BURLINGTON — Candles and bouquets of flowers decorated the steps of Burlington City Hall Monday night, as a crowd of more than 50 gathered in a vigil for Kevin Peterson Jr., a 21-year-old Black man who was killed by police last week in Washington state.
It was a vigil not only for Peterson, leaders said, but for countless other victims of police brutality, and for the thousands of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who have died from the coronavirus at disproportionate rates, in Vermont and nationwide.
“The reason we’ve been in the streets — protesting, fists in the air, making noise — is because we are deeply saddened,” said Jess Laporte, a local anti-racist organizer, in her opening remarks. The vigil, she said, was meant to take time “for sadness, and for solace.”
“Let’s not just focus on one name, but let the gravity of the many sit with us,” she said.
Laporte and other speakers at the vigil emerged as leaders in the protests for racial justice that swept Burlington and the country this summer. Though the protesters’ weeks-long encampment in Battery Park ended last month, the “Battery Park Movement,” organizers say, is continuing.
At the vigil, attendees listened, huddled in the cold at the base of the steps, and lit candles. Rajnii Eddins, a local poet and author, read out a poem to the crowd. Mayor Miro Weinberger made an appearance, leaving before the vigil ended.
Speakers stressed the importance of their movement, regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election.
“It does not matter, for us and our bodies, who wins this presidential administration,” said activist Ashley Laporte. “We will have to survive, and fight for our survival, regardless.”
As Jadah Bearden, an organizer and student activist, put it: “You can’t vote in the revolution.”
Activists also called for the city of Burlington to take greater urgency in its work on police reforms. Though the city in June voted to reduce its officer count by attrition and has promised a series of other public safety reforms, two of the three police officers that protesters demanded leave the Burlington Police Department this summer due to their use of violent force still remain on the force.
The city has cited the police union contract and a lack of jurisdiction over police discipline, as reasons why it cannot remove the officers from the force.
The near-total discretion the Burlington Police chief has over police discipline has been a focal point of protesters, who say that an outside body, such as the city’s Police Commission, should have authority over the police. The city’s Charter Change Committee is currently considering several proposals for overhauling police oversight in the city.
On Monday, Ashley Laporte urged the city to put the changes on the March ballot.
“We’re putting process in front of the change that needs to happen,” Laporte said.
It would be “unconscionable,” she said, if the police discipline does not come to a vote in March. “We don’t have many more years. We can’t wait past March.”
Laporte turned to the crowd. “There are more ways to get involved than you think, and they’re not labelled Black Lives Matter, they’re not labeled BIPOC,” she said.
“It’s just the work,” she said. And part of that, she continued, is mourning those who are lost.
