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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Fuck BPD, if I want to go for a drive those asshole’s aren’t going to stop me!!
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.