Burlington residents who flout the statewide stay-at-home order could get slapped with a $100 ticket, the city said Friday.
The Burlington Police Department will begin enforcing Gov. Phil Scott’s executive order this weekend, aiming at what city officials said is a small number of residents who are “willfully” not complying.
The new approach was announced at Mayor Miro Weinberger’s afternoon briefing.
Burlington police Deputy Chief Jon Murad said defiance of the stay-at-home order threatens to undermine the sacrifices made by everyone else.
“Those sacrifices ought not be undone by a small number who are either purposely or just recklessly ignoring the orders everyone else is following,” he said.
Police will issue municipal tickets with fines that start at $100 and can run as high as $500, according to city attorney Eileen Blackwood.
Since the stay-at-home order took effect March 25, city officials have focused on education about the requirements. That won’t change, Murad said, but now officers may ticket those who don’t listen to their instruction.
The police department recently investigated rental car companies, including airport vendors and U-Haul, after hearing complaints that those businesses were operating illegally by renting for nonessential purposes. Police found that the Burlington U-Haul was out of compliance but said the business agreed to change its practice after the police visit.
Murad said the department wasn’t aware of any other businesses that were out of compliance but added that officers were investigating short-term vacation rentals such as Airbnb.
The city’s effort was announced shortly after Attorney General T.J. Donovan issued a statewide directive asserting that his office would oversee all enforcement decisions related to the stay-at-home order.
Under the directive, law enforcement officers must first request voluntary compliance. If a problem continues, they will contact the AG’s office, which will decide whether to bring civil or criminal action.
Civil enforcement could include a request for a legal injunction and a penalty of up to $1,000 per day. Criminal charges are a “last resort,” Donovan wrote, but could include a $500 fine and six months in prison.
The AG’s involvement does not extend to municipal tickets that Burlington police plan to issue.
Read the directive here:
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I don’t want to die of COVID, but I equally do not want to be punched to death by BPD. What dangerous times to live in.
Fuck BPD, if I want to go for a drive those asshole’s aren’t going to stop me!!
If you get a ticket, demand a speedy jury trial. Since the courts are shut down, well….
We know they wont put you in jail. Besides, TJ and the local DA’s will dismiss these tickets as they do the tickets issued to protesters.
If they don’t dismiss the tickets, whine to the press that you were out taking a mental health walk and that the po po harassed you, and then just wait till the next amnesty day.
I’m not sure this article is stating clearly what’s going to happen. I think they are thinking of people who are hanging around, being noisy or whatever – skateboards maybe? I do not think they’re going to say “where are you going in that car?” unless you’re speeding or blasting the radio.
That’s my thought. I don’t think they’ll fight over someone respectfully going somewhere.
The ignorance shown here is really sad. The police are not going to stop you for going for a walk. The police are not going to stop you from going for a “Drive” unless you are speeding. Maybe folks need to take a few minutes and read what the law states, if you can, before jumping to conclusions. Basically states you can’t gather in groups any where. Keep proper distance. The state even gives guidelines for keeping distance when passing people while out on a walk. Don’t be IGNORANT like Gigrape who uses a fake name to hide behind. If you have questions then contact the resource center. Remember, this won’t last forever and you WILL be judged by your actions and remarks later.
Ted miles645 states: ” and you WILL be judged by your actions and remarks later.”
Well isn’t that comforting. I sure enjoy being threatened by a puppet of the State.
Just imagine you live next to a politically connected hysterical person, we’ll call her Mitzi, who panics and calls the police at every turn out of an abundance of caution.
Police states aren’t known for their sound judgement or fair treatment of the citizenry.
The government enjoys the privilege of being able to litigate for free. They have attorneys on staff who are going to be paid regardless, they don’t pay filing fees, they get to draft the procedural rules that both parties must follow,etc. etc. Which leads panicked bureaucrats to decide it’s best to simply violate the rights of citizens in the near term because they won’t be held to account until the citizen pays to defend their rights, gets dragged through the courts paying fees all the way, and in the end best case gets a simple “Woopsie, we won’t do it again” from their own government.
Please, anyone, provide a single statute that empowers the Governor, Mayor, or any other public servant to arbitrarily limit the rights to association, assembly, and movement of all citizens. Not a quarantine, for that you need to either be sick or reasonably believed to be sick. Instead we have public servants playing public masters for the whole body of citizens and regardless of the driver behind, these utter cowards need to be individually and personally held to account in a court.
It will be helpful to actually read the document – “no action unless necessary” and “there will be no roadblocks” and basically they just want it to be legal to go after someone who’s blatantly going against the decision to “enforce” social isolation. They’re not expecting trouble, but it’s legal, with this document, to tell people there can be consequences if they openly defy it. That’s all. This is not a police state.
