speaker is Lee Morgan. Seems we've started to get to some speakers that are up in the balcony. So, I'll list off the couple next folks such that no one needs to rush downstairs. So, Lee will be followed by Neil Monahan and then Quinn Alper. Hi, just pulling up my comment. Uh, hello, my name is Lee Morgan. I live in Ward 3. I want to start by acknowledging that my voice and breathing are still affected from the ice raid in South Burlington. I appreciate you bearing with me right now. The opportunity for impacted residents to share their experiences is limited to brief public comment across three separate bodies. That is not enough. I am asking you to hold a joint special meeting with the police commission and public safety committee as a public hearing so the people most affected have time and space to be fully heard. Council President Traverse, I ask you to consider my comrades who came here today. Sharing these experiences is not only painful, it is actively compounding trauma right now. And yet here they are. They have always been here protecting our neighbors. For the record, while my hands were on my head, I was pepper-sprayed, shot in the face with a pepper ball, shot three times in the back with rubber bullets grouped around my spine with one a direct hit, exposed to two flashbang grenades within the pressure waves. One was launched off my foot. I was dragged. My head was repeatedly slammed into a car and then pavement. I was kicked. I was trampled. I now have extensive respiratory damage, a serious concussion. Every part of my body was bruised. I'm also dealing with activated

PTSD. I am not alone in these injuries. And this is what the federal government could never understand and why ICE will never take this county. There is nothing you can do to make good people stop protecting their neighbors. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Neil Monahan, uh, who will be followed by Quinn Alber and then Kestrel McNeel.

I think Oh, I turned it off. My bad. I think by now if it's not clear that what happened on March 11th was illegal, you're not looking through your eyes. If you're still considering whether it was immoral, I don't know how to help you. But what I really want to impart with this short time is that this does not this is not going away. And with each new experience for all of us of violence and completely being betrayed by our elected officials, it only fills our tank. I don't think this is fun for you guys. I definitely don't think it's fun for you guys, but it's not going to go away. We are dishwashers. We are line cooks, union workers. We got other to do as well, you know. We're going to keep showing up. And not only do we demand that like what happened on March 11th never happens again, we also demand justice for what happened on that day as well. And until those two things come, we will be here every day. Thank you.

Thanks. Uh our next speaker will be Quinn Alber to be followed by Kestrel McNeel and then David Maher. I just off like to offer a little content warning here. Um, just to put this back into context, um, more people are held, three times as many people are held in detention centers across America than were held by the Nazis at the start of World War II. These are detention centers. People are turning up pregnant in them. People are disappearing from them and never being heard from again. We are out here protecting our neighbors because they are being kidnapped, killed, and disappeared. And every time that you guys tacidly approve app approve of them, support them, support ICE, send who should be our public servants protecting us to beat us, brutalize us, and assist in the kidnapping of our neighbors, you are supporting a fascist regime, and that is not hyperbole whatsoever. I'd also like to speak to the intersectionality of this issue. If you believe in climate justice, if you believe in human equality, if you believe in economic equality, if you believe in the rights of any people on this earth, you need to be supporting us in our fight against ICE and the fight against the takeover of this nation. We cannot trust you to support us and to like represent us as our elected officials. If you're going to cowto to whomever else comes into our community and tells you what to do. If you would rather be a stoogge for the Trump administration than to support the people of Burlington in our community, then we will vote you out. We will protest you. We will spit when we see you on the ground. And we will not forget that this is how you stood and this is what you chose. This will not go away and we will not go away. Thank you. Our next speaker is

Kestrel McNeel who will be followed by David Maher and then uh Arena uh Perez Pereznik, excuse me. Can you hear me? Yes. Oh my god. Yes, you can. Eyes here.

My name is Boots. I watch you hurt my friends. First, you shoved one of them cuz they happened to be standing too close to you. You handcuffed another, slammed them to the ground, and dug your knee into their back until they had to turn their face sideways in order to breathe. After pepper spraying them, of course, you threw them down the stairs. You grabbed and shoved them by their necks. You choked them until they went unconscious that our friends had to drag them away. You did an arm bar on another and swung them onto a curb. You did it again to another friend. You almost ran them over with your car. You deliberately removed their mask to pepper spray them. You casually stepped over them as they lay vulnerable on the ground and unleashed the burn of hellfire into their eyes. Point blank. I'll never forget two armed ICE policemen sauntering toward my friends as if they were strolling on the beach with helmets, gas goggles, gas masks, and gas canisters on their torsos. In the blue headlights of that last ice vehicle, a silver cloud bloomed from the ground. With a pop of flashbangs and pepper bullets, like a phantom, the residual particles crept toward me like blue fireflies, dragging a silver blue mist. The worst was already that you had kidnapped them from their own home, traumatizing their children, carelessly letting a bullet slip. But it didn't stop there. You did so much that I can't keep track. There are so many of my friends stories I have yet to hear. It was already bad that our government funds your fear-mongering, but you chose to brutal to brutalize. You chose the unnecessary violence. You chose to call in your troops on your own unarmed civilians. And even if some of you didn't choose to do that, you watched. Bystander silence is violence. Your violence helped terrorists traumatize their own people, my friends.

Well, guess what? I have a lot of friends.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is uh David Maher will be followed by Arana Pereznik and then Scott Low.

Good evening. My name is Dave Maher. I've lived in the Burlington area for just about 50 years, maybe a little bit more. I think that most people here will agree that ISIS going overboard both nationwide and here in Vermont. It's one thing to arrest and deport dangerous criminals, but it's another thing altogether to go after productive, hardworking members of our community. And I think most of us support peaceful, lawful protests, but the protests of March 11th were neither peaceful nor law-abiding. Throughout the day, protesters taunted the police, and toward the end, some threw bottles, rocks, and other debris at the police. In addition, some of the protesters acted to impede the ICE operation by blocking the entryway of the house and preventing the movement of ICE vehicles. This is a criminal act and anyone doing this could have been arrested, but by and large they weren't. In this regard, the officers showed restraint. If

please, please, please, folks, give other speakers respect. If state and local police hadn't been there, what would have happened? Would ICE have backed down? I don't think so. Would I have been gentler clearing the way to the house? That I doubt. The protesters who impeded the ICE operation knew they would likely be physically removed and hence generate publicity for their cause. I think most of us would agree that they achieved this goal. Thank you.

Excuse me. No, please. Thank you, Dave. Um, look, we we this needs to be an open space for folks to feel like they can come in and safely offer different viewpoints. And so, we'll ask that folks please not verbally respond to any comments either positively or negatively. and appreciate cooperation with that. Our next speaker is Arena Pereznik and excuse me if I'm mispronouncing that, please correct me. Uh who will be followed by Scott Low and then Lucy Gluck. Hi, I'm Arena. That was very close. I'm impressed.

All right. As a proud immigrant and taxpaying constituent in Burlington, Vermont, I am appalled by the police brutality and violence inflicted on community protectors. On Wednesday, March 11, BPD officers who are paid by our tax dollars to protect us, fired chemical weapons, flashbangs, and rubber bullets, brutalizing community members. Instead of deescalating, some BPD officers, specifically Officer Julian Gonzalez, inflicted violence and brutal force, which was clearly documented in videos of at least four separate incidents. The videos of which I had already emailed to BPT chief officer and I know many others did too. The evidence is out there. Everyone has seen it, including you. My question is where are the consequences? BPD also reopened Dorset Street while injured neighbors were still lying in the road being tended by to by the medics with no warning or check in to make sure everyone was okay. How are these BPD actions quote unquote keeping us safe? I expect immediate government action and full accountability for all the officers who inflicted violence. We need to work together to keep Vermont a safe place. Do not turn your backs on well-meaning residents and voters. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Scott Low. Will be followed by Lucy Gluck and then Bruce Wilson. Good evening, council. My name is Scott Low. I'm a member of Ward Five. And the first thing that I would like to see say is something that everyone should remember. Title 14, United States Code subsection 1983. This is a federal law that allows persons to take government officials to court and sue them, taking away their qualified immunity and to pursue a monetary compensation for offenses against their civil rights. Rights that are guaranteed under the United States Constitution. rights that are guaranteed under the Vermont State Constitution and rights that are afforded them under the city's charter. I live in a building where the majority of the population of that building are immigrants. They are hardworking. They are loyal. They are friendly. And I do not want to see in the south end the same thing there as what happened on Dorset Street. That was a travesty to say the very least. And this city council and the executive office has the authority by way of things such as executive orders to curtail the actions of ICE

while they are operating within the borders of the city of Burlington. This has not been followed. This has not been used. We need to take a preemptive, proactive, and decisive act to let the federal government, DHS, and ICE know that they will not come in here, walk all over us, and not do it and not expect repercussions. My name is Scott Low, and I am going to be running for mayor of this city.

Thank you, Scott. Our next speaker is Lucy Gluck, who will be followed then by Bruce Wilson and then John Stockwell.

Hi. Uh, Lucy Gluck, ward 2. And, um, I want to thank all of my comrades here for showing up to speak on this important issue and how we're protecting immigrants in our neighborhoods. Um, but I'm going to switch the focus for a moment. I don't know if folks remember, we have military jets flying over us, the F-35, and that's what I want to speak about. Um, it's been a year and a half since this, um, council and the city councils in Wooki and South Burlington said, "We want to meet with our congressional delegations to talk to them about reassigning um, these jets to a less populated area and assigning our guard members to humanitarian work. Um there's a subcommittee, Ben Travers, Mark Barlo, and Jean Bergman, who's my city councelor I've been in touch with a lot about this, have tried and tried to reach uh the count the uh congressional folks to meet with them and and really been push. It's been pushed back a lot. Um it's been many months that they've been trying to do that and that's unacceptable. Um but in the meantime, I think what happens is that I as a citizen of the city who are like still suffering with the noise and insanity of these jets and this military um presence. Uh I'm wondering what's going to happen next. This may seem like mission impossible to do anything about this because we know Bernie and Peter Welch are both still really supportive of having the F-35s here. Um, Becca Balant leans in the other direction, thank goodness, but she doesn't have much power. So, I want to ask Ben, Jean, and and Mark to reccommit to um getting together and communicate with us, communicate with citizens either through the mayor's um office or uh through the city council to let us know what the next steps are. If you get stuck and

you're at, you know, you're at a um a stopping point and can't do anything, just please let us know that. I I feel like we need communication. The last thing I'll say is that I do not support the fact that our F-35s went down to Caracus and bombed and now they're in the Middle East. Our Vermont neighbors are a part of this war. I do not support that.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Bruce Wilson, followed then by John Stockwell and then Vivian Bose Pine. I've done this 100 times. What to do? Um well, first of all, I had like two pages of stuff I was going to talk about, but um it don't it feel kind of meaningless. And um so I just want to say um thank you um Burlington City Council chair and honorable mayor for supporting our our so wonderful mural projects and all the events that we put out. I'm here with um my new executive assistant uh Caroline Jelly and she's going to um help me with um some of the issues that indiv any individuals are here about about we're going to um be we putting together systemic program diversity inclusiveness equity through our straight talk for my program have some meetings coming up with um like um attorney general Jerry Clark um real soon and some other um agencies to to try to um see how we and work together. Um, but I want to talk about one quite quickly about the murals that we're going to do. the mural we're going to do on in um on um our meal is going to start on June 19th and um throw us away. It's going to be uh um honoring Reverend Jesse Jackson um from Operation Push and this just so you know um Operation Push Push mean people united to save humanity and Rainbow Coalition and so all of us all one of you everybody's here is about people united to save humanity. That's all the work we do. And all you know me, that's all I do. You know what I mean? Have a I I don't know nothing that I can do. But I

will say to to people who sitting out here that I am a co-founder um co-founder of Burlington Community Justice Centers. I am um your Vermont Human Rights Commissioner and um and I am um Vermont State Police Fair and Postal Policing and Community Advisor for over 10 years. So, and so these are some things that um um Caroline and I working with these individuals to make sure that um everybody have their um you know we can get right on track you know I mean you know um and so um just want to thank you thank you city council.

Thank you Bruce and Caroline. Uh our next speaker will be John Stockwell be followed by Vivian Bose Pine and then David Call. Is John here?

Okay, thank you. My name is John Stockwell. I've been in this area, moved here since 1968. I moved in from the Hudson Valley. And the efforts that the city council are trying to do to you think are going to stop ice, you're not. It's a federal law. It trumps state and local law. All you could do is hinder what they're doing. They're enforcing existing ex federal law. And all they're going to have to do, all these people have to show for it in the long run is a lengthy stay in federal prison for substance of justice, destructive destruction of federal property, and assault. Some may be put on ice. If you think this force is there was a lot of force you'd face there in Dorser Street but you start facing up against the 12 gauge buckshot or 9 millimeter or error 15 rounds then you know what real real forces and ICE and CBP are going to prevail. There's nothing any new can do to stop it. Thank you. Our next speaker is Vivian Bose Pine who will be followed by David Call and then Grace Odell.

Oh, I've done it again. Vivon, it's every time. Sorry. I I do it every time. I It's something about how in any event, Von, thank you.

