Nearly 48 hours into their protest, activists continued their call Thursday for change at the Burlington Police Department, including the firing of three officers for “patterns of violence” on the job.
On Tuesday, more than 300 Vermonters took to the streets as part of an all-night protest after police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in front of three of his children as he tried to get into his car in Kenosha, Wis. Blake is now paralyzed.
Since the shooting on Sunday, Black Lives Matter protests have erupted in cities nationwide.
In Burlington, some of Tuesday night’s 300-plus protesters have been at Battery Park ever since, sleeping in an encampment outside the Burlington Police Department.
On Thursday, as it began to rain, about 30 remaining protesters — who had set up seven tents, some for sleeping, and others for food and supplies — briefly left their posts on North Avenue to grab rain jackets and ponchos before returning to the street, where they held cardboard signs calling for the firing of Burlington officers Jason Bellavance, Cory Campbell and Joseph Corrow.
Signs displayed messages from the simple — “Black Lives Matter” and “No More Excuses” — to the more complex, such as “We live in a world where trained cops can panic and act on impulse. But untrained civilians must remain calm with a gun in their face.”
The protesters declined to speak to reporters.
“It’s really just a matter of seeing that constant disrespect for Black voices amongst media throughout history and it’s happening now continuously in Burlington as well,” said Zanevia Wilcox, an organizer of the event. “There’s lives at stake and I think media sometimes forgets that.”
On the Facebook page for The Black Perspective, the group that organized the protest, activists spelled out their demands: for Bellavance, Campbell and Corrow to be “terminated immediately and not rehired in Chittenden County.”
“They have repeatedly shown patterns of violence without provocation or just cause, and are a threat to the safety of the community,” reads an email template that organizers are urging residents to use to put pressure on local leaders.
Douglas Kilburn died after an altercation where he and Campbell exchanged punches. Campbell was reprimanded for swearing but not excessive use of force. Bellevance and Corrow also faced allegations of using excessive force in another case.
Some protesters have said they don’t plan to leave the park until the three officers are fired.
Acting Police Chief Jon Murad told protesters Wednesday that the issues involving the three officers had been resolved and there are no plans to “rehash them.”
Murad had emerged from the building to talk to protesters Wednesday afternoon when their calls for action intensified after they watched a Black man be arrested with what protesters called “excessive force” on College Street.
Officers handcuffed Ibrahim Garelnabi, 26, after what police described as a “road rage” incident, in which Garelnabi allegedly followed another driver for 15 minutes. Murad denied that excessive force was used in the arrest.
