State and local law enforcement officials, speaking to a panel of lawmakers on Thursday, defended their agencies’ handling of last week’s violent clash between police and protesters in South Burlington during a federal immigration raid.
Local police have distanced themselves from ICE and have criticized the planning and tactics of the federal agency. But on Thursday, law enforcement officials also laid the blame for the chaotic scene on people there who, police say, initially stoked the conflict.
“The peaceful activists were joined by agitators, a Trojan horse of sorts, leading way to an escalation instigated by the crowd,” Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke said. “The escalation of the crowd led to violence, and officers were assaulted and hindered throughout the judicially approved operation. This behavior was not activism. It was criminal and cannot be tolerated collectively.”
More from Vermont Public: The South Burlington ICE raid explained
State police cited three people at the scene with disorderly conduct and Burlington police arrested four people, officials said on Thursday.
Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison said during the hearing that local law enforcement “achieved our objective to ensure the safest possible outcome.”
“It certainly was not perfect, but at a high level, we avoided any known serious injuries or deaths, and violent encounters between protesters and federal agents were minimized as much as possible,” Morrison said.
The incident last Wednesday began when federal authorities sought to arrest a man they say crashed into several ICE vehicles during a car chase earlier that day. The man abandoned his vehicle and fled into a house on Dorset Street, according to an affidavit. Activists got word of the potential ICE enforcement action and hundreds of people gathered at the residence to prevent the arrest while federal agents waited for a warrant to enter the home.
South Burlington Police, who’d come to the scene in the morning, called Vermont State Police and Burlington Police in for backup, fearing the situation could get out of hand, said South Burlington Police Chief Bill Breault. Their stated goal was to both protect people on the scene from ICE, and allow ICE to execute the court-issued warrant.
“It doesn't take much imagination to see how potential deadly force could have been used by agents,” Breault said at the hearing. “That's why I called the state police and the Burlington police, and without them, we would have absolutely seen, there's no doubt in my mind, we would have seen much more violence, up to and including potential loss of life.”
The situation escalated after protesters refused to leave the front door after ICE got a warrant and issued a dispersal order. Vermont State Police moved protesters from the door to allow ICE agents to enter and remove three people — none of whom were named as subjects of the warrant — from the house.
Violent clashes broke out between protesters and police. In some cases, officers wrestled protesters to the ground and restrained them, and video footage shows at least one officer throwing a woman to the pavement. Law enforcement officials say protesters spat at officers and threw objects at them. One state trooper’s eye was injured, police said. Federal officers in riot gear eventually used flashbangs and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The incident, which took place on a busy thoroughfare near two public schools in Vermont’s second largest city, marked the first major confrontation between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and protesters in the state.
“Our role was to help maintain order and public safety,” Col. Matthew Birmingham, the commander of Vermont State Police, told members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
More from Vermont Public: ICE, Vermont police face scrutiny following Dorset Street standoff
Vermont State Police and South Burlington Police have not opened any internal affairs investigations related to the incident. Burlington Police are conducting a use-of-force review of one officer accused of using excessive force against protesters.
But critics say Vermont police were the ones who escalated the situation last week, not protesters.
“That was just outrageous,” Will Lambek, with Migrant Justice, said after the hearing. “Vermonters were subjected to two hours of misdirection, victim blaming and outright fabrication, which obscured the reality of what happened last week, which is that local and state law enforcement facilitated ICE's violent and unlawful detention of three Vermont residents.”
Sen. Nader Hashim, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Vermont Public after the hearing that he also disagreed with law enforcement's characterization of protesters as “violent agitators.”
“For the majority of the day, it was a peaceful gathering, and then as more law enforcement showed up and more tactics were being used, then more chaos ensued,” Hashim said.
Hashim said the committee plans to hold another hearing in the near future for people who attended the protest to share their experiences. A date for that hearing has not been set.