This is not a crackdown. It’s supposed to emphasize that this social distancing is Necessary. That’s it.
It would be helpful to actually check the references to see that there is zero support in law for ticketing citizens exercising their right to assemble, associate, and movement. Bearing in mind that the Governor is not a dictator and doesn’t have the authority to arbitrarily create new law by royal fiat or “‘executive order”, he is a public servant, not a public master. He works for us.
So let’s see what the supposed references actually say in the order they appear in the provided document:
20 V.S.A. 40 – “Enforcement” states that the state can inspect the premises of an employer, the max fine is $1,000, and the AG is the only one empowered to seek injunctive relief in court.
20 V.S.A. 24 – “Penalties”Sets max fine at $500 (little disconnect there between the two) an max term of 6 months for violations.
And that’s it. The only legal basis provided is discussion of penalties for UNRELATED violations. There is no statute that empowers the Governor or Mayor to direct, order, command, or require their fellow individual citizens to constrain their own individual rights. Because this is not a dictatorship or military unit. Our public servants only have those powers WE grant them, they don’t get to make up their own. As I said, the Governor, Mayor, and any other petty functionary who takes advantage of the current crisis to seize authorities we didn’t grant them needs to be held personally and individually liable in a court, and face personal and individual punishment. They waived any claim of Qualified Immunity the second they took actions they knew or should have known to be wholly illegal.
Actually Pat Cashman, I believe it is in 20 V.S.A. 11
Title 20 Internal Security and Public Safety Emergency Management
“To perform and exercise such other functions, powers and duties as may be deemed necessary to promote and secure the safety and protection of the civilian population.”
This gives him pretty broad powers.
Matt Kelley,
Not really. That section is clearly referring to existing “functions, powers, or duties”, it doesn’t allow anyone to arbitrarily create new functions, powers or duties. In an emergency the Governor gets a free hand in the operations of the state government and can direct businesses, agencies, and non-profits. He doesn’t suddenly gain godlike or royal authority to restrict the rights of other citizens who are his peers, not his peons. If we accept your interpretation of that section that would mean an obscure paragraph deep within our state statutes somehow empowers a public servant to simply declare an emergency and suddenly gain unbridled, pharaoh like power.
Eagerly and meekly accepting such trampling of individual rights simply because people are scared is how we end up with abominations such as the internment of Japanese Americans, loyalty oaths, and anti-sedition laws.
Or put another way:
“Eagerly and meekly accepting such trampling of individual rights simply because people are scared [of non-white people] is how we end up with abominations such as [Emperor Trump-Caligula; tearing children away from their asylum-seeking parents at the border; locking those children up in cages and deporting their parents; promoting hatred of non-European Americans, of Hispanics, of Muslims, and now of Asian Americans; apologizing for and giving comfort to white supremacists; destroying the separation of powers; suppressing voting; promoting conspiracy theories; and stoking hatred of the free press].
EAO – you mean this is trampling on our freedoms? It’s a pandemic – public safety.
Patrick – “Eagerly and meekly”? I think we have freedoms, but to cooperate in a gigantic country-wide effort to thwart the spread of this disease does not seem bad. It’s not a police-state, but the citizens exercising their rights hopefully also have the right (and the sense) to keep this pandemic from getting worse and worse. If there’s a crime scene, you’re not allowed to walk over it – if there’s a sort of plague, maybe you should be discouraged from making the situation worse.
@Pat Cashman. Hi Pat, I really enjoy reading your comments here. Thanks for your passion for Democracy. The key words in the Statute are “other” which to a legal scholar means as yet unspecified, and “as deemed necessary”. As the Governor declared a State of Emergency, it invokes this power. Be assured that he cleared everything with his legal team to insure he was within his authority, particularly in an unprecedented event such as this. Also, the Statute I refer to has been ratified by several legislatures including 1959, 1973, 1985 and 2005 so it isn’t a new power he seized but one granted to whom ever holds the office from our elected legislative bodies, with either Democrat and Republican majorities.
The pubic response overall has been remarkable: businesses risking bankruptcy and people out of work voluntarily in an attempt to save their neighbors from sickness and death. It’s a moment to be proud of.
It’s unrealistic never the less to expect 100% compliance in anything and I think Burlington is making a mistake by introducing coercive controls to break up basketball games and dog walkers.
GiGrape espouses the attitude that is creating the need for more laws like this. It is the same as a feeling of entitlement that they can do whatever they want whether it might affect others or not. The stories of the self important college students going on spring break and end up with most infected are the result of this attitude. I had to go get some groceries last week and there were a group of 20 year olds having quite the social event together. There were 7 or 8 of them in watching them touch there faces and mouths and then touch there cart and handle things on the shelves without taking the item really pointed out how selfish they were. They were making plans to go have a picnic later that day. The guidelines are designed to protect everyone
@MattKelly says “ Be assured that he cleared everything with his legal team to insure he was within his authority,“
His legal team, TJ and liberals like him are wrong all the time and the courts have repeatedly said so.
