Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement endorsed Yes on 7. While the organization supports the policy, they don't endorse ballot measures.
Vermont Business Magazine On Wednesday, February 22, Ben & Jerry’s co-founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, gathered with Burlington residents, advocates, and leaders in support of Item 7, a Town Meeting Day ballot question that, if passed, will create an independent Community Control board to oversee local police, with both investigatory and disciplinary authority. Burlington residents will have the opportunity to vote on Item 7 on March 7, 2023.
“Burlington has long been home to bold ideas for how to build a better world,” said Greenfield. “Over the last three decades, we’ve seen the city thrive when it leans in and lives up to the values of its residents. That’s what Ballot Item 7 is about.”
Cohen added that “the police work for the citizens of Burlington, and [this initiative is] a reminder that public safety is not one person’s job. It’s a job for the entire community, and it’s improved when invite people from all parts of the community to work together.”
The item also has support from the elected officials representing Ward 2 and 7, with both Councilors Gene Bergman and Ali Dieng, emphasizing the sheer amount of time and attention to detail put into the proposal, ensuring community buy-in and a clear chain of accountability. The councilors also called on others to recommit to the necessary bold, truthful leadership as “[this initiative] is not an experiment - it’s a reform long needed, long delayed, and long denied,” said Bergman.
“The fact that many people in this city do not trust the police speaks volumes to the need for our city to install independent public oversight…The City Council failed to act, they failed to do the right thing. They failed to provide the level of accountability that is needed and deserved,” noted Dieng.
People for Police Accountability (PFPA), the grassroots movement responsible for marshaling the hundreds of hours needed to submit the initiative, emphasized the seismic possibility presented by “we as a community [putting] this on the ballot together…and the rare opportunity to decide to make our policing system incrementally better for all people,” said member Tyler Pastorok (he/they).
The ACLU Vermont is a key partner in the work of People for Police Accountability, as “community control boards represent one of the most promising opportunities to create accountability trust between law enforcement and communities…[lending] much needed checks and balances to the relationship between police departments and the people they serve,” according to Policy Advocate Indi Schoenherr (they/them).
Nolan Rampey, clinician at Howard Center and vice president of AFSCME 1674, recognized how crucial the kind of accountability outlined in Ballot Item 7 is when police are often encountering “the most vulnerable people in our community,” adding that it is “deeply concerning” it is that Mayor Weinberger and Chief Murad respectively “want to retain police officers that would rather quit their jobs than be held accountable by the community they’re supposed to serve [and] see community oversight as a hindrance, rather than foundational to rebuilding the Burlington Police Department.”
Jess Laporte, member of People for Police Accountability, cites complaints from the 2020 Battery Park Movement as the starting point for the initiative, as PFPA found that “it is only through the Burlington Police Department itself that our citizens can raise concerns about police misconduct.”
Far from the project’s reactive beginnings, supporters see the Community Control board as a way to proactively address holistic concerns with the “ongoing neglect and lack of professionality of our police, [the] profiling that happens in the small moments when somebody gets a ticket for jay walking.” “It's incredibly important for our city to have a clear picture of policing, the role of the police, and the experience of the policed. And I say the experience of the policed because we are not all policed equally,” closed Laporte.
Yes on 7 has been endorsed by The Battery Park Movement, ACLU Vermont, Howard Center Workers’ Union, Rights & Democracy, Vermont Progressive Party, Burlington Tenants United, Migrant Justice, Vermont Racial Alliance, Peace & Justice Center, Showing Up For Racial Justice, and Community Voices for Immigrant Rights.
For more information, you can watch the entire rally here, pictures are available here. Learn more at People for Police Accountability.
2.23.2023. BURLINGTON, VT -- People for Police Accountability
