During the Burlington, Vermont Police Commission meeting this week, concerns were raised about increasing violence in the city in the aftermath of the first homicide of the year.
Early Saturday morning Burlington City Police responded to a Community Service Officer’s report of multiple gunshots on Church Street. Following an altercation in bar, 22-year-old Aaliyah Johnson has been charged with killing 30-year-old Teville Williams of Stowe outside the establishment. Johnson pleaded not guilty.
The day before that incident, the police department had asked for information from the public regarding a series of violent crimes which include juveniles carrying firearms.
Romeo von Hermann, who has served as a Church Street Marketplace Commissioner, asked the panel how the city will address the growing number of incidents.
“What are we doing collectively to address these issues and not treat it as a lip service in terms of some of the key solutions that are needed? We are a city of not more than about 40 to 50-thousand individuals and the fact that we have the amount of incidents happening in such a short subsequent is very concerning," von Hermann said. "How can members of our city, residents, find a better way to resolve conflicts before somebody goes out of their way to take somebody else’s life in public, or in private for that matter?”
Melo Grant, a former member of the commission and current Central District Progressive councilor, called in to tell commissioners that partnerships are needed to create solutions, but not enough is being done.
“We continue to not see the community engagement that we need. We reference videos that we want the public to look at to help identify people. Where do they go for those videos? Why aren’t those videos shared on social media?" Grant asked. "Again, no robust social media plan. And some of us don’t use social media, but there’s whole generations now that do use social media.”
Commissioner Susan Comerford recalled discussions three years ago about youth mental health and associated issues and said the city has regressed rather than made progress.
“This is community wide causing harm in our community and these are young people. So I want to again make a push for some kind of collaborative response. You know bring the people together who have skin in this game in one way or another and really thinking through together as a community how do we respond to this issue,” suggested Comerford.
During Governor Phil Scott’s latest weekly briefing the Republican said his administration would do what it can to help, should Burlington ask, but added that it is not the only community in the state dealing with increasing crime and violence.
“We’ve seen throughout the state more violent behavior. We talked about that in one of our public safety meetings in Caledonia County. And this was from law enforcement and health care providers and those in the mental health field," noted Scott. "Most feel that most of the violence we’re seeing is due to illicit drug trafficking. So we need to step up our game there as well and there are a number of provisions that we feel that could be helpful. Some that will be familiar because we’ve asked for them in the past. But we’re going to need the Legislature to help out with that.”
Progressive Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak has hired a Senior Advisor on Community Safety and plans a series of forums on public safety. The first will convene in City Hall at 5:30 on September 5th .