We just lived through a two year investigation, where Obama “cleared everything with his legal team”, to illegally target Americans, with a thoroughly corrupt legal team.
@GreenMtnBoy2
The Governor’s legal counsel is Jaye Pershing Johnson, with whom I was referring to. Thanks for your insights!
Defenders of the Free –
We don’t need basketball games – it’s a contact sport – do you know much about epidemics?
As far as those kids in the market – it might help to tell Management – they are not Thinking, that’s all. They do what they are used to doing, and haven’t re-thought it all yet. Hope they don’t make anyone SICK. I have no problem with waking people up.
People shouldn’t feel persecuted for helping slow the epidemic/pandemic. Basketball can wait.
Matt Kelly, I’m sorry but that is completely wrong. You’d be hard pressed to find any “legal scholar” to buy into your notion that “other” means; “… any and all powers the god-king desires.” I would encourage anyone who may have stumbled upon this comment to please read 20 V.S.A. 11 for themselves. It is less than a page and is, as laws are supposed to be, plainly worded. It can be found at https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/s…
Our government has certain powers that we grant them. Those powers are applied in accordance with certain rules. 20 V.S.A 11 alters the rules by which those powers are used, it doesn’t grant new powers. The existing powers listed in this section:
– (1) Lease or lend state property to the federal government and transfer state employees to a branch of the armed forces.
– (2) Enter into contracts for lease or loan of state property or personnel to towns.
– (3) Seize private property for the protection of the public.
– (4) Then sell, lend or give such properties away and must account for the sale with the treasurer.
– (5) The property owner must be compensated for his lost property either for its temporary use or permanent loss. And if he believes himself insufficiently compensated this section lays out how to appeal to a court (further reinforcing that the governor’s power is subject to judicial review).
– (6) Leaves the door open to modify rules for other existing powers.
That’s it. No new powers. No authority to restrict the individual rights of citizens who are protected from their own government by the Bill of Rights and the Vermont Constitution. We need to remember these people are our employees and the most important part of leading is to supervise. It’s time for some supervision.
@Pat Cashman
We’ll have to agree to disagree, but if you feel this strongly, why aren’t you filing a motion challenging that power, in Court, instead of challenging my pointing out here, the Statute where he does?
Again, Title 20 is ‘Internal Security and Public Safety’ specifically, with Chapter 001 being ‘Emergency Management.’
The first line states: “In the event of an all-hazards event, the governor may exercise any or all of the following additional powers”….again he has declared a State of Emergency, granting him these powers.
The final segment (6) stating:
“To perform and exercise such other functions, powers and duties as may be deemed necessary to promote and secure the safety and protection of the civilian population.”
That sentence alone gives him the power and has been granted to whomever holds the office by previous Legislatures to protect Public Safety.
History is full of Presidents taking on additional powers that are not granted but also not prohibited in our Constitution. Until this is challenged by the Legislature or other party and ruled on by a Court saying he doesn’t have this authority in times of Emergency, he does, as exemplified by him doing so, and no one restricting him.
Matt Kelly,
As I said in the beginning, panicked functionaries understand that the government gets to litigate for free, so they choose to violate Citizens’ rights now in the expectation that even if they are held to account it won’t be for a long time and only after a Citizen is forced to expend personal funds and time to regain the rights stolen from them. It’s cowardice and demonstrates utter lack of principle.
It always amazes me that we look at the decisions and choices of those who come before us and judge them harshly, thinking that in the same situation we would do much better. Yet here we are, trampling individual citizen’s rights because people and politicians are scared, just as our grandparents did when they chose to intern Japanese Americans. It’s shameful.
No Matt, we don’t agree to disagree. You are wrong, period. It is not the obligation of the Citizen to continually re-fight battles to defend their rights, it is the government’s obligation to respect them regardless of whatever crises real or imagined come down the pike.
Matt will not give in. Patrick will not give in. Public debate is alive. Hope we all stay that way too.
@Pat Cashman
Wrong in your opinion only. The law is something completely different. This is an example of Polarization, using one social construct to defend another.
It’s there in writing in our State’s Statutes for all to read Title 20, Chapter 1, Section 11, (6) “…Internal Security and Public Safety’…’Emergency Management’….’Additional Emergency Powers’…. ‘To perform and exercise such other functions, powers and duties as may be deemed necessary to promote and secure the safety and protection of the civilian population.’