Um, my name is Ivon. I live in Burlington. Um, the thing that annoys me most about some of what Chief Burke has lied about in other spaces when he's talking about these incidents is he always defaults to talking about well of course I mean this sort of myth of the outside agitator that you've got a testimony of people here telling you that that wasn't the case. Um, you've got vid you've got like countless hours of video of the peaceful protests being escalated by ICE and VSSP um and Burlington PD and South Burlington PD assisting with that. But kind of aside from that, something that that particularly irks me is this kind of like um moral question of like we could have collaborated. We were, you know, perfectly within under the FIP uh allowed to collaborate because it's a question of public safety, but we chose not to we didn't. And I feel like that's trying to have it both ways. And I don't I don't think that has actually happened either way. I think both due to the spirit of the FIP, Burlington Police Department's actions of collaboration were unconscionable, especially the flanking during multiple arrests that ICE made and the flanking of getting, you know, the actual kidnappings. Um, but then also um like it's a moral question, right? Like, you know, this is a bureaucratic body for the most part, but by virtue of representing the public, it's also a moral office. And that's the same with with the police. There's you can't just sidestep the question of what you morally have to do. And I actually think the people behind me found it a really really easy decision to stand up and protect their community. And the fact that the police are saying what a difficult time they had and many public officials are telling me how ti tied their hands were is just really surprising to me because I really had a very very easy time deciding to protect my community. Um and if the police who have guns are having a hard time deciding which side to take, that's really deeply concerning. Um I also I'm a social worker so I want to talk about kids. The way that kids have been operationalized is crazy. A lot of uh public officials have talked about how protesters put kids in danger by protecting their community. The three-year-old who was in that house saw

a bunch of armed white men with guns. That's Burlington Police Department, South Bington Police Department, VSSP and ICE all together with guns stealing their mother away from them. That's what the kids saw. So that that's kids safety in this issue. Thank you, Vavon. Our next speaker is David Call who will be followed by Grace Odell and then Sasha Rosen. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.

I'm David Call. I'm a community activist for the unhoused. I want to thank the city council and Burlington for opening up bridges and the pods. I want to thank everyone for all the work that we're doing for the unhoused in this community. I I have never seen such care for the people who have nothing at all. They're respected. They're honored. And they have a bed and a home and rights. It is such a great honor to see a lot of people come out of these shelters and get to transition into housing and the great programs that we have. The food shelf, everything that we're doing for this community is just everyone's stepped up and we're all doing our part. Our city is a lot better for this now. The unhoused have a chance for the first time in a long time. The greatness about anything in a community is what are we doing for the people that are forgotten and we have achieved a couple of years of good solid programs. So I want to thank you and God bless.

Thank you. Next speaker will be Grace Odell to be followed by Sasha Rosen and then Fared. I'm Grace and I was at Dorset Street all day on the 11th from the morning when I got a text from my friend that a mom we both know was trapped inside the home, terrified that she was about to be stolen away from her family forever. I stayed the whole time to the dark of the evening when I was teargassed even though I was standing aside on the sidewalk serving as a medic for a young person who had been brutalized, beaten, and pepper-sprayed. I have never been prouder to be a verter than when I joined many friends to protect our neighbors, none of whom were on the warrant that ultimately ICE produced to ram down the door and violently steal a mother away from her two small children. All day we sang, prayed, and held a circle of care peacefully around the home. Despite our loving actions, I watched nonviolent protectors thrown, pepper-sprayed, teargassed, shot with rubber bullets, beaten, and arrested by a mix of ICE agents of state and local police. If they were there, if our local and state police were there to keep us safe, why did they not do what we, regular civilians, figured out how to do early in the day when we safely evacuated a small child? Why didn't they say anyone who isn't on this warrant let us together with community partners escort you out with full security protections and get you to safety? The home would have then been empty and we could have all left, leaving ICE to ransack and accidentally shoot their guns all by themselves. When we witness mothers and children separated brutally and illegally, as confirmed now by Judge Crawford, are we required to remain silent? Are we required to smile so that we are not decrieded as the violent ones for the fact that we yelled in horror as our friends were kidnapped when some are carrying long guns, pepper spray, tear gas, riot gear, and literally driving cars over people in

front of us and others are using walkers, guitars, and prayer. Who are the aggressors? As a mother of children whose ancestors were killed in the Holocaust because their neighbors and town officials looked aside while they were disappeared by a statebacked police force, there is no way in hell I will stand aside and remain quiet as the people whose salaries my taxes pay back up ICE agents. I remain hopeful because on the 11th I experience what Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King called the beloved community. And I know that the love we have is a stronger force than any violence and ultimately that love will win. The question is, will you join us?

Thank you, Grace. Uh, please. Our next speaker is Sasha Rosen, who will be followed by Fared and then Griffin De Mateo.

Hello, my name is Sasha and I was there for 10 hours on March 11th. It's deeply unsettling to me that the only people saying that the police were there to protect us were not even there. How can you make these public statements without even being there to see what happened with your own eyes? Believe me, if you were there, you would understand how wildly untrue that statement, the police were there to protect us, actually is. Emma, you said that the police were there to maintain public safety, to prevent death. How can that be true when I watched my friend almost get murdered under the wheel of an ICE vehicle? The Burlington Police Department were right there in that moment, either assisting ISIS's actions or stand standing idally by, doing absolutely nothing to keep them safe. I asked many BPD officers that day how their presence was keeping us safe. They couldn't answer. They stayed silent, ignoring me, or gave me an answer along the lines of their hands are tied. I believe BPD knew from the beginning that they were not there for us. To the mayor and city council, if you do nothing to hold law enforcement accountable, you are allowing police brutality and ICE terrorism to persist. If you do nothing to hold BPD accountable, this is embarrassing for you and you will have lost all trust in your voters forever. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, our last three Burlington residents here in person are Fared, who will be followed by Griffin Deontayo, and then Ari Moscowitz. Um, under our rules, public forum is set for 90 minutes, which beginning at 6:45 means we're coming up on 90 90 minutes at 8:15. Uh, public forum can either be extended by twothirds vote of the council or in my role unilaterally as council president. We have uh in addition to the three Burlington residents signed up, we have five Burlington residents signed up online and we have 13 non- Burlington residents who signed up to speak. Uh I think that's a reasonable amount of time for us to go ahead and extend public forum and so I I will in my role as uh council chair just unilaterally extend public forum to finish the full list of speakers as we have them right now. Um the one name Fared uh is up next and then uh we have Griffin Deote and then Ari Mosavitz.

Thank you. Um I want to answer the question that I was asked earlier and also have been asked by some people that uh what would happen if the Burlington police and the local uh state police have not shown up. Actually just look at Monday the 9th when there was ICE activities on 500 Pine Street and word got out almost 80 people showed up. Uh and because they were outnumbered they fled. There was nobody detained there was nobody pepper sprayed. there's nobody beaten up. Uh everything ended peacefully. And we've seen this again in other states. Uh when uh ICE is outnumbered, they flee. That's what happens. There were outside agitators on Dorset Street on Wednesday. That's ICE officers and they their action was enabled by local police including the Burlington Police Department. Please hold them accountable. Thanks.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Griffin Dateo who will be followed by Ari Moscowitz. And then our first online Burlington resident will be Jason Vend.

Can you hear me?

Yes. My name is Griffin. I'm a W 2 resident. It's a balmy winter morning as far as the Green Mountains were concerned. First rain in weeks, too wet to work. I sat down with a book before I learned that over down on Dorset. There's a band of masked marauders who earned a reputation as fascist Nazis kidnappers. We all ran out as soon as we heard. The Burlington police were there. The mayor said it was just to keep us safe. If that's the truth, I wonder why one of them maced my friend in the face. And when those fascists shot me in the back three times, I'm asking where were they? Our great protectors. Or maybe BTDs be implicit in helping ICE with their illegal raid. I'd like to read from an order signed by our mayor on February 17th. Cuz many of the things I read were great, but it seems our cops disagreed. The city of Burlington affirms that public protest and descent are vital and protected elements of civic life. It reads, so please forgive me for thinking this administration meant what it said and says what it means. It says, "Consistent with the state of Vermont's fair and impartial policing policy, no BPD personnel shall assist with or engage in civil immigration enforcement." But they helped arrest three of our neighbors and used violence against

those in their way. So I am asking for community oversight of the police. gives citizens the authority to fire officers. Please.

Thank you. Uh our last Burlington resident here in person is Ari Moscowitz. We'll then turn online. The first Burlington resident we have online is Jason Van. Jason, I don't see anyone uh under your name on Zoom. If you're on a different name, if you could please use the raise hand function. If Jason's not here, we'll then turn to Julie Masuga. Ari, go ahead.

Uh Griffin, that was beautiful. Just want to say that was beautiful. Um I want to be clear. I stand with immigrants and I stand against all discrimination in all its forms. Period. But standing for those values means being honest. And the truth is, I do not believe this administration has shown the courage or consistency to protect the most vulnerable. Before any of these recent events, I was harassed in a horrible anti-semitic way by someone connected to city hall. That alone was unacceptable. But what followed was worse. According to the most recent investigation by the city attorney, the city had no records to confirm whether this individual was still employed and did not contact the security company at all. No oversight. no accountability. It took nearly a year for anyone to even reach out to me. That's not just a mistake. That's discrimination. And it's actually horrible. What I find most disturbing is the contradiction. This mayor claims to stand for minorities and against hate. But when it actually mattered, when someone was targeted well before this, this administration failed. That's not leadership. That's picking and choosing when it's politically convenient. If the mayor can't stand up for me, she certainly cannot stand up for the people who have been harmed here. And she circum certainly cannot save Burlington. Real leadership shows up, especially when it's difficult. And when accountability is absent and trust is broken, words are no longer enough. Therefore, it really pains me to say this, but I am officially calling for the resignation of Mayor Emma. Thank you. I hope everyone here um stands with me. Enough is enough.

That was our last Burlington resident here in person. We will now turn to Burlington residents online. As mentioned, the first Burlington resident who signed up is Jason Vandre. Jason, I don't see you under that name on Zoom. If you're here under a different name, if you could please use the raise hand function. The next speaker after Jason is Julie Masuga. Uh following Julie will be Sylvia Knight. And Sylvia, I do see you on Zoom. So, uh Julie, if you could just give me a moment here. I'm going to share my screen with the two-minute timer for online speakers.

All right, Julie, please go ahead.

I want to start by saying this problem and all of these people aren't going away just like they didn't on the 11th. Volunteer community members spent over eight hours today and dozens if not hundreds over the past week compiling evidence against the BPD that the council just voted to not hear until next week. BPD, including officers that were on the scene, have a history of unchecked violence against civilians. For the city to say that it stood behind the actions of the BPD without even hearing from those impacted first is deplorable. For the record, just from BPD, there were at least use four uses of excessive force. one assisting in pain compliance, many breaks of the fair and impartial policing policy by guarding ICE, soliciting the help of ERRO officers to complete a civilian arrest, and conferring with ICE agents. That's just what's been so far. I was running off-site support for people impacted by the events of the 11th, making sure they had what they needed in and during during and in the aftermath of the police violence that occurred in the chaos. Many were detained, some were taken off site without any indication where they were being taken. I talked with traumatized, bruised, chemically burned, and at least three or four confosted friends. Over the past few days, I heard more than one report of folks being pepper-sprayed at point blank without cause. Several people were choked, some to unconsciousness, tackling tear gas, violence from vehicle drivers, and in the following days, intimidation by BPD officers, and even officers showing up to people's places of work. While it's still being sused out which department hurt which person, we absolutely have the accounts of BPD harming people, working directly with ICE and BPD doing nothing to prevent prevent harm being done by ICE and VSSP. Who do you want to believe? The people who are actually protecting our community members or the folks that are already known to abuse their qualified immunity? I ache for all of my friends and the trauma they're still going through, but I will be damned if their city ignores them. I've defended the actions of the current administration for a long time now and I don't think that I can anymore. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh our next speaker will be Sylvia Knight. If we could please promote Sylvia. Uh the next online speaker was Forest Richard, but Forest spoke here. So uh the last online Burlington resident is um uh Maggie, someone under the name of Maggie. Um I do see a Maggie Chadwell. If if Maggie, that's who signed up on public forum, if you could please use the raised hand to confirm that it's you. Uh otherwise, Sylvia, please go ahead. Can you hear me? Yes.

All right. Um my husband and I were at the address in on South Dawson Street on 311 uh from for about three and a half hours in the afternoon. There was both kindness and community building and ugliness with hate. when the I I just want to notice that when the door of the house was broken in and the people were nestled off the door stoop by what is it the state police or the other police? Um that was about the saddest Those were about the saddest moments of my 40 years in Berlin in Jitten County. Um seeing ICE and and the local police cooperate in breaking that breaking into that house and dragging out immigrant people who were not even on the warrant. I'm just appalled. Um, I was at city hall when the bar and impartial policing policy was voted on and approved by city council some years ago. I've been with um when I've supported that policy at the state level as well. The political climate we have now is unpredictable and dangerous.

I hope there will be some accountability for what has happened and how the police did not uh were were accomplished accompllices in in this dangerous moment of of our history here in in Burlington. all of you. Thank you. Thank you, Sylvia. Uh, the last Burlington resident I see online is Maggie Chadwell. If we could promote Maggie. Yes. Uh, Maggie, please go ahead.

Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you now.

Thank you. Um, my name is Maggie and I'm a Wardrun resident. I was on Dorset Street on March 11th for 10 hours. myself along with a few hundred of your constituents watched the intimate collaboration unfold between ICE, state, and local police throughout the day, which culminate culminated in the kidnapping of three of our neighbors and horrific brutalization of the community trying to protect them. I'm not sure how to best use my time here, but I feel called to focus on the harm and trauma our neighbors inside the house endured that day and the harm and trauma you continue to cause by gaslighting and making statements like quote, "The role of BPD was to assist in maintaining public safety during a rapidly evolving situation." End quote. The mental gymnastics it takes to suggest that BPD played any role in keeping the public safe is deeply alarming and manipulative. Emma has asked us to quote, "Please consider that without having our local police on the scene, potentially worse escalations could occurred." End quote. Three of our neighbors were kidnapped and our community was attacked for protecting them. You do not get to rank the harm that was caused and that BPD was complicit. Lastly, I want to address the statement that quote BPD cannot interfere with lawful federal immigration immigration enforcement operations. End quote. Explain to us how ICE illegally and violently kidnapping three people weren't even on the warrant that ICE presented isn't cause for BPD to inter interfere. Explain to us why BPD didn't interfere to stop the brutalization of the community by other local police. Explain to us why they participated themselves. Explain to us how police kept anyone safe when it was clear. Explain to us how police could have kept anyone safe when it was clear that ICE likely would have left were it not for the police doing their dirty work for them. Don't worry, you can save your breath. We know the answer. Their loyalty doesn't lie with us. it never has. And by not outwardly condemning the actions of local police, you show where your loyalty lies as well. I need to express the immense gratitude I have for my community and the strength we all showed that day on Dorset Street and continue to show each other in the

aftermath as we care for one another. There was a banner that was at that was a centerpiece of the Battery Park movement in 2020 that read, "Strong communities make police obsolete." I believe our community is embodying that and I couldn't be more proud. Thank you.

