News & Commentary

James Duff Lyall of Tucson, Ariz., has been named as the ACLU-VT's new executive director, replacing Allen Gilbert who is ending his 12-year tenure this summer. James Duff Lyall

We s

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 omnibus privacy bill (S. 155) the ACLU-VT has been pushing for three years crossed the finish line in the last 12 hours of the final day of the 2016 Vermont legislative session.

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.

The city of Burlington has been working on its decades-old (and neglected) mask ordinance, updating it and trying to make it constitutional. While recent proposed changes are an improvement, they're not enough. The redraft of the ordinance, soon to come before the city council for adoption, is unconstitutionally vague. In practical terms, the ordinance would likely continue to be highly susceptible to selective enforcement by police. It's also duplicative of other criminal statutes, such as laws on disorderly conduct and simple assault. Bottom line: It's not ready for prime time.

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.

An ACLU-VT review of panhandling ordinances on the books in several Vermont municipalities shows that local laws contain provisions that are similar to panhandling laws in three other states recently thrown out by three different federal courts.