Corrected below regarding the Burlington police presence.
What one Occupy agitator had billed earlier in the day as “an awesome action” turned out to be an anti-climactic fizzle on Monday evening. About 30 demonstrators briefly jeered a convoy of New England governors and Canadian premiers exiting the U.S. Coast Guard station on the Burlington waterfront following a cruise on Lake Champlain.
The protest would have been a bit bigger, and perhaps more militant, if the dignitaries had not engaged their detractors in a semi-successful game of hide-and-seek. Even so, Monday’s demo would probably not have replicated the commotion on College Street the previous day when Burlington police fired non-lethal projectiles. Their target: a few civil disobeyers among an outpouring of 500 law-abiding protesters. The confrontational cadre was trying to block buses carrying the govs and their Canadian counterparts to a dinner reception in Shelburne.
As a followup, a group of 50 or so dissenters had initially gathered at Perkins Pier under a hot sun late Monday afternoon. They waited about an hour, expecting the VIPs to set sail from the ferry dock, as had been indicated in publicity material for the conference taking place at the Hilton on Battery Street. The patient remnant then walked or cycled to a small park adjoining the Burlington Community Boathouse. The Spirit of Ethan Allen cruise ship had docked alongside, leading the protesters to assume that the govs and premiers would actually be setting sail from there.
After another hour-long wait, a few demonstrators suddenly started running toward the Coast Guard station. Some were yelling “Non au Plan Nord!” — a francophone rejection of the 25-year, $80 billion hydro-electricity project that opponents say will shred native peoples’ homelands in northern Quebec.
A private, super-size yacht carrying Gov. Peter Shumlin and his guests had been spotted near the breakwater. It was accompanied by three small Vermont State Police craft and, soon, by a canoe from which was unfurled a sign reading “Defend Mother Earth.”
Protesters waited outside a locked chain-link fence, chanting in sing-song cadence, “The governors are hiding, the governors are hiding from the people.” Inside, a few state troopers with leashed german shepherds watched warily. Soon, the gate swung open and two SUVs with darkened windows drove out, accompanied by marked and unmarked State Police vehicles.
None of the demonstrators attempted to block the convoy, although there were no Burlington cops on hand to haul away — or shoot at — unruly rebels. The governors and prime ministers were gone in a matter of seconds. And then it was just another mild summer evening on the Burlington waterfront. Later, they regrouped for cocktails at the ECHO science center, with a few doughty protesters on hand to taunt the cosseted notables.
Correction:
According to Burlington Police Chief Mike Schirling, the BPD did have officers in the area. This post should have read, “It appeared there were no were no Burlington police in the area.” Thanks to reader Ben Buckley for pointing this out.
Photo credit: Kevin J. Kelley
This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2012.
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Amazing what decisive action leads to by the Mayor and BPD. Had former Mayor Kiss been involved, well we know his past results with situations, let them occupy and take over until he got blood on his hands. Kudos to Mayor Weinberger and BPD for putting the lid on those that got out of order but let those that followed the rules give their opinions in a respectful protest.
POLICE VIOLENCE PRECEDES GOVERNORS CONFERENCE IN
VERMONT
By
William Boardman panthers007@comcast.net 7.30.12
You and your friends are on their way to a fancy dinner
party and there’s too many pedestrians in the way of your vehicle – so you do
the natural thing, you sic the police on them. Really?
Really. In
Burlington, Vermont, really.
Late Sunday afternoon, July 29, four tour busses, carrying a
reported 200 or so unknown
attendees at the conference of American governors and Canadian premiers were headed
from their hotel to a fancy private dinner at tax-subsidized Shelburne Farms, were
blocked from entering the hotel’s front entrance by 60-70 protestors, according
to Burlington Police.
When the busses moved to a side entrance, they were again held
up by a peaceful group of about 25 people standing with banners stretched
across the driveway where, about 20 feet away, the bus full of diners was
waiting to get out and taking pictures of the scene while they waited.
The banners read “Give Class War A Chance” and “Resist
Expectations, Expect Resistance.”
Over the next few minutes, as the protestors chanted, “The whole world
is watching,” a line of eight riot-gear clad policemen with shields formed in
front of the bus, with more police in reserve behind them, along with at least
three dogs. At the same time a
very relaxed officer, apparently in charge, bantered with one of the protestors
at the front of the group within arm’s length.