Thank you. The uh only other Burlington resident we had signed up online was Jason Vandre. Jason, I don't see you under that name on Zoom. If you're under a different name, use the raise hand function. If Jason joins us at any point before the end of the meeting, uh we uh will turn to him there. But for now, we will turn back to city hall and those non- Burlington residents who signed up to speak. And the first non Burlington resident who signed up to speak is Gwendelyn Hageny who will be followed by Asher Demos and then Sarah Lincoln. Hello. Uh my name is Gwendelyn Higiny and I'm here to speak to the violence that I personally experienced and witnessed at large. Um before we get started, I just wanted to remind everybody uh the definition of gaslighting. The key signs include blatant lying, denying events happened, trivializing your feelings, and shifting blame to make you feel responsible for their abusive behavior. We are in an abusive relationship with the local police, both Burlington, South Burlington, VSSP. I have never been more outraged than I was wasting the two hours that I did in the Vermont Senate Judiciary Hearing. All I did was hear lie after lie. And I was really impressed at how emboldened they were despite the immense amount of footage coming out of that day. Obviously, uh, the ones harmed the most are the ones who were stolen from their families. Um, but I also think it's important to recognize the mass community trauma inflicted by those supposedly there to protect us. Uh, there are two things that stick out to me. One is that one of the people in attendance to deescalate was Officer Coro. Anyone who's been in Burlington for long enough will know Officer Coro from 2018 where he caused an individual TBI. Uh Burlington finally settled a week before it went to trial for $215,000.

That same officer was there that day. He's also the head of the Fraternal Order of uh police in Vermont. Uh or I'm not sure if it's limited to Burlington. You'd know that better than I. Um and then I would like to revisit officer Gonzalez. Most folks have seen the video. Uh we had already been pepper-sprayed multiple times as a crowd for trying to protect our neighbors and then uh uh this poor individual's uh poncho came up over their head and they were being detained with a poncho over their head. So they were effectively being suffocated by a plastic bag. Myself and another concerned uh citizen were asking the officers kindly to please remove the bag because we could tell they were having a hard time breathing and we could not identify them. Uh they refused. They stood the individual up. Fortunately, the plastic bag or poncho rather fell down, but then it was followed by um two masks which I tried to remove. And when I attempted to remove it, I was swung into the median where I received a concussion. I'm self-employed. I've been out of work for two weeks thanks to this. I am having night terrors and facing a lot of PTSD ahead of me. Thank you.

And I Yep. Just one more moment. I was dismayed to learn that the BPD has been aware of these abuses by this particular officer since 2021 and has done nothing. I ask a community member that you please pay attention to your community. Take care of us like you say you will and address these egregious acts by the those claiming to protect us.

Thank you. Please, please, please. We'll ask that folks please not verbally one way or another respond to speakers. Uh the next non- Burlington resident here in person is Asher Demos who will be followed by Sarah Lincoln. Um I am a Vermont resident of 20 years and I have to say that I had an embarrassing amount of faith in the police department. I was not there at the event uh because I had heard about it while I was at work and I had seen that the police department had showed up and I believed I thought fantastic this means that ICE um will not be allowed to enact violence on the civilians. Um so I closed my social media app. I left it alone and when I opened it next it was a scene of chaos of violence. I saw a um police officer throwing civilians to the ground. Um and I actually, believe it or not, didn't um didn't lose my faith in the police department. I thought, "Oh, it was a high stress situation. Certainly, they're going to see um that these actions were uh violent and caused terror and chaos." Um, I continued to hold out faith and I continued until I realized that while there were condemnations of ICE the ICE agents uh actions um there was no followup. There was no conclusion. There was no plan to prevent this again. Um there was only

condemnation of the protesters. there was only talk of um this these actions cannot be tolerated. But I think what really cannot be tolerated in our community is a roving gang of masked armed men causing terror um with as the police department um referred referred to it um a reckless disregard for public safety. So, um I'm honestly a little here to say I'm sorry for having that faith and um I hope that this can be resolved with some accountability unlike

in ICE agents um case.

Thank you. Uh our next speaker will be Sarah Lincoln to be followed by and I apologize if I mispronounced this, Cassandra Rico Melraza and then Rachel Whitley. Do I just Okay. Hi, my name is Sarah Lincoln. I live in Ferrisburg, Vermont. And I was not there um on Dorsa Street, but I was on social media seeing what was happening. And then also hearing later what was being told happened, that the police were there, the the local and the state police were there to protect the people. And I wondered, how could that be? All the pictures that I saw, all the videos that I saw showed the police facing the protectors of those of those families. How can you say that you're protecting the public when you're facing when ICE is behind you? Don't you face the threats? You're the ones with the guns. So, that's just an odd thing to have to hear. I heard that the at the state house that people were gaslit into thinking like, oh yeah, you know, if if I I listened to sorry, I listened to the South Burlington City Council on Zoom and I heard that the city council was like, you know, if they hadn't been there, worse things would have happened. And then I listened to the testimony of the woman that was choked to unconsciousness, not by ICE, but by Vermont State Police. And then I heard that at, as we've heard in these testimonies today, that after ICE did their action and left and then all the other cops left, there were still people in the road who couldn't see that were had been teargassed and were trying to get medical attention. And then the road was opened. And so as people who were

there protecting their neighbors stood in the way to stop cars from running over people that were teargassed, it just made me wonder like what what are you all doing? And an injury to one is an injury to all. So you guys should do better because I don't want to hear that you guys think they did better when you're when you're really not. So that's what I have to say. Thank you. Uh, our next speaker, and please correct me if I'm mispronouncing this, is Cassandra Rico Melza, who will be followed by Rachel Wy. And then I do note that Burlington resident Jason Vend has joined us online. So, we'll go back online to Jason and then resume with non- Burlington residents. Did solid with the pronunciation. Appreciate it. Okay.

Um, I'm Cassandra. I'm a medical assistant. I was there uh on uh March 11th at Dorset. The uh state police gave me a concussion and some whiplash, some uh cervical ridiculopathy. Um uh some nerve stuff that's happening here. Um it's clear that Burlington uh police collaboration was not to keep us safe. I saw my friends, some of the sweetest, most caring people that I know, brutalized. And I only wish I could have helped them more, protected them, and kept them safe because the police were not doing that. The most courage and bravery I saw were from the people beside me who were terrified, but stayed because they knew it was important. People love to tout deescalation training for police, but having them lined up on the road facing the protesters is a show of force, not deescalation. And some people will say police need more training. Police here in the US typically trained for 21 weeks. Police in Germany uh trained for two and a half years. People like to use that as a good example. Um, but still their shooting of unarmed civilians continues to rise as it does here in the US. A deaf 12-year-old was killed in her home. The issue is not a lack of training. The issue is police in all forms. Qualified immunity protects police from any real consequences. And if you're given a hammer and told to use it without consequences, every problem starts to look like a nail. Defund the police. abolish ICE.

Please, please. Uh, our next speaker will be Rachel Wy as mentioned. We'll then turn back online to Jason Vend and then we'll come back to city hall where our next speaker there there will be Maria Aguilar.

Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Rachel Wy. I live in Colchester and I'm an occupational therapist specializing in dementia care with a focus on deescalation and protecting vulnerable people. On March 11th, I stood with my neighbors during the ICE operation on Dorset Street in South Burlington. And what I witnessed was deeply disturbing. Community members showed up peacefully to protect one another, linking arms, singing, and standing in solidarity. While there was tension, it remained nonviolent until Vermont State Police returned in riot gear. At that point, the situation escalated. At one point, I stood still in the road, using my body to peacefully block an ICE vehicle attempting to leave with my neighbors. I was intentionally engaging in non-violent resistance. In response, a Burlington police officer, Officer Gonzalez, and an ICE agent forcefully grabbed me and threw me out of the way. I was not threatening anyone. I was not acting violently. I sustained visible bruising on my arm. I can submit photographs of my injuries and photos identifying the officers involved if needed. I also have video documentation and additional of additional uses of force of other protectors. In my professional role, I'm trained to reduce harm and deescalate distress and aggression. What I witnessed and experienced that day was the opposite. I also want to address the narrative that followed. public statements claiming law enforcement was there to protect us did not reflect my experience. It's not what I saw and it's not what I lived. Hearing that version of events has added to the harm and weakened what limited trust I had in law enforcement and those responsible for oversight. So, I'm asking what steps you will take to ensure that situations involving community members are met with trained non-p police professionals trained in deescalation rather than escalating force. Because without

meaningful accountability and without the right responders, we cannot expect different outcomes. What happened on March 11th didn't make us safer, it broke trust. Thank you. You our uh as mentioned, we will turn back online now to Burlington resident Jason Vandr. We'll then come back here to city hall uh with Maria Aguilar, who will be followed by Brian Clifford. Uh Jason, I just need to share my screen with the timer. All right, please go ahead at your convenience.

Okay, thank you. Um I'm a Burlington resident. I was not at the um incidents um last week, week before on Dorset Street, but I want to speak to just deep concerns that I have about the extent to which local and state police facilitated and supported ISA ISIS operations. Um, I've been looking into the question of warrants. Um, and I'm not an expert on this, but it appears that local and especially state law enforcement saw it as their duty to support ICE in carrying out their warrant. But it doesn't seem that they were obligated to do so. And regardless of what the law ultimately says about this question, when non-ICE officers realized that the person named in the warrant was not even present and that ICE was arresting three people for whom they didn't even have a warrant, their duty should have been the opposite, to intervene and prevent a warrantless abduction of presumed innocent people. The main thing I want to say is that it really seems like there's a single key driver of how local and state law enforcement acted in this case, which was a reflexive instinct to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow law enforcement. Um, even though local and state police were visibly and vocally angry about ISIS's actions, when they were forced to make a choice, they sided with ICE. And uh what I'd like to say tonight is that the time has come to break that reflex that federal law enforcement is no longer law enforcement in any meaningful sense. In the case of ICE, it's now a poorly trained and ideologically motivated presidential police force tasked with ethnic cleansing. Um so we're living in a time, as we have in other points in US history, where siding with certain people in uniform is not the same thing as siding with the law. um what we actually need from local law

enforcement at this time is fundamentally different from what actually happened. But we're living in fundamentally different times and protecting the public from rogue federal agents will take incredible bravery on the part of Vermont law enforcement. But I hope and I believe that with leadership from our elected officials, our local and state police can and will come through and protect Vermonters rather than siding with ICE. Thank you. Thank you.

Uh we will now return here to city hall and I will mention that I do see other individuals online using the raise hand function. And as a reminder, under our rules, to participate in public forum online, you need to have signed up at least an hour in advance of public forum beginning. Uh we welcome any comments in writing to city council at burlingtonvt.gov. And as mentioned, we are anticipating that there will be another special meeting regarding the topic uh of tonight's meeting on on Tuesday, March 31st, where there will be another public forum there, too. Uh we have three additional speakers signed up here in person. Uh that is Maria Aguilar who will be followed by Brian Clifford and then Drew Schhatzer. Hello. Good evening. My name is Maria Aguilar and I am a student at Colchester High School. I've been heavily inspired by Essex and Burlington High School who have done ice out walkout to speak five weeks ago. And I want to speak out on ICE brutality that's been happening around here and around the world. And what I will say in advocating everyone here and around the world is that what ICE is doing is wrong. And the fact that real law enforcement that swore to protect us is helping them, they are just as bad.

We are children. We should be living our freaking lives and not have to be in fear that we're being hunted, killed, harassed. Families are being taken away. And what are we doing? Standing on our butts and letting people like ICE just ridicule all of us. No, we shouldn't let this happen. We are the future. And as the previous generation here are the fuel the fire that fight for human rights, I am here to say now advocating for all of us youth that we are the spark and that we will be the light to the darkness of our world. And the fact that you guys are letting this happen, humanity is now crumbling. And if we are already lost, then we have new no humanity at all. Screw Ice and Oh, the patriarchy.

All right, the last two folks we have signed up here in city hall, Brian Clifford to be followed by Drew Shatzer. Um, I was there on Dorset Street and I just have to say that the very idea that Burlington police were there to ensure community safety says a lot about how the city views who is and who is not included in their definition of community. The city's justification boils down to believing they had to help ICE illegally abduct an immigrant family to keep the community safe. What What about the safety of the immigrants targeted by ICE? Are immigrants not deserving of the city's protection? What about black and brown citizens subject to IC's blatant racial profiling? What does it mean that we are handing over immigrants to ICE to keep the rest of us safe? And what does it mean that local cops couldn't even be bothered to put themselves in between ICE agents and a three-year-old being brought out of the house? During this operation, a command center was set up by local and state police. In this room, there were live streaming body cam footage of officers on the scene. Local police invited representation from ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, and the FBI into this room. This means that local cops facilitated real-time surveillance of an immigrant family being illegally targeted by ICE, as well as a migrant justice rapid response effort. We've arrived at the point where Trump's feds are just chilling with local cops surveilling immigrants, a beloved immun immigrant rights group, and protesters on video while laying the groundwork to suppress local resistance to ICE. I believe that the city leadership should be terrified. I can't tell you if you understand the danger you're putting us in or if you care, but I believe you do understand that around 30% of the police force quit between mid 2020 and 2022 in the face of mass protest, political pressure, and being pestered in the streets by people with cameras. I believe you know how thin that blue line really is. And I wonder how many of your

precious cops can endure operations like Dorsa Street without quitting their jobs because we will not comply with fascists doing ethnic cleansing around here. Thank you. Please, please, we have one last speaker. Uh Drew Shatzer.