Also, it is important to note that in his State of Emergency he invoked “….the emergency powers set forth in 20 V.S.A. 8, 9 and 11 and other laws….” in his declaration.
There is nothing in any statute that allows the State or any municipality to levy a fine for violation of the Stay at Home Advisement. I will be putting in a public records request for a copy of any legal authority for imposition of a fine and any showing the dollar limitations of such fine.
“I will be putting in a public records request for a copy of any legal authority . . .”
And thereby making government that much more costly for the rest of us normal, reasonable, non-litigious citizens during an emergency. Because that’s what America’s most selfish and entitled generation ever, the Boomers, do.
Matt Kelly,
20 V.S.A. 8 and 9 are even less supportive of your peculiar notion of unbridled Government power. 8 allows the governor to direct the emergency management agency. That’s it. 9 Expands his powers to reach into agencies of the state government and direct where and how government assets are focused, and the authority to waive permit requirements for new construction. That’s it. All existing powers of the government but with new rules on how they are applied.
You have to pick which side of history you’re on Matt. Our descendants will not judge kindly those who were so eager to sell their hard won liberties for some simulacrum of safety. And as I said, hopefully those politicians who defaulted to depriving their employers of their rights when faced with a panic will face accountability in a court with personal and individual penalties. No qualified immunity, Phil knows perfectly well what he is doing is beyond the authority we granted him and qualified immunity doesn’t apply if an official knowingly violates the law. Phil’s got some deep pockets, but hopefully some enterprising soul will sue him into penury.
EAO,
You do realize that submitters have to pay for public records requests, right?
@Pat Cashman
Sounds like you are making me the enemy here.
Realize Pat that all systems are flawed. There’s no such thing as something which is completely right. When you get into belief systems, you have to understand that those are social constructs. So it’s understanding that no one of us is better than any other whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not.
Your use of polarization, “you didn’t think of this way shows what a bad person you are and what a good person I am,” just creates a good guy bad guy scenario that tends not to result in people empathizing with each other’s point of view.
I believe the Statutes speak for themselves. The Governor believes he has the Emergency Powers to act in the Public Safety and cited specific clauses in his Order and I’m certain he sought out greater legal minds than ours in so doing.
You obviously believe otherwise. Thank you for this wonderful exercise in civics and civic discourse!
EAO – why be agist? You say that all people a certain age (an 18-year span in the case of “boomers”) have a certain attitude?
Do You want to be responsible for the behavior of everyone your age? I’m guessing not. So cut it out.
When you get older, you’ll see everyone is a person – they don’t represent a group.
Kids nowadays…(see?)
I’m not making you into anything, Matt. You are choosing a side and I am pointing out the inherent evil in the side you are choosing. Americans have done so in the past with anti-sedition laws, suspension of habeus corpus, interment of Japanese Americans, communist witch hunts, etc etc. There are always those who fall all over themselves to all over themselves to endorse the government’s evil acts because they imagine they provide some imagined safety. Like I said; it’s your choice.
“During a public health emergency, there are extremely strong requirements of governments to provide truthful information to the public so that we as individuals and in our communities can make decisions about what we should be doing,” said David Kaye, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.
Heck yeah!
There may be inherent evil on both sides – anarchy vs. total oversight. I don’t think we need to be extreme – somewhere in-between. I don’t think this decree is as dangerous as the Virus. I don’t believe anyone will be imprisoned over this – they’re simply warned, in effect, and that in itself isn’t evil. I hope no one is even fined.
No witches, no witch-hunt.
Can someone simplify this for me please? Does this mean not going outside AT ALL? EVER? or is there a curphew time? I’d like just the clear human friendly lingo. Thanks.
Reminder: Vermont practices “Catch & Release”….of CRIMINALS
CONCERNED, taking a drive is a lot different than being careless in the store where you saw the students. When I go into the store I’m social distancing and being respectful of the rules. I don’t pick through everything and I just pick up what I want. I use those sanitizing wipes as soon as I get in the store and when I leave. Like I said before, if I want to take a long drive then I have a right to!
We were near the Burlington Skate Park today around 1PM. There weree at least 25 or more young people using the skatepark, probably more. All in a very confined space, crossing and criss-crossing each other and standing in groups on the structure. None of them were wearing masks, of course. I thought all parks were closed to prevent this kind of thing???
And yes Claudia, you can go out, there is not a curfew that I know of.. Just be safe!
Jim, that skateboard park needs some oversight! That is ridiculous – and you noticed before the police?
Where are the police? Checking on what? Maybe if they talk (friendly talk) to the skaters they can reason with them AND ALSO see if anyone knows about the new graffiti craze in town.
Is this news to the Police?
Do they know there IS a skateboard park???