The police asked the protestors to move, but they stood
still. After a false start or two,
the line of riot police walked forward, shields held up. It took less than two minutes for the
police to clear a path for the bus through the almost unresisting demonstrators,
who back up slowly as police advanced, allowing three busses to proceed
unmolested to their exclusive dinner party. http://qik.com/joescully
No one disputes that police violence also occurred during
this event or after. The police
say they were provoked, protestors they did not provoke anyone, no one has yet
suggest police provocateurs. The
video that has surfaced so far is inconclusive as to who started it. There is footage of police chasing
protestors, but none of police being chased. http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2012…
Media coverage has been sparse, with the most comprehensive
coverage coming from “blurt,” the
Seven Days staff blog, which carries many still pictures, several videos, and
links to the police report and other coverage.
The first report, in the Burlington Free Press, started with
a misleading headline: “Peaceful protest turns violent in Burlington.” The body of the story, however, made
clear that most if not all the violence came from police. Eyewitness accounts in the paper
included Free Press photographer Elliott deBruyn’s account of a 23-year-old
woman shot at point blank range with a rubber bullet. http://www.burlingtonfreepress…
A late night report on WCAX-TV showed police officers on the
attack against protestors, but not the other way around. The report also showed the earlier,
peaceful crowd of about 500 people demonstrating against tar sands oil and
creating a “human oil spill” in the street across from the conference site. http://www.wcax.com/story/1914…
On Monday morning, Vermont Public Radio failed to report any
of the police violence in its coverage of the day’s protests against the human
and environmental costs of a new pipeline through Vermont or flooding of native
American lands by Hydro-Quebec.
The radio reported that police “cleared a small number of the protestors”
without mention the shootings with pepper balls or the use of pepper
spray. http://www.vpr.net/news_detail…
The Burlington Police Dept. had a press release on the days
events ready by 9:30 Sunday evening.
The report largely conformed to other accounts, except that the police
say some protestors “began pushing back” and “others sat on the ground while at
least two others laid down locking arms.” These are not visible on the available video. The police report said that one fleeing
protestor dragged a police officer 20-30 feet.
The report confirmed that “two officers discharged defensive
munitions including 8-10 pepper balls and a sting ball round (a defensive round
used to deploy several small rubber “stingball pellets”) and others used pepper
spray. http://local.nixle.com/alert/4…
So far as is known, the people in the streets have had no
direct contact with any of the dignitaries attending the conference, which
concludes today.
Dale Tillotson doesn’t know what he is talking about. The ones who were out of order were the cops, there was no need for guard dogs and rubber bullets and we should be going after Mayor Miro for condoning this outrage. Is this what a Democratic City Hall is going to mean, riot cops with shields and dogs to confront nonviolent protesters in T shirts?
Have you noticed none of our rulers follow the rules. They rigged the market (LIBOR) they fraudulently took homes from people, they crashed the financial system and were saved by government money but call anyone getting help or healthcare socialists. They pollute freely and pass the costs onto you and I and the earth. Following the rules is obviously just a suckers game for the poor.
No Kevin there were no Burlington cops just military with guard dogs and rifles.
Count on at least two bloggers here to screech the totally predictable, vague, accusatory, bumper-sticker socialist slogans. Notice how in Artemix’s Socialist 101 playbook all the bad people are lumped together in a conspiratorial but vague “they”? Notice how unruly mobs are “the people” and cops enforcing society’s reasonable laws are “the military”?
Notice how in Boardman’s socialist propaganda piece lawbreaking protestors are called a “peaceful group” of “unresisting demonstrators”? That is a lie. A mob breaking the law by blocking traffic and then refusing to move when asked to by police is neither “peaceful” or “unresisting.”
Notice how the socialist screeds are laced with seething jealousy that someone might have a nice dinner at Shelburne Farms. Waaaaaaaah.
Boardman admits the police asked the unruly mob to move off the street (i.e., breaking the law) but that they didn’t. So, what was supposed to happen next? Were Vermont’s political guests supposed to remain trapped in the hotel until the mob decided whether they could leave or not? Who elected the unruly mob to be our leaders? No one.
“The whole world is watching”? Ha! Good luck with that. Nobody cares about a handful of rude, self-important, hygiene-challenged jaywalkers in Burlington, VT, some of whom were cowardly covering their faces with hoods and bandanas. Boardman contradicts himself by saying “the whole world is watching,” but then complains that “media coverage was sparse.”
I believe the article indicates they were state troopers with K-9 units.
Facts have no place in this discussion…
Mr. Mayor and Chief Schirling: do not give in to the demands of the mob and their self-appointed consiglieri Jared Carter for a “review” of anything. The only people who did anything wrong were the lawbreakers who illegally occupied the street and refused police requests to stop blocking traffic.