Hello, I'm Drew. I live in South Burlington. Um, we're doing our work there to also hold accountable uh our law enforcement and also just uh I want to say I was very embarrassed at my city council meeting last week to hear our counselors all condemn the community. Um, and it's not going to be accepted. We're we're pushing back hard against that. So, I'm glad I'm not hearing that tonight as much here. Um, but it sounds like, you know, we've lost trust in our police. I think that's being compounded by this talk of outside agitators when in reality these are our very community members, our small business owners, our concerned parents. Uh they're not outsiders and they weren't there agitating to like undermine lawful enforcement proceedings. They were there to put their body, their privilege in many cases on the line to help some of our most vulnerable neighbors from unlawful detainment. Um, so I think to restore this trust, we need to have some conversations, some agreements around clear expectations of when our law enforcement officers will um exercise their discretion to their duty to intervene. Um, we we should all it shouldn't be this mystery of, well, we know it when we see it. We'll intervene when we think that it's appropriate. We should have clear expectations of what we expect our police officers when they should intervene. So um and and in communities that have lost trust in their police, you often hear an acronym called AAB. And you know, no disrespect, but that doesn't mean all cops are bad apples. That would be AKPA. But AAB means is like even though the bad actors might be the minority, the the good cops, the the the ones that that do feel proud of the work they do, they don't feel empowered to intervene and to stop that from happening. So um I think that's that's really what we should focus on is those expectations. Thanks. Thank you. Uh that is our last public forum speaker. I appreciate as always everyone who took the time to come down

here uh and present at city hall as well as online. Um before turning to the next item on our agenda. Uh I will turn to councilors. I do have an ask from some folks who are here in attendance and and online on some other items on our agenda which should be very very brief. And um I am wondering if the council would be open to our uh turning to our consent agenda as well as two license applications on our deliberative agenda 7.1 and 7.2 before turning to the work session. If there is no objection, uh I would turn to our consent agenda now, but would leave it open to any council to raise an objection to that. Okay. Is there a motion then to adopt our consent agenda as amended? So moved.

So moved. Thank you, councelor Singh. Is there a second? Thank you, councelor Newzer. Is there any discussion on that item? We will go to a vote then. And I will note that councelor Kaine is joining us online. Uh all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. And then absent objection, we do have two deliberative items, which are indoor entertainment permit applications. And it should just take us a minute or two. Councelor Broadick as chair of our license committee. Could I turn to you for a motion on item 7.1? I move to approve the 2026 2027 indoor entertainment permit application for BCA community room 405 Pine Street with all standard conditions. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Second.

Thank you, Councelor Shakar. Any discussion? All in favor then please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. And councelor Brado, could I ask you for a motion on item 7.2? I move to approve the 2026 2027 indoor entertainment permit application for Laboka 1127 North Avenue sweet 32 of all standard conditions. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you councelor Singh. If there is no discussion that was me again. Councelor Litwin. All right. Thank you. Uh if there's no discussion all in favor please say I. I.

Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Um, item 7.3 was uh in a presentation on unaccepted private streets in Burlington that has been postponed to our meeting on April 13th. Thank you to the council and the public for uh your patience with our moving through those items. Which now takes us back to item four, which is a work session regarding the events of March 11th, 2026 and the local response to the federal actions in South Burlington. very much appreciate Chief Burke uh and other members of the police department being here for that purpose. Um and if I could just say just a couple words before we kick off here and then happy to turn it to you mayor and and to Chief Burke. Uh at tonight's work session, we have invited the mayor's administration and our police department to provide a presentation on what occurred during the federal immigration enforcement action in South Burlington on March 11th and our local response. City Council by resolution and mayor through executive order previously established our expectations as to what would occur in the event on March 11th happened in our community. We now have the experiences of that incident to continue guiding our future work. Before turning to the mayor and police chief, there are two notes that I want to make. First, as I suspect we will soon hear, uh the incident of March 11th is still being investigated and remains under review. I understand many here, myself included, are eager to hear the conclusions of this investigation. In the interim, I do want folks here to know that the council and the mayor have been advised to exercise caution in drawing legal conclusions and our remarks about the events of March 11th while the investigation and review are pending. Second, as we proceed to hear from the administration and police department, I do want to acknowledge that there will be no doubt differing viewpoints on the testimony that we are about to receive. I'm going to ask just as we did during

public comment that folks here please listen to those uh comments with with respect uh as as we did to the speakers during public forum. Again, I want to affirm that tonight's meeting is by no means the end of our discussion uh as a council. With the support of the council tonight uh and which we just did on the consent agenda, we have now warned a special meeting uh for next Tuesday, March 31st, 5:30 p.m. which will be right here in city hall and Contoy's auditorium where we'll look forward to hearing more about our community's response to March 11th. and I'll be extending invitations to a number of critical partners to present at that meeting including but certainly certainly not limited to Migrant Justice, the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, AALV, ACLU Vermont, the family room and and many other community partners. Uh so with that, um Chief Burke, I appreciate you being here. Mayor, I'm I'm happy to turn the floor to the administration and the department.

Great. Thank you, President Traverse. I am going to begin and then I will pass it over to Chief Burke. I want to thank everyone for being here tonight, whether in person or online, and for taking the time to voice your perspectives and your experiences on March 11th and your concerns here in public forum. This is an important piece of transparency and accountability, and I want to appreciate the community's participation in this process. I want to begin by acknowledging that the past couple weeks have been deeply unsettling for immigrant and refugee families, for folks who try to support and protect their neighbors, for people simply wanting to feel safe here. What happened in South Burlington has created real fear and real pain. Tonight's work session is an important step in understanding what happened and how our local systems responded. In a moment, we'll hear from interim police chief Shawn Burke, who will walk through the Burlington Police Department's involvement in the incident, including why BPD was called to the scene, a timeline of events, and how our internal review process works, including where we are currently in the process, and what to expect going forward. I also want to acknowledge that our officers were placed in a very difficult and fast-moving situation responding to a call for assistance from a neighboring municipality involving a serious public safety incident and also an incompetent federal operation that they did not initiate and could not control. I want to be clear about the purpose of tonight. This is about transparency. It's about sharing information. It's about conducting a careful and thorough re thorough review. It is not the end of the process. Accountability requires that we take the time to get the facts right, to understand the full context, and to evaluate our actions against our policy and our values. At the same time, I want to affirm that

community voices and experiences are essential to this process. Most of the individuals and groups who were present that day showed up to support their neighbors, to bear witness, to provide aid, and to exercise their First Amendment rights. That matters and it deserves to be recognized. That's why I've recommended to the city council that they hold a special meeting specifically dedicated to hearing the impacted community groups with additional time for public input. And I appreciate council president Traverse for organizing this meeting on March 31st, as you've heard. I know many people are frustrated with the pace of this review. That frustration is very understandable. But our responsibility is to conduct this process with care, rigor, and fairness because this is how we ensure real accountability and meaningful change rather than rushed conclusions. We are also operating in a complex and involving landscape when it comes to interactions with federal agencies like ICE. And frankly, much of this is uncharted territory. There are no real limits to local control in these sit there are real limits to local control in these situations. But that does not lessen our responsibility to examine our own actions to be transparent and to make improvements where we can where we can that align with our values and expectations as a community. Finally, I want to say this. Moments like this can test a community. They can create division, mistrust, and fear. And when we stand divided, the Trump administration wins. This is not part this is part of his playbook, particularly in progressive and inclusive cities like ours to sew division and to put us all against each other. But moments like this can also be an opportunity for us to come together. We can hold each other and our institutions accountable and support one another at the same time. and we can stay grounded in our shared values of

safety, dignity, and accountability for everyone who calls Burlington home. And with that, I want to hand this over to Chief Burke, who will walk through a presentation we prepared at this point with information uh related to our response on March 11th.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, council, for having me in for this work group. For the record, my name is Sean Burke. I serve as the interim chief of police for the city of Burlington. I have a brief uh opening statement and then we'll proceed through the slide deck to uh illustrate what we know um in terms of timeline and where we stand in our in terms of our review. On March 11th, 2026 at 12:39 p.m. the South Burlington Police Department requested mutual aid assistance from the Burlington Police Department. South South Burlington PD was managing an ICE operation at 337 Dorset Street and needed assistance in maintaining public safety as ICE had established a perimeter around the residence with the intent of seeking a criminal arrest warrant. Additionally, members of the public had assembled and were peacefully demonstrating. South Burlington Police Chief Bill Bro had been working to convince ICERRO agents to abandon this enforcement activity and leverage other investigative means to safely apprehend the subject they sought. The agents refuse to deviate from their plan, which is within their lawful authority. Chief Bro had correctly assessed that if Vermont law enforcement were to extract themselves from this incident, it would leave a small number of federal agents to face the assembled demonstrators. Given national events, we have seen what federal agents are capable of when left alone with demonstrators who attempt to intervene with their operations. Chief Bro had specifically requested that BPD respond to support his agency as they awaited the arrival of the Vermont State Police. It is important to highlight that our three agencies had been meeting and discussing how we would contend with an ICERO surge since January of this year. This incident was never a question of if, but rather when ICE erro activity would escalate in Chittening County. Based on the totality of of the circumstances and the reasonable conclusions drawn by Chief Bro, I

authorized a mutual aid response to the city of South Burlington. Go to the slide. Important table setting here is the relevant policies that the Burlington Police Department has in place. The first one listed on the slide is department directive 20 which pertains to mutual aid. Mutual aid is a voluntary exchange of public safety services and resources between members. In our case, between law enforcement entities which operate in Chittenden County. Mutual aid agreements are used by all emergency services. No single department or community can be staffed or equipped for every major incident on its own. So mutual aid agreements allow communities to pull resources and support one another. The BPD directive specifically states that the department shall make all reasonable attempts to provide the assistance requested as outlined in the Chittening County mutual aid agreement. Although this directive and the mutual aid agreement are from 2013, it is still an active policy. BPD relies heavily on mutual aid from UVMPD and others to sustain operations in the city of Burlington on a regular basis. Additionally, we rely on mutual aid from the Vermont State Police and other agencies to safely staff major civic events in the city which include but are not limited to July 3rd celebration, the Vermont City Marathon and market and marketplace holiday patrols. The next relevant policy is department directive 03, the statewide fair and impartial policing policy. As many know now, the statewide fair and impartial policing policy says that BPD employees will not assist with or implement civil immigration enforcement actions. In South Burlington, the ICE operation had evolved into a criminal investigation and warrant, which brings us to section five of the fair impartial policing

policy, which focuses on federal criminal law. In subsection B, it specifically states, although sworn employees of the BPD have authority to enforce federal criminal law, enforcement of federal criminal immigration law is generally not a priority for the BPD. Accordingly, BPD employees should not make warrantless arrests, detain individuals, facilitate the def detention of individuals, or otherwise expend resources investigating or enforcing unlawful entry or unlawful re-entry cases unless such actions are necessary to ensure public safety or officer safety. Imminent risk of physical injury to a subject, officer or third party. The next listed directive or the next two listed directives, the first being department directive 05 is the statewide use of force policy. The last being listed department directive 40 external and internal complaints, supervisor reviews and administrative reviews, internal investigations and discipline. I will speak to these directives later in the presentation as it pertains to the force employed by BPD during the incident and the status of the act of the active internal review. Next slide. The personnel that were assigned to the mutual aid response involved two deputy chiefs, one of whom was assigned to the command post which is located at South Burlington City Hall at 180 Market Street. the tactical commander, which is the field commander that stood in the field with the uh response team. A detective lieutenant who is the team leader of our response team, the detective sergeant who is serves as the assistant team leader, six detectives who are response team members, and one officer who served as a response team member. Next one.

The acry the equipment brought to the scene as part of this response involved acrylic shields which remained unused stowed in cruisers, protective helmets with face shield largely unused or remained in in cruisers. Some officers elected to utilize their own helmets with ear protections. Gas mask remained unused in in holsters on the response team's persons. A drone remained unused, remained in a vehicle. A 40 mm launcher, which is a less than lethal lethal munition device. This device was slung on a on a team member but not used. A beanag shotgun, which is also a less lethal munition system, remain unused, grounded in a cruiser. large canisters of OC spray. One officer carried such canister which went unused and a medkit backpack which remained unneeded in a cruiser.

Unused. Excuse me. Please allow the chief to testify. Thank you. Next slide.

So now we'll proceed through the timeline and location of the Burlington police officers. 1239 were notified of the event. We then take the affformentioned team and proceed to 180 Market Street where the deputy chief is located now in City Hall, South Burlington City Hall. Our team remained in the parking lot across the street from city hall. Next slide. At 4 pm, South Burlington police officers on scene note an ex escalation of the demonstrators in terms of demeanor and carrying backpacks, goggles, masks, and other protective gear. Federal agents obtained the criminal arrest warrant in supporting arrest warrant and returned to the command post. At the time that the escalation of behavior was noted, our team moved its location to a staging location across uh from Market Street at the Hannerford in the U Mall property. Once the warrant was cons, I'm sorry. On the date of the incident, Chief Bro had shared detailed information with me about ICE working with the United States Attorney's Office to obtain the criminal warrant despite all of his efforts to end the incident without further enforcement action by the agents. All of his efforts went thwarted by the federal agents. Once the warrant was in place, a plan was developed to facilitate the following task. Federal agents developed and delivered a message to the demonstrators assembled. The message clearly conveyed that the agents had obtained a criminal warrant for the residents and their intent to execute that warrant. An operational plan was developed to execute the warrant. This plan designated specific roles for each agency involved. If we could advance the slide. The Burlington Police Department team was assigned to maintain a perimeter on the northeast side of 337 Dorset Street.

