News & Commentary

The Vermont Attorney General and Chittenden County State's Attorney are not bringing charges against the Burlington Police Department officer who shot and killed Ralph "Phil" Grennon two months ago. Mr. Grennon, a long-time Burlingtonian with a well-known history of mental illness, was shot after refusing to interact with police or come out of his apartment after making verbal threats against neighbors. Instead, he holed up in his bathtub for five hours while the police repeatedly tried to communicate with him and made several incursions into his apartment. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, the Chittenden County State's Attorney called the shooting "justified," and the Attorney General's office agreed.

The state trooper involved in the racial profiling / bogus drug case the ACLU brought on behalf of Gregory Zullo of Rutland is no longer with the Vermont State Police, according to the Caledonian Record. "'He is no longer employed by the Vermont State Police,'" VSP spokesman Scott Waterman told the Record. "Waterman also declined to answer any other questions about Hatch 'because of the litigation' and referred all other inquiries about Hatch to the Vermont Attorney General's Office. A message left with at the attorney general's office, seeking further information about Hatch, was not returned by press time," according to the story.

Vermont has, unfortunately, seen another fatal police shooting of an individual facing mental health issues. The death Monday, March 21 in Burlington of 76-year-old Ralph 'Phil' Grenon from multiple gunshots fired by a city police officer raised yet again the question of why, when police are called to help someone in emotional or mental distress, the result is death.

As has been well-covered by Vermont media, on Dec. 22nd a Burlington man and alleged drug dealer was killed by Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Vermont State Police (VSP) officers. The DEA, VSP, and other members of the Vermont Drug Task Force executed a so-called "no-knock" warrant at the home of the alleged dealer, Kenneth Stephens, in a densely populated residential neighborhood two blocks from the federal courthouse. Officers with the agencies involved said Stephens aimed a muzzleloader at them before he was shot. As stated in the federal warrant request and criminal complaint, the officers were aware of the presence of the muzzleloader before going in but did not know whether it would be loaded and ready to fire.

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Within the last two weeks, two Vermont State Police troopers have resigned in disgrace -- one after driving on the job allegedly inebriated, another after posting derogatory comments and images on social media sites. Yet neither appears at risk of losing the certification that allows them to be Vermont law enforcement officers. Intemperance and bias don't, under current rules, count as grounds to disqualify someone from being a cop. That could have changed this legislative session -- but complaints from law enforcement blocked the effort.

Most of us have probably been thinking a lot about Ferguson, Missouri, this week. On Monday a grand jury there declined to recommend charges against the white Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson, who shot and killed a young black man, Michael Brown, in August. The events may seem distant, but here's a sobering fact that may make them seem a bit more immediate. Police in Burlington, VT, arrest African-Americans at a higher rate than police in Ferguson.

Vermont is not known for explosive devices planted along country roads or interstate highways, or armed guerrilla fighters hiding in the woods. But that hasn't stopped the state's police agencies from obtaining armor-plated, bomb-resistant military vehicles from the U.S. Department of Defense. These heavy, gas-guzzling vehicles -- built at great public expense for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- have found their way into Vermont through a federal program that has led to what Americans saw this summer in Ferguson, Missouri: the militarization of state and local police.

It's been a long time since Edward Snowden revealed to the world the extent of electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency -- so long, in fact, that a movie, CitizenFour, has just been released detailing how and why Snowden did what he did. Congress is not a promising nominee for an award bestowed for quick redress of violations of Americans' basic rights. It has a chance to get in the running, though, for such an award (if not for "quick redress," then at least for "redress") if it takes up and passes the USA Freedom Act during the lame duck session now underway in Washington.