The team subsequently arrived at that location at 5:27 p.m. As you can see illustrated in this slide, the BPD team remained on Dorset Street near the driveway to the residence as the ICE SWAT unit breached and entered the home. Go to the next slide, please. At 5:50 p.m., federal agents began removing detainees from the residence to the transport vehicles, which were staged in the southbound travel lanes of Dorset Street. Demonstrators began to converge on the vehicles to impede the federal agents. BPD personnel moved to the area of the transport vehicles to assist with crowd control. At 6:00 p.m., the first ICE transport vehicle began to move across the median to leave the area of 337 Dorset Street via the northbound travel lanes of Dorset Street. BPD personnel assisted with crowd management to allow the first transport vehicle to leave the area. And what I mean by crowd management, the officers at this stage had were forced to physically intervene with people that were blocking the ICE vehicles attempting to leave the scene. Next slide. At 6:20 p.m., the second ICE transport vehicle began to move across the median. It was at this time that the demonstrators had learned which direction ICE intended to leave the area with the transport vehicles. As this vehicle began to cross the Midian as well, the BPD team moved to the northbound travel lanes of Dorset Street and had to physically intercede with the demonstrators that were actively resisting the ICE agents attempt to leave. Because of parked other parked emergency vehicles on the street at this time, there was a narrow passageway in which the ICE vehicle needed to pass through. Our team

assisted with the crowd management and used physical force. Example being physical pushing and in some level of OC spray, meaning an officer deploy deployed their individually issued can of OC spray to help stop the active resistance the that the ICE agent was facing trying to leave the ve trying to leave the area with the transport vehicle. At this time, one of our team members was actually struck in the head by the rearview mirror on the from the ICE vehicle as they sped from the area once the demonstrators were removed from its pathway. Once the vehicle, the transport vehicle had proceeded away from the scene, the BPD officers regrouped in that northbound travel lane. At this time, one of the demonstrators who was greatly escalated approached one of our team members and threw an umbrella in an attempt to assault that person. Another BPD another

Please continue, Chief.

Another BPD team member saw this happen and immediately took this suspect into custody. This drew the attention of a a companion of the person being detained and a subsequent interference or this person actually the secondary person impeded our efforts to arrest the person that attempted to assault a BPD officer. A third subject then joined this melee and attempted to thwart our efforts to take this person into custody. Subsequently, three people were detained and additional phys physical force was used. Of the three people that were detained on the scene, two of which were released and later f followed up with with investigators and issued district court citations. The third male was taken into full custody, was walked northbound on Dorset Street to an awaiting BPD transport vehicle. As as the federal agents were being or as the federal agents left the area, South Burlington police chief issued the command that all local and state police resources were to leave the area which we follow. That order came out at uh about 6:30 in the evening and that's when uh BPD went to a collection point back near the South Burlington City Hall. Next one. From this spot, the team moved two other times. We'll go through these next two before returning to police headquarters at 7:43 p.m. Go to the next slide. The arrest made one individual age 24

resident South Burlington, Vermont, charged with assault on a law enforcement officer. Individual number two, age 24, Berlin, Vermont, hindering arrest and resisting arrest. And finally, individual three, age 28, resident of South Burlington, Vermont, impeding an officer and hindering an arrest. Now, we'll go through the standard policy for filing a complaint against a Burlington police employee. What this flowchart illustrates is the complaint process. The red highlighted areas show where we are in that process as of today. To date, we have received 121 complaints against the conduct of the Burlington police related to this incident.

Excuse me. Excuse me. This is this is the third or fourth time I've had to ask to please allow the chief to provide his statements here to the council without interruption. Chief, please continue. All the complaints are being processed according to department directive and at this stage the investigation is at the supervisor review level. Any person may make a complaint about the Burlington Police Department, a sworn officer or a professional staff employee. Members of the public can file online complaints via our website or view and download the citizen complaint form. Additionally, PDF copies of the citizen complaint form are also available at the peace and justice center, the community justice center, migrant justice, AALV, the Miller Center, Burlington High School, as well as Cceedto, the city attorney's office, the mayor's office, parks and wreck in the Burlington Electric Department. Any completed form may be submitted in person or by mail to the Burlington Police at 1 North Avenue. Complaints submitted online are automatically distributed to both the BPD and the police commission. Go to the next slide. This slide actually illustrates the second part of the complaint workflow process. We're not in this uh in this stage of of complaint processing nor investigation as of yet. Next slide. This slide is an illustration of the executive order which was issued by Mayor W Weinberger in 2021. In terms of compliance with the executive order that was issued in 2021, the body warning camera footage is currently being withheld due to the active agency review along with the active FBI criminal investigation into assaults perpetrated against law enforcement personnel. Members of the public have filed complaints with the

Vermont Criminal Justice Council related to use of force and fair and impartial policing policy violations. The final agency investigation will be submitted to the Vermont Criminal Justice Council in accordance with state statute. It is my intent to have the internal review complete within 30 days at which point the mayor will will follow the review process out as outlined in the executive order. Once the review steps are completed by the mayor, the review will be shared with the police commission as outlined in the executive order. In closing, the Burlington Police Department works very hard to be a self-assessing and self-correcting agency. We have a strong legacy of relationshipbased policing, progressive response models, and the use of deescalation techniques across all levels of encounters with with the public. Our re our review will take time and then go through the additional levels of transparency prescribed in both department directive and executive order related to use of force complaints from the public. As stated, I anticipate the internal review to take 30 days. There are always lessons learned from a thorough review of an incident, issues related to policy, training, equipment, and employee performance. These steps are critically important to help maintain the trust the community holds in the Burlington Police Department. But I fully acknowledge that this incident has eroded the public's confidence in Vermont law enforcement. A very frustrating element of this incident. Local law enforcement nor government can stop the enforcement operations of ICE. In closing, this is a moment for leaders to come together. This is not a time for polarization. Burlington will need strong leadership at every level to help heal the harm caused by this incident

and identify opportunities for growth as we work toward ensuring public safety for all. Thank you for that and I'm happy to answer whatever questions you may have. Thank you, Chief, and thank you, Mayor. Uh again, Chief, greatly appreciate your and other members of the department being here with us this evening. Uh we'll now open the floor to any comments or questions from counselors. As is our standard rule on any item, councilors will have uh five minutes on this item. And unfortunately, our monitor is not working here, but I'll be keeping time on my computer. Is there any counselor that wants to get in the queue first?

Who wants to go first? All right, Jean. Council Bergman. There we go. I have more than five minutes and I actually have just um some uh statements. I actually start my clock right now because that's just nonsense talk. Um I haven't started.

Thank you very much. Uh Chief, thanks for the brief um layout of the investigatory process. It would be helpful, I think, for you to send the entire council and also get it up there. the executive order that was signed by Mayor Weinberger. I actually thought I had saved it, but I don't. And it's critically important because the processes that uh we've got for the internal investigation of excessive uh force are all internal. And so there may I I at least from DD40 and the other things that I've got. Um, so I we need to do that because I know that people are concerned about that, including the limitations that appear to be existent on DD40, which is for the investigations of additional comments after the complaint has been filed. And I don't see any in that um uh directive that basically says to somebody, we're going to come back and talk to you about actually what happened. So people who are not familiar with filing complaints are going to give, you know, um, evidence in those complaints that is likely in my mind to not be full and complete and that that that I think erodess the the trust in the process. Um, and it's why actually Burlington did uh uh pass a charter change to change the process and sitting on the wall in the legislature and it's really uh too bad in in in my estimation. So, I think that the there's got to be some real clarity about um about that investigative um uh

process uh for people so that everybody who knows it's it's to my mind you're get people get the response that um that it's been received but then there's like no additional stuff that I've seen in the processes and I I just think that that's inadequate and to the extent to which we are in the beginning of a process here. What that means to me is that that's an item that we need to be reviewing and continuing. Let me just skip through some because I've wasted a lot of time getting into a to a weed, but I think that we need to get a much fuller review of BPD's role related to the detention of the persons taken into custody. We've got something in there. Um but I think we need to understand that and that includes the the period of time would look like about 620. So and we need to look at in my estimation um to have a real serious review of the mutual aid agreements and the operational frameworks in differenti situations including but not limited to the South Burlington ICE incident. I think what I'm coming to is that mutual aid is really important, but it but the ICE um enforcement activities are a thing of a different type. And uh I I am seriously questioning whether we should be engaged in that. And that's probably being um too polite in terms of what I really am am thinking. Um, so that means both mutual aid outside of Burlington like what happened here, but also inside of Burlington. And there's a distinction because, you know, what goes around comes around. So if you don't help somebody in another community, you know, they're not likely necessarily to come to our aid. And so when I say review, it's it we have to really be looking

seriously at that. Um, but that is something that I want and I would like to have uh a a serious review of our crowdontrol slashproction of constitutional rights during oper ICE operations but also generally you know people sat in front of a vehicle in an acts of civil disobedience of nonviolent civil disobedience. Now, when I've been arrested twice for non-violent civil disobedience of a political nature, they didn't bash the crap out of me, right? They said, "Uh, we would like you to move." And I said, "No." And then they moved me. They didn't try to run me over with a car, though I wasn't in a street. But, you know, I So, we need in my mind to be looking at just the way we're operating in that regard. I I I just don't see it. And uh as to and having looked at all the video, um it is really concerning. I know a lot of people who are doing civil disobedience training right now. But if the rules of engagement from law enforcement are changed and if we're back to Bull Connor,

Yeah. then we ought to know that because, you know, people just need to be prepared. I I am not interested in my community becoming uh a a new bullconor police force. I don't believe that you or that the police department or the mayor is is interested in that. But we need the type of review and investigation and serious thought to make sure that it doesn't happen that it doesn't happen inadvertently, let alone by intent. So I am very much interested in that. I'm probably way over my time. I'm sorry, but um

you're about 30 seconds over.

So you were wrapping. We need the review of the of the fair and impartial policing. And we need to we need to really drill down into what that that means. And let me end by saying you all are law enforcement officers, but you're not lawyers. And we need to be able to help you with legal resources so that you are not engaged in helping an illegal unconstitutional detention of anybody be they an undocumented person or a person seeking asylum or a citizen. And you know we got to we this system we need to have a serious review of all of these issues. I'm not jumping to conclusions and I'm not giving answers on that. But that's something that we need to do seriously because them people are crazy and you there's no accounting for crazy people. They're they're they're threatening the very existence of all life on this planet and we got to do everything we can to to to slow that

down. Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Uh who else would like to

May I just briefly respond? Thank you, Councelor Bergman, for your reflection. If I wasn't clear, our staff faced strong resistance, both active resistance and assaultive resistance from some number of the demonstrators that were there. Others, when asked to leave or even simply gently nudged to leave, did so. others did not engage in anything that I I have experience with in terms of civil disobedience. Just to be clear on that point and then quickly on this point of the fair and impartial policing policy, when you look at what's gone on in other cities across the country, the police are really left in this spot. You're damned if you go, you're damned if you don't go. And I'm pleased that we went to that scene in South Burlington and supported our mutual aid partners and didn't leave this up to ERRO and the in the demonstrators that were assembled. I really feel strongly there would have been much different outcomes.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Councelor Bergman. We'll go to Councelor Mcnite.

Thank you, President Travers, and thank you for being here, Chief. Uh, I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who came here tonight to share your stories and also thank you to everyone for who went to Dorset Street on March 11th to try to protect our immigrant neighbors. It's really important that people keep showing up to do that. Um, we have, as we all know here, done so much planning and preparation for a moment like this, right? We knew it was coming. Chief, you've described some of that. And you know, we trusted in that planning process and um in the executive order, in the resolution that was passed, we trusted that we were ready. And I think I speak for many people to say that it's clear that we were not ready as we should have been. And we didn't do enough and we need to do better because ICE is here. ICE is at our doorstep and they are terrorizing us. They're terrorizing our immigrant neighbors and all the rest of us, too. And I am not an expert in law enforcement and I I realize that the processes will take time and I respect that process and support that. But I am a human being and tonight it's really important to say for me as a human being with a functioning brain and soul. I will say clearly that what happened on March 11th is not right and I will not stand for it and we need to take serious action to prevent that from happening again. I also agree that this is a time for leaders to come together. I agree with the mayor that Donald Trump's goal is to divide us and I don't want to play into that either. Um so you know we need to have that approach of coming together. For myself, that's going to mean getting answers to a lot of questions. And some of that might be difficult, and that's okay. I think that's part of the hard job that

we all signed up here to do, and it's very necessary. Um, getting back to the BPD, you know, as I see it as police officers, your duty is to Burlington residents and to the United States Constitution. And Chief Burke and getting to know you in the short time we've worked together, I I I think I can tell. So far, you're a person who is really deeply committed to following the law and who has a deep respect for proper protocol, and I have really appreciated the steady and level-headed approach you've brought to us here in Burlington. I think we really needed that, and you you came in at an important time. But with all of that said, what I want to get into is how can BPD justify helping ICE, which is clearly a rogue, outofcontrol agency in violation of both resident safety and the constitution. Those two very things that BPD has sworn to protect. ICE is an organization that is hunting vulnerable people and kidnapping them. So at what point do we just say no, we cannot keep following these rules, you know, and keep holding up the protocol on our side when ICE is breaking all of the rules and, you know, crumbling the country and the constitution along with it. I I think it's important that we really clarify that dynamic because it's not fair for you all to try to follow the rules that you are trained on when you know an agency that maybe in the past you would have seen as as colleagues is is just not doing that anymore. So that's a that's a difference here and we can't act as if that doesn't exist. Um so how much time do I have left?

You have a minute and a half. Okay, great. Um, so I I want to get into how we we kind of can start to pull that apart and break that reflex of, you know, maybe standing that comes from the training of standing by the other law enforcement as just sort of a gut reflex rather than making sure we're always standing by Vermonters. I thought Mr. Vanich's comment was was really important earlier tonight. You know, I I hope there is a hope of of that happening. Uh, and I think that's the work that is ahead of us. And getting into some specific questions, uh, building on what councelor Bergman said, I would like to talk about whether there is room to clarify our mutual aid policies so that BPD does not go to ICE interactions in the future. And I think there's more conversation to be had there. I definitely I hear you saying that you you thought it was important that we were there. I'm not convinced that that is the right path forward and I would like us to take time as a body to discuss that policy in detail. Um, and then I want to hear more about what in I understand the use of force investigation, but we haven't talked in detail about potential FIP violations and our process for identifying those and then providing accountability. So, that's something I'd like to follow up on. And then it was raised in public comment that there was some type of a command center where both ICE and BPD were somehow collaborating. I'm just curious if you can speak to whether that's accurate or not. So that was those are a lot and we can talk offline and and get into it, but that's those this is the first chance I've had to ask these questions. So I wanted to get them all out there. Thank you.

No, I I appreciate that. I'll be very uh brief. your question about, you know, essentially the rule of law and we don't have influence or control over what any federal law enforcement agency does with their lawful authority. In this case, ICE was using their lawful authority in ways that I understand we don't like. As a as a practitioner, I think their tactics are incredibly flawed. However, it is a lawful federal law enforcement operation and a strong mutual aid partner called and asked us for assistance in maintaining public safety. The city of Burlington cannot survive without our mutual aid partners. We use mutual aid partners nearly every single day to try to get to the work that we can't do because of the size of our police agency. That's setting aside all of the major civic events that I listed and the the special units, teams, and supports that we need to have event safe events safely in the city. I was the downtown commander in 2023 on the in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and within a matter of weeks we had to come up with an entire playbook for security protocol and absent our relationship with both municipal, state and federal law enforcement partners that safety and security plan would have never come together. And I ask us to really be cautious about how we talk about our commitment to our mutual aid partners because we cannot do this work alone for this city.

Thank you, Chief. Sorry, you're over time. Council Mcnite, who else would like to speak on this item? Councelor Litwin, go ahead.

Thanks. Um, given the short amount of time because we uh spent a while on public comment, which I think was the right thing to do, um, I'll save some of the questions I have for you, Chief Burke, for like an email or something. Um, and instead I will read my statement. Uh, so I believe what happened in South Burlington was uh, disturbing, painful, and in my opinion, never should have happened. Uh, as you yourself, Chief Burke said in your remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee, we hear of kids not attending schools, nonprofits, and volunteers delivering groceries, missed medical appointments. Regardless of their immigration status, these communities are scared. I think that bared repeating. This moment is an important reminder of the very real danger immigrants, refugees, and foreign visitors face in our country. and we should make conscious efforts to make sure we are reaching out, making new connections, exchanging phone numbers, offering rides and help while we navigate this chaotic, unsafe landscape as a community. Vermont is not immune from this. Uh, our police chief is and will continue to conduct use of force reviews. And our police commission will continue to serve as a neutral arbiter and hear any complaints, a process that both the public and police officers deserve to be free of bias and fair. I believe our commissioners will approach this with the utmost integrity and care. I have seen videos and c that certainly warrant review and scrutiny along with the hundreds of hours of body cam footage that will need processing. ISIS's use of force policy essentially allows them to shoot to kill. Couple that with the lack of training, field experience, powers of logic and reasoning, emotional volatility, and a litany of other explanations that demonstrate their lack of skill and qualification, and that makes engaging with them incredibly dangerous. Simply

put, they do not have the same training or legal obligations to protect our safety as our local and state police. For that reason alone, I agree that having officers there that day likely did preserve lives, as ICE has already killed over 30 Americans. And while I can't speak for what any individual officer did or did not do that day, I am confident that our BPD officers were there for the right reasons, with the best intentions, and following what in simpler times would have been a straightforward protocol. I believe we can support our immigrant neighbors in many ways and during an ICE action. Some of those ways include being alert, notifying people quickly, being a good witness, record and document everything, testify, and embrace non-violent resistance. However, we have a serious philosophical and legal question to tackle. Can law enforcement both keep protesters away and safe while ICE conducts an action and uphold their obligations to the Constitution and the citizens of Vermont. I don't know, and I think anyone who says they know is probably fooling themselves. The oath I take comes from the Vermont state constitution and says, quote, that I will be true and faithful to the state of Vermont and that I will not directly or indirectly do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution or government thereof. We need to reconcile the yes and reality that our local and state police were there to protect public safety, but also at least indirectly enabled the unconstitutional actions taken by ICE agents that day. So what do we know? We know we have a rogue tyrannical federal agency that is deliberately and repeatedly violating the US Constitution. The judicial warrant they executed was very likely obtained based on false information provided to a federal judge

that the person they sought was in the home. He was not. They extracted and arrested three individuals out of that home, all of whom have now been released and a federal judge has already confirmed that one woman's due process rights were violated. Commissioner Jen Morrison said that police leadership met with ICE months ago and that everyone left with each other's phone numbers and a clear understanding that there'd be communication. That clearly didn't happen because ICE doesn't actually care. ICE has extended their authority from 100 miles within an international border to 100 miles from an international airport and is misusing their Fourth Amendment carveout by demanding proof of citizenship even inside people's homes, which they cannot do. and only with reasonable suspicion in the public. A federal judge in Minnesota issued a ruling that there was a clear showing that ICE had adopted policies authorizing agents to conduct investigatory stops based on race or ethnicity without reasonable suspicion, a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The court found evidence of at least 23 instances where individuals were stopped without reasonable articulable suspicion. In October, a federal judge in Chicago had already ruled that ICE must have probable cause to arrest people that clearly was ignored here. An internal whistleblower recently testified to Congress that he was directed to train new ICE recruits to ignore the Fourth Amendment and not to document these changes in writing in an effort to cover up what they knew was illegal. ICE is indefinitely holding people in camps and secretly fairing them around the country. All violations of the Constitution. There are simply more answers than questions right now. It is my hope that the mayor and our BPD leadership will really sit and reckon with the reality we face that this agency is lawless and therefore BPD needs to re-evaluate their role going forward regardless of who the request aid for aid comes from. We need to reconcile the inongruence. We need to look at what sections if any of our FIP

were violated. And we need to understand why we as the council failed to receive any communication that day from what was going on in South Burlington from the administration. We were not kept in the loop. We still have no idea what happened that day to quite a degree with the mayor. You're over time. Councelor Lewin, if you could please wrap up. Thank you. And in my last sentence here, uh, we don't know what the plan was and we were assured that this was being worked on by the administration. This has to be the start of the conversation and not the end. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, who else would like to speak on this item?

No one. Okay. Council Broadick.

Thank you. Um, I don't really know where to start, but um, I guess I guess just so I don't go over time because I want to get this question off. So, I'm kind of going to be moving in like backwards uh time wise timelinewise. But uh you mentioned um that body cam footage is currently on hold uh due to um ongoing investigations by the federal government or federal agencies. Uh to what extent is BPD's collaboration, whether forced or not, with the federal government to investigate um those who participated at Dorset Street. What is that going to be outside of handing over body cam footage, if anything?

That's the only request thus far, and it's also being withheld contingent on our internal review at this stage.

Thank you. Um uh my ne my next question is about um I guess kind of part of this process um of um South Burlington um making this um mutual aid request. Uh you said in their mutual aid request that it um that they that they mentioned that this was um in association with um in an immigration and custom enforcements. operation. Um, did was this call made um before or after the administrative warrant was obtained?

Before the criminal warrant was issued, but Chief Bro was in direct communication with the ICE agents who were working with the actively working with the United States Attorney's Office to secure that. And despite all of his attempts to get them to deviate from the plan of executing the war, obtaining and executing the warrant that day, uh he knew that he was going to need his agency was going to need greater public safety support.

Okay. Um um was there any point or at any point from when the um the warrant was like secured? Um, was there any point that uh your officers had made or had been told by any other law enforcement agency that was present that there was a positive ID on the of the for the subject of the warrant that was in the house? Could you clarify?

Like um as we know the person whose name was on the warrant was not in the house and instead um and instead um ICE had abducted three um individuals who again were not on that warrant. Um my my question is um for local police and for state police um were they um was there any confirmation that the person who was on the warrant to allow ICE to continue its operation? Was there any confirmation that um they were doing this with the confirmation of the person being there or was this just trusting um whether it's South Burlington police trusting um ISIS's word or whoever else trusting ISIS's word um when when it is clear that um ICE doesn't does not operate in ter in terms of truth they do not operate. They are an untrustworthy entity. Um I would Can you answer that? Like if that's

Yes, I can. The weight of that evidence was contemplated by the magistrate or the federal judge that issued that warrant. Um, thank you. Um, what's my time? You have about a minute and a half left.

Uh, thank you. Um, so I guess um I'll just I'll end by now kind of going into my comment. um that um 2 days before um the Dorset Street um operation in South Burlington, there was um an attempted ICE operation um on Pine Street, which was which was Monday the 9th. Um and as described to me by by people who were witness to that operation um ICE um similarly to Dorset Street had had approached um a building where they intended to make um where they intended to detain someone. Um people showed up and um and did act and acted in civil disobedience to that operation. um agents um did not engage those who were who were outside of the house. They left. They circled around for a bit um and then didn't come back. And um and in for Burlington Police Department's capacity there there were no boots on the ground for that. um there may have been surveillance of the area that was conducted, but otherwise I'd say um conduct that was within um our the mayor's executive order and within uh FIP um was the sole difference between these two operations in terms of um why there was no engagement and then and why we saw engagement in the way that we did two days later. Was that because of the mutual aid request and solely because of it?

No. So, I'm familiar with the incident that you mentioned on Pine Street. We were made aware of that. I personally drove through the area. I saw uh the the folks assembled on the sidewalk. I didn't notice any federal agents in the area and there was uh no reason to be alarmed. If federal agents were ever present there and in fact left, then they left. The difference being in South Burlington, the federal agents did not leave. Instead, they established a very a dangerously close perimeter to the home and persisted in their efforts to get a warrant. And then once the uh demonstrators began to assemble in South Burlington, had to consider whether or not they were going to close the street, whether or not uh the demonstration could potentially turn violent, what would happen if South Burlington would extract? All those questions were contemplated by Chief Chief Bro and as as I said in my initial statement, I think he used the right calculus and I supported his his idea that we uh send mutual aid to support him in keeping that scene safe.

Yeah, thank thank you and thank you for your perspective. I I'll just end by giving um my personal opinion which is informed by the perspective of um tens of people um that have that were there on Wednesday that were there uh on Monday and have been um at similar um operations happening in Burlington in previous weeks and operations outside of Burlington. And that's you've heard it in public forum today that um that there have been multiple instances where where folks have have showed up showed up to uh civily disobey ICE carrying out their abductions of people and then they just leave. Um I understand that that from your perspective in this case they didn't leave. So um so so other departments needed to intervene. But I I think just precedent has shown us here in Vermont at least that um the same thing could have happened if there was not uh without the engagement and I think that needs to be heavily considered by this council when we uh go over our policies and I am out of time so thank you.

All right. Thank you, Councelor Broadick. Uh, Councelor Newzer, and then councelor Barlo.

Um, thank you. And I have a few questions and then a few comments. Um, I guess what keeps sticking in my head is uh, Pine Street. A few days prior it was brought up in public comment in the idea that uh we you know the state policies were not going to deploy or prioritize uh immigration enforcement even criminal uh uh immigration enforcement unless there is a threat to public safety. Um, you know, at least as I understand Pine Street, there's 80 folks in a similar rapid response from community members, community organizations showing up at uh immigration enforcement activity in Burlington in city limits. We don't respond. Why don't we respond to that? Why do we respond via mutual aid? Because as I understand, and you can correct me, the mutual aid response is still at your discretion at the end of the day.

That's true. But let me be clear again on this point about what went on on Pine Street. We were notified of this situation independent of one another. A police lieutenant and myself went to that area. There visually there was no apparent federal law enforcement on scene. There were people assembled casually standing on the sidewalk and there was no public safety risk. That's vastly different than what Chief Bro was faced with on Dorset Street in South Burlington.

Um was at any point we we talked about initially there was no criminal warrant. Um we sent mutual aid prior to a criminal warrant being issued if I'm understanding the timeline. Yes. But we also knew uh via my conversation with Chief Bro that ICRO was working with the United States Attorney's Office to apply for that warrant and actually the warrant being issued was eminent.

On on what? We we now know three folks were taken out of the house. The warrant was for an individual who wasn't in the house. Um, based on what information I'm assuming we thought or were operating under the assumption that the individual on the warrant was in the house. Was that the case? What information caused us to think that? Um, was that something that uh, federal law enforcement communicated to local and that's what the assumption was based on. Where where does that come from?

So, I just want to be clear on one other point. So, our BPD team didn't even arrive on Dorset Street until the warrant was actually in hand with the federal agents. In terms of the execution of the warrant, that was left to the federal agents themselves. I understand today that they were assisted by the Vermont State Police in the on in terms of approaching the home, but our BPD team was firmly on Dorset Street. Once the federal agents execute the criminal, it was a criminal arrest warrant with a supporting search warrant. Once they're inside, they have established lawful presence, any other investigative action that they took was certainly not uh shared with our BPD team. I highly doubt that whatever they were doing or weren't doing was shared in the command post with Chief Bro for his approval because that's not the way the federal agents operate. But I feel very comfortable in the fact that their presence was lawful within that house pursuant to the warrant that was issued by the United States District Court.

Um so a couple comments here and then some of this is is a request for followup, but I don't expect you to have it off top of your head here. Um, councelor Bergman's detailed uh to to um to you all the list of specific reviews that uh we are requesting as a caucus um specifically because I think if we get one big review, it's going to be less meaningful than if we really dissect every single point and nuance of this. Um and obviously that includes use of force by uh Burlington police officers. Part of the other thing, and I don't know if we've asked explicitly yet or not, but any instance from now going back to 2021 when we um talked about fair and impartial policing at the local level, trying to enhance that policy uh via the executive d uh order by the previous mayor. Um it would be good to get a review of all the cases that we've deployed local law enforcement um to any sort of immigration enforcement, criminal, whatever the context um because it would help me as a counselor understand uh and I think the public whether what we did on Dorset was consistent with past practice since 2021. The other piece is I mean I'm really concerned about and and I you know I'm no legal expert here but the idea that we can't if I'm understanding right we can't as a local uh police department as a community as a city can't start our review of our own body cam footage because of a hold by the federal government or am I what am I misunderstanding there?

No. So, it's being withheld from public dissemination pending our internal review which is ongoing as well as the FBI criminal investigation that I mentioned.

Okay. And then my last comment here, thank you. That's that's helpful. Um, my last comment here is just a lot of the response makes sense in normal times, but I think what you're hearing, I don't want to speak for anybody else. what I feel right like when we heard the news out of Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Prey getting shot in the street and watching that video the first thing I thought honestly and I had conversations my wife was like don't be a conspiracy theorist um is how are our guys with guns going to respond if there's a federal agency going around the country um murdering American citizens and the unlike your response maybe to to officers which is is maybe more in line with proper professional standards in in your area of work. They're saying do whatever you want openly. Do whatever you want and the White House will you'll be scree that's that's the sort of culture of this agency. And so it's not we're not operating with um any any sort of like reasonable actor at all. And so I I don't want to put you at legal jeopardy. I don't want to put officers at legal jeopardy. We have to follow the law. Great. I I just want us to approach this um in the sort of unprecedented moment we're living in. kind of kind of manner. Um,

over time

because it Yeah, it is and I'm I'm over time. Um, that that's what I feel is missing. That's what I'm not getting and I and I need to trust that that is what our department understands um as its role. So, thank you. Yeah, I also need to mention that it's not incumbent on a law enforcement agency to be responsive to what's going on in the moment. We have to follow the law. And in this case, we certainly did. And to your reflection about what goes on when federal agents are left to their own uh devices, if you will, with citizens, that's why we participated in the mutual aid response. We were afraid what would happen if we extracted fully from that scene and left a small number of agents determined to execute that warrant with a growing number of demonstrators, some of whom were clearly agitated at the presence of federal law enforcement and were willing to be highly resistant.

I I am very much over time, but sorry, counselor, we've I've held your you're two minutes over time. Councelor Newer 40 mm weapon council counc point of order. Yeah, there is a point of order. Yes, councelor Litwin. I think it's obvious that we shouldn't be talking over the council president when he's consistently asked to move on.

Yeah. So, we are going to move to councelor Barlo now. Councilors under our rules are provided five minutes. Councelor Newer, you had over seven minutes there. I've held other counselors to the same standard and and we'll have to continue to do so and if I allow you to continue then we'll be here a long time. Um I appreciate there's still additional questions though. Thank you for your understanding. Uh councelor Barlo you were next in queue and then councelor Singh.

Uh thank you uh council president trouters. Um I share a lot of the concerns and comments that have been stated by my council colleagues tonight. Um, but I also agree with a comment you made earlier, Chief, and that you were sort of This is a situation where when um I've heard the testimony um at the South Burlington City Council and and at the um the joint uh judiciary committee and I watched and actually re-watched parts of those and and I do believe this is one of those situations where you're you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Um, and I also believe that we have to um, honor our sort of commitments for mutual aid with our other community partners. If we had a situation in Burlington and we called South Burlington and said, "Please come, we need them to come." Um, so I I understand that and um, I'm also trying to square that and reconcile it with the outcome that we had on Dors Street on the 11th. Um, and so in terms of the mutual aid requests, we respond. Who's who's in charge? Maybe you could elaborate a little bit about who makes the decisions once a um responding agency comes to a mutual aid situation? Um, was Chief Bro in charge? Is there is there a collaboration? And do we have any discretion as a responding agency to say, "Yeah, we'll do that, but no, we don't we don't want to do that." or or how does how does that work? Generally,

ultimate command responsibility does lie with the jurisdiction. So, Chief Bro in this instance, but I will say that it's always a strong collaboration and we all bring different expertise to the table. We're all called there for a particular reason and uh I feel that that all went went uh as I would expect.

Okay. Thank you. Um the other thing when I was watching the um the um legislative testimony um you were the only um um witness who had said that a review had been opened internally. We have the um the use of force review going on right now. Um the state police um and South Burlington said they hadn't they hadn't at that point opened any reviews of um the events of um March 11th. Do you know if they have at this point either one of those other agencies has opened any sort of internal investigation? I'm unaware. Okay. Thank you. But again, thank you for your testimony tonight. I I really appreciate you being here. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Barlo, Councelor Sing.

Uh thank you, Council President, um Travers. Um thank you, Chief, for being here. Thanks uh to all my counselor colleagues for putting the time and effort in uh reviewing this situation that has really rocked our community. Um I I first I just want to acknowledge what councelor Bar Barllo just said. You know, we can't only come when it's easy. You know, um I I I try to show up for as many people as I can for the people at this table. and I understand um you need to show up um not when it's not easy and that's what South Burlington did so or what you did for South Burlington. So I I want to say I think that's important for us to acknowledge because we are asking for help a lot here in this community. You know I I see our our collective frustration and fear is is really real here. Um, the expansion of the ICE enforcement has has come into a space that all of us, I'm sure, has felt as a safe place your whole life being here in Vermont and that it's near a school and that it's happening in our neighborhoods. It it's really heightened everybody's anxiety and we're all on edge. You know, this is what the administration is trying to do and and rip through our community, the Trump administration. They are creating division and mistrust clearly here with our neighbors with with each other and with our own institutions and and this is what they want. I'm I I'm very proud of everybody here that have come to exercise their first amendment right and as our as my council colleague President Trevor said this is supposed to be a safe place um to exercise that right. But the mere presence of ICE in thei situation makes it unsafe. Um, you know, I know there was a lot of

assumptions stated here that, you know, if if police didn't come on that day in South Burlington that they would have ICE would have left. And I I I understand that that sentiment because when you face a bully to face a bully, you have to believe you're going to win. And it's my job as a public servant and somebody that serves the people. I have to assume that people could have been hurt, injured, possibly hurt catastrophically. Um, and if that had happened, I believe we would be having a very different conversation at this table right now. So, I do agree that their presence did indeed save some lives. I also hear people asking here, you know, we they want local law enforcement to step in in a federal action or or step in with ICE. You know, I understand that we all want that. But but what does that really look like? I I want people to ask themselves that someone with a gun going after armed rogue agency wearing body armor. What happens next? I think we need to ask ourselves that question when we come up and say those things here in public to each other. This is a really tough moment for this community and as neighbors, you know, I try to put my faith in in other humans that are around me and that I I am certainly flawed. I am certainly imperfect and I think our public servants would say that about

themselves. Um but that's what it means to be a human. Um and we have the ability to care and protect and stand together. Um and and this is a moment where we have to do those things and learn from each other and learn from this experience. And I know this community has always been committed to doing that and I know it's very difficult and it things are very charged. Pet I want to honor that commitment that we've all shown to each other that the people who showed up that they showed to each other that our police chief showed his commitment to his fellow town next door. You know, I want to challenge I want to channel that energy to build trust and not tear each other down. Very famous American said, "It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us." And that was at a critical moment in our history. And we are facing that now. And we are I don't want us as a community to walk that precipice. We have to turn to each other and trust in each other. As hard as it is at this moment to do that. I believe in the heart and soul of this community and the people here and the people at this table and the people that showed their face here tonight, the people that showed themselves at schools and and helping their neighbors through my whole lifetime here. So, I don't have a question for you, Chief, but I wanted to um share those comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, councelor Sang. Who else would like to be recognized on this item? Councelor Grant.

Thank you. Um I'm going to have a couple of questions on the slide. Um if we could bring that back up. Um okay, here we go. I hear and understand the concept that we can't influence or control federal law enforcement. I get that. I do. But what we can influence and control is our own behavior. And that's what we have to be honest about. Now, I've had many people tell me we need to just get rid of mutual aid because they honestly didn't fully understand what mutual aid is, how much it's used, uh, police agency to police agency, uh, to fire, fire to police, fire to fire. It's essential. But we do have to have a real conversation about mutual aid and ICE, especially given what happened. we can say and and this was kind of difficult for me because as more information was coming out and being uh confirmed that changed where I I kind of stood on things like because we know the minute you have a criminal warrant involved kind of all bets are off. That changes um the ground game.

But we know now that that warrant listed someone who wasn't actually in the house. And because of that, our agencies, Burlington and South Burlington and the Vermont State Police contributed to the detention of three people that judges have deemed their constitutional rights violated. So, we have to look at any future scenario that involves them getting a criminal warrant and collateral damage. Someone should have been able in our local agencies to look at that warrant to request entrance in the house to determine who was in the house and whoever wasn't on the warrant should have been allowed to leave. We arrested people who were not being accused of any crime, any criminal offense. And we have to look at our complicity in that because to someone's earlier point when we look at the context of these quote unquote detention centers, concentration camps where people are being abused, that is documented. People are dying. That is documented. Women and girls are getting raped. That is documented. once they move people out of the state of Vermont, their safety is is no longer within our control.

So the the ramifications are really serious. So we have to look at that. I I think there was there was a I don't think I know there was a failure there with that warrant. We want to know that if a criminal warrant is to be carried out that it is addressing the person who's actually on that warrant. They use that to take those people once they were given access and they were given access by local agencies and that is confirmed by all the footage that you know the protectors took. So we have to look at that. Um, I did have two quick questions as to VSSP's arrival time and ERRO's arrival time. Do you know exactly when they were on the scene?

So, ERRO started this entire incident, right? My understanding is that started at 7. Well, yeah, but they had the additional um members come in later in the afternoon. that happened in the hours leading up even prior to BPD on scene as I understand it.

Okay. I would say because something that deeply disturbs me is that bringing protection gear on the scene was deemed as an escalation on the part of the protectors and the peaceful protesters. We shouldn't be looking at that that way. when you have law enforcement showing up and they're carrying weapons and they're clearly getting ready and we've all seen the videos across the country with the escalations. If people are bringing protective gear, we should not be looking at that as an escalation. I was deeply disappointed in the South Burlington chief where his stance at the legislative hearing last week was to use the term rioters over and over again. Um, I do have to acknowledge that the term violent agitators has also hurt the community and I have to apologize for my part in that. Um, quite frankly, I was so upset by what I heard from VSSP, from Jim Morrison, and from South Burlington. Uh, you seemed to be the most sane in the bunch, but it it that term really hurt people. And we

Grant, you're you're about a minute I don't mean to interrupt. You're about a minute over, and I just want to flag that for you. Um, I share councelor Newbieser's concern about uh the weapon that was being carried around. I think there has to be an understanding when people see something like that that changes the game and I'll follow up with some additional notes and appreciate your conversation with me earlier. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Grant. Uh, councelor Shakar and then Carpenter. Uh, thank you, Council President Traverse. Um, and I want to thank everyone who is leading with love and an unwavering commitment um to standing up for our immigrant neighbors. Um, and I also want to thank you, Chief Burke, um, for being here to testify tonight and for your leadership and care uh, during these extraordinarily trying times. Um, I am sitting here and have been over the past 12 days listening very deeply uh, to everything that has been shared. Um, I've watched video. I've been listening to firsthand accounts from friends and and people I know who are on Dorset Street last week. I've been listening to the South Burlington City Council meeting, the Joint Senate and House Judiciary Committee meeting last week. Um, and you know, I have spent my entire career uh supporting children and families. Um, and in the midst of all the messiness and chaos from last week, um, I just want to name that I cannot stop thinking about that small child, those kids whose families were traumatized and separated last week, and all the families who are living in fear, experiencing separation, and whose basic human rights are being violated by our rogue and disastrous federal government. Um, and as my dear friend and W three counselor elect Laura Sanchez Parkinson powerfully wrote last week, "When parents are detained by ICE, the effects extend far beyond that single household. A child's life changes instantly, but the trauma also ripples through entire communities." And we're feeling that tonight um and have been over the past couple weeks. And I think it's safe to say our community deserves better than what happened last week. starting with the disastrous actions of our federal government at 7:30 in the morning. Um, and we are understandably traumatized. Um, and I fully support the process that we must undergo to get to the bottom of the many questions and concerns that I and so many others have regarding how

things unfolded last week. Um, but instead of letting litigating those facts here right now, we have a lot of meetings and and process yet to come. Um, what I want to say that I am laser focused on is where do we go from here? what, if anything, can we do differently um the next time ICE inevitably is at our doorstep? Um you don't need to answer that right now. Um but I want you to know that that to me is sort of where I'm really focused. Um they are inevitably going to be acting recklessly here again uh anytime. And I also want to reiterate what has been said tonight, which is that when we are divided, Trump and his out of control administration win. And as hard as it is, it is our mandate to not turn on each other in these trying times, but to call each other in. And the path forward requires both courage and care. Courage to demand accountability and fairness and care to keep our community grounded and able to move forward together. Um, these are extremely trying times and the beauty of Vermont is that we are each other's neighbors. Our kids are friends. We run into each other at the grocery stores and down at the waterfront. Uh, I I consider this a sacred fabric that holds us together and keeps us whole when we are pressure tested in major ways like we are right now. Um, and I think our ability to be better prepared for the next ICE incident requires that we move forward and wade through this messiness together. Um, and so that's what I wanted to put out there tonight. Um, and I I look forward to the work that's yet to come as we collectively process March 11th. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Shaker. Councelor Carpenter.

Thank you, Councelor Shaker. You said much of what I wanted to say, and I've again listened deeply here. I've listened to the tapes um of the two other hearings and all of all of the videotape. And I think again focusing on how do we go forward? It's going to happen again. We need a mutual aid pack on dealing with just with ICE and h how could we have um treated those warrants differently? And maybe there isn't an answer for that, but there needs to be at least a strategy about it. So, I just encourage us, we've got to figure this out in the same sense of spirit that counselor chapter um brought up. And I know the the department had their heart and soul in doing the right thing and I think we can figure it out and I want us to spend our energy on that.

Thank you councelor Carpenter. I believe that every counselor has had an opportunity to comment on the item now. Sorry. Oh, councelor Kaine, I I don't know if you wanted to speak on the item, but um if you do, please use the raise hand function on Zoom. Um Chief, I don't really have any prepared remarks for this evening, but it is a work session. So, in my role as chair, I do have the opportunity to say a couple things. I guess as as you know, we have warned a special meeting tonight uh for next week on the 31st where we'll be hearing from a number of uh community partners. Some we started to hear from tonight like like migrant justice, but we'll be extending invitations to a number of other key community stakeholders and partners like the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, ALV, the Family Room in ACLU Vermont, and so on. And I know you've had a a long career here uh in law enforcement here in Burlington, in the state, and in South Burlington. And a number of these organizations are organizations that historically uh you and other law enforcement agencies have partnered with on, for example, developing the fair and impartial policing policy. And to piggyback off of what my colleagues councelor Shakar and councelor Carpenter have said here, I know that we'll be spending some time now reviewing what happened in the past, but perhaps more importantly because I think we should assume that this is going to happen again. We need to be spending time focusing on the future. And I'm wondering if you can take a moment to speak to the past relationships that you've had, not just with our our sister and surrounding uh police agencies, but also with with other community partners like uh migrant justice and and your department's openness to continuing to work with those community partners to uh figure out what what we're going to do and how we can do better uh in the

unfortunately realistic event that this this inevitably happens again.

I appreciate that opportunity. The Burlington Police Department has a long history of working really well with the engaged activist community that we have here, whether it's, you know, closing a street or not worrying about a permit for a demonstration because those demonstrations, to councelor Bergman's uh point, are peaceful. And even at times where we've dealt with um with activism in political offices, if the objective is someone wants to be arrested, typically we can work with the organizers, accomplish that goal without any violence on anyone's part. We were not afforded that opportunity on the on Dorset Street in South Burlington. In fact, our officers showed a tremendous amount of restraint at times with the amount of resistance such as having objects thrown at them, being spit upon and res and you know being thwarted in advancing what is not liked but a lawful objective of the federal government. Moving detainees away from a home is a lawful action by a federal law enforcement agency. And we and our staff was met with a great deal of physical resistance. And I really applaud the restraint that they showed in those instances. To you know the the root of the question here. What other things have I been involved with involving migrant justice? When I was the chief in South Burlington, there was in fact a DHS building located near our police headquarters. Oftent times victims of labor tra trafficking would try to turn themselves in to the federal authorities once their paychecks weren't there, the gas cars for their pickup trucks didn't work anymore, and the hotel rooms weren't paid for. And the security, the private security company would call the police department and say, "We have these people here trying to turn themselves in. We don't know why." My first call was always Will Lambbeck.

We'd bring them to our police lobby. would get migrant justice and their team to work with these folks that had been victimized and because we were adhering to the fair and impartial policing policy. I had no concern about their their origin, their citizenship status here in this country, but rather getting them connected to a government agency that could help them. If we had more collaboration and less resistance like we faced on Dorset Street, this situation would have been much much easier to deal with. But instead, what we were faced with was a group of folks within the overall demonstration that wanted to have some type of confrontation with federal agents. All right. I'm I'm going to ask that folks please refrain from responding that way. Um just just a couple final notes here, Chief, on on my own part. One is that uh in no particular order, I do want to agree with some comments that councelor Grant made there about our needing to exercise caution about wholesale questioning our mutual aid policies and whether or not we'll show up the next time our our neighbors call for help putting ICE aside. We very well may need South Burlington tonight. Uh and South Burlington may need us tonight. And I I I want to be clear um that if we have an emergency that requires a neighboring agency this evening that that we want them to be here uh as they will want us to be here if the same thing were to happen this evening. I think understandably so. We focused a lot of this evening on Burlington Police Department, but I also don't want us to lose our focus on ICE, which ultimately was mostly responsible for what happened on that day. They should not have tried to detain and deport Daniel Corona Sanchez that morning, just how they should not have detained Steven Tendo in February as he was walking into work in Shel in Shelurn. just how they should

not have detained Hussein Hussein on New Year's when he was at the taxi stand at the airport. ICE shouldn't have completely bungled their surveillance operation and impacted a completely innocent family and their children. As peaceful protesters gathered at the scene, ICE should have realized that that wasn't their day. There were dozens of opportunities when they could have walked away from the scene well before any local police officers or state police even showed up there. And it's incredibly frustrating, albeit not surprising, um that ICE elected against not doing that. I completely agree with Councelor Nubieser's comments that these are not normal times. And I think we all need to act accordingly. And and by all, I mean not just our police department, not just protesters and other local organizations, but also our federal judges who need to understand that we're no longer dealing with federal trained professionals who have dedicated their careers to public safety. We're dealing with untrained, unprofessionals who are dedicated to a political agenda and hiring bonuses. And when federal judges hand a criminal warrant to a group like that, they are handing them a weapon in ways that they have not done in the past. I think our prosecutors, when I say all, need to be involved with this as well because I think our prosecutors here in the state very well may be prepared to lay down the law with respect to what line if ICE crosses it will result in them bringing charges against federal officers. Chief, I I think you're incredibly well respected here locally and across the state. I think that your hire is one of the best decisions that Mayor Malini Stannic has made. You have the respect of the department. You have again still, I think, the respect and and trust of this community. I appreciate you acknowledging that the incidents of March 11th um have eroded some of that

trust, but I know since you've come here, you've been completely committed to working to rebuild that trust, to addressing the recruitment and retention challenges in our department. Uh there there's there's no one I would trust more in this role to continue the review of not just the past, but as police chiefs go to be able to partner not just with our surrounding agencies and state stakeholders, but also organizations like migrant justice and other community partners to figure out how we can do better moving forward. And I look forward in my role as a counselor here and and for the city council to continue to partner with you on on how we can do that. So, I appreciate you're being here this evening and mayor, I appreciate very much uh you're allowing us to uh ask ask the administration and the department to present to the council this evening. I don't know if either one of you have any parting thoughts.

I do not, but thank you for the kind comments. Okay. Um well, with that, uh I thank you for being here. Um and we'll look forward, this is by no means the end, we will look forward to the conversation continuing from here. and we look forward to answering the questions.

Great. Thank you, Chief. Um, this is well timed because it is 10:28 p.m. Uh, and uh, we do still have item five on our agenda, which is mayor, general, city affairs. Uh, we've completed our consent and deliberative agendas. Uh, but we do have committee reports and city council general city affairs. Um, as required by our rules though, if we're going to complete those aspects of our agenda, we would have to suspend our rules to allow for uh our our agenda to be completed. Otherwise, I will have to adjourn the meeting at 10:30 or folks could either move to adjurnn or they could move to suspend our rules. But one way or another, we need to end at 10:30.

I'm going to have a motion to adjurnn. Okay, there is a motion to adjurnn made by councelor Litwin which would mean we would not turn to mayor general city affairs or the other items on our agenda. Is there a second to that motion? Second by councelor Mcnite. Are there any comments on that motion? Councelor Grant.

I think it would be egregious to not allow the mayor to do um her updates that she does to council. So I think it's very important that we suspend our rules. Um I also would have some comments relating to additional meetings. I would still think that we should be allowed to do committee updates. Okay.

We skip those far too often when we have long meetings. And since we no longer move those to the top, there's an issue of fairness there. Thank you. All right. Uh, a little non-traditional here for me to sort of drive it in this direction, but councelor Grant, are you saying you you would you would like for us to just have the committee reports before we adjourn? Um, if if the mayor doesn't have an update, then committee reports or general city updates. Thank you. All right. Yeah. There is a motion on the floor with respect to a motion to adjurnn. Um, councilwin, I'm happy to take that motion to a vote or if you wanted to withdraw to allow for committee reports, I would provide you that.

It's hard to anticipate what everybody's vote will be, so it's not friendly. Just take a vote and let's go. Okay. Uh, so uh there is a motion to adjurnn. Um, and we'll do hands. Uh, and councelor Kane, if you're online, please use the raise hand function on Zoom. All in favor of the motion to adjurnn, please raise your hand. All opposed. Okay. Uh that's I see two yeses. And council carpenter,

it's the motion to adjurnn. Are are you a yes or a no? Sorry to put you on the spot. Okay. So, there are three yeses and nine nos on the motion to adjurnn. Um, however, it is 10:31 p.m., so I will have to adjurnn unless there's a motion to suspend the rules to allow for committee reports. Yes, councelor Newer. So moved. Okay. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Second by councelor Grant. Any discussion on that motion? All right. All in favor of that motion, please say I. I. Are there any opposed? No.

Okay. with um well, and I should have been doing this all night long, but the clerk is not here and with a divided vote. Um and councelor Kane online, uh we do need to call the role. It requires twothirds in order for us to suspend the rules. Um and I will just go ahead and call the role. Um Council Kane, the motion is to suspend the rules to allow for committee reports. I'm just Yeah, I'm not going in alphabetical order because I don't have the list. So, I'm just looking at you first on the screen, council Kane. Yes. Come back.

Sorry. I don't know if you voted there, Council Kane, but I couldn't hear you. Yes. Okay, I heard. Yes. Councelor Litwin. The vote on to suspend the rules. No. Councelor Barlo. Yes. Councelor Shakar. Yes. Councelor Carpenter, yes. Councelor Singh, yes. Councelor Mcnite, no. Councelor Newer, yes. Councelor Broadder, yes. Councelor Bergman, yes. Councelor Grant, yes.

And I will vote yes. Uh so with two nos and 10 yeses uh the motion to suspend the rules carries 10 to two. Um so we will now turn to committee reports and then we will adjourn. Is there any councelor with a committee report? Councelor Grant.

Thank you. Um, we did certainly hear from a large number of people from the public, but there are certainly many others um who have opinions and feelings and experienced uh personally what happened on 311. Just want to make sure everyone is aware of additional meetings this week. The police commission meets tomorrow at 6:00 and they do their public forum after their agenda has been approved. That would certainly be a time for people to go and to talk about their experiences and talk about the expectation with regard to the uh use of force complaints. There will be a public safety committee this Thursday. It will start at 5:30 and normally we do uh public form at the beginning of the meeting but we're going to have our reports from our departments and we are also going to have a report from our state's attorney Sarah George. So, we're going to take 5:30 to 6:30 to do that. And then 6:30, we'll have a public forum um at that time certain to allow individuals who wish to comment um ask questions and we will have the meeting Thursday for the public safety committee in Contoy's auditorium. There will also be a remote option. Um, our REIB team is also working alongside Councelor Elect Laura Sanchez Park Parkinson with regard to um a meeting that will have language access for people in our community um to to talk about what's going on. So, that

will be announced at a later date. Thank you. Thanks, Councelor Grant. Councelor Barlo.

Uh, yes. The uh transportation, energy, and utilities committee will be meeting tomorrow um at f Tuesday, March 24th at 5:30 at 6:45 Pine Street. Um and we will be uh talking about uh the GMT uh bus service. Um we're going to hit on some of the hospital bus uh service that's been brought up in public comment here um in past meetings along with some of their plans for the future. Thank you, councelor Barlo. Is there any other council with a committee report? Sorry, councelor Garper. Was that okay? Um, I I will just note that the ad hoc uh tax fairness committee that this council created will be hosting its first meeting on Monday, March 30th from noon to 2 p.m. Um, and we will be receiving a summary from the mayor's tax fairness working group as well as a first discussion on on this ad hoc committee's priorities. Um, I will also note in response to uh a public comment made earlier um that I will look forward councelor Bergman and councelor Barlo to uh following up with you with respect to the uh three-person committee that was established by this council with respect to the uh F-35 mission and our uh renewing our commitment to connecting with our federal delegation as well as uh connecting with with South Burlington and Wooki which I know uh looked at resol resolutions similar to those that we addressed. Is there any other council with a committee report? All right. Uh before we adjourn, if we had not scheduled our special meeting uh for uh next Tuesday uh on the 31st, um this would have been the the last meeting for our colleague councelor

Kaine. Uh and this is our last regular meeting uh for councelor Kaine. And um councelor, I just wanted to take an opportunity to uh thank you for your service to this council as well as to ward three. Uh I do know that Lori um has a plaque for you uh to acknowledge your service and just wish you the very best and uh we'll look forward to continuing with your successor come April. So thank you very much, Joe.

He unmuted, but I didn't hear him. I assume it was something good. All right. Uh well, thank thank you again, Councelor Kane. With that, uh we need to adjourn the meeting because our rules only allowed us to finish committee reports. So, we will adjourn at 10:38 p.m. Absent objection. Thank you very much. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.