https://old.reddit.com/r/burlington/comments/waohiq/the_reason_ted_kenney_declined_the_aclu_wjfi/
Tldr Sarah George is the incumbent prosecutor, Ted Kenny is the challenger. Ted won't participate in a debate because one of the debate sponsors is the Women's Justice and Freedom Initiative, which wants to abolish all prisons, and Sarah George is on the board of that organization.
" The forum was to be sponsored by three groups: (1) The ACLU, (2) the Vermont Law School Center for Justice Reform, and the (3) Women’s Justice and Freedom Initiative (WJFI).
Although I was concerned with the ACLU’s neutrality, my main concern was with the WJFI.
The WJFI is a non-profit organization dedicated to abolishing all prisons. While I do not agree with this organization’s goal – to abolish all prisons – I am sure that its members are well-intentioned, good people working for what they believe.
My issue was – and is – that my opponent – the incumbent State’s Attorney – is actually on the WJFI’s Board of Directors. (The website lists her as one of only two directors; I have since learned she is one of six.)
Worse, my opponent promised on Twitter to give portions of campaign donations to the WJFI just a few weeks before the WJFI offered to conduct this candidate forum. "
" Lastly, please note that the Vermont Law School program that was sponsoring this forum is no longer doing so. It’s Director told me directly that it was because of this conflict of interest. "
Yikes.
What does Ted have against the ACLU?
"the ACLU has (1) hosted Ms. George's official policies on its own website, (2) invited her to write material for yourorganization while not extending the same invitation to me, and (3) paid for an advertisement in Seven Days that was soclearly an advertisement for the incumbent that she reposted it in support of her candidacy. This material also claimed thatthose opposing reform are in favor of "mass incarceration."Indeed, Ms. George had specifically requested via Twitter that your organization create this event.Reasonable political discourse cannot occur where one of the forum's hosts is -- literally -- financed and managed by one ofthe two candidates and the other has already displayed its preference for that same candidate. "
"please note that I am often -- but not always -- in agreement with the positions that the ACLU takes on public issues. I have stood next to clients who were racially profiled, and I have stood next to Black defendants in federal court who were being victimized by racist federal mandatory minimum statutes and sentencing guidelines. I remain outraged by these events, even though they occurred years ago.
I also believe that we are all kept safe by ensuring that our government of limited powers remains within the confines of its power. But, just as I believe that a judge must be genuinely impartial, I believe the facilitators of campaign forums must be neutral. For the points made above, I do not believe this proposed forum offers this opportunity.
More Sarah George sneed:
https://old.reddit.com/r/burlington/comments/wan88p/whats_the_deal_with_sarah_george/
She also used her political power to get rowboats banned from a lake her family owns property on so she could water ski there. And she got sued for discriminating against a black employee which is ironic considering her whole brand is racial justice.
#GetCondescending with Sarah George.
But also
Racial discrimination:https://vtdigger.org/2020/07/05/panel-sarah-george-discriminated-against-black-employee/
Pushing rowers off of a public pond so she has more time to waterski:https://vtdigger.org/2017/07/16/pond-rule-change-could-favor-lawyers-power-boat-over-rowers/
Letting a killer out against the will of the victimized family:https://www.vtcng.com/shelburnenews/news/police_blotter/convicted-killer-can-go-free-after-new-deal-by-prosecutor/article_899a8c16-8511-11ec-87f4-8f93ffebdb11.html
during her tenure as SA, she's decided not to prosecute mid-level offenders, despite many of them being arrested multiple times (I'm not talking about 3 or times, I talking 20+ times). She's opposed pre-trial confinement for high risk offenders. She's not requested bail for repeat offenders, making it more challenging to prosecute offences. While I think there should be a larger focus on treatment and rehabilitation, some people need to be incarcerated as they are a danger to themselves and others - Sarah George lets people walk that should be in jail
You did get that wrong. Sarah George has gone on the record SEVERAL times saying that she “wants to blow the whole criminal justice system up”, and has taken numerous steps to do so without ANY plan for how she’ll rebuild it, or offer justice to the victims who’ve been maligned as the result of her policies. One of the steps she took in doing so was refusing to prosecute offenses deemed unworthy of prosecution like shoplifting, regardless of the number of priors the person has. In some cases, she also wouldn’t charge for violent offenses if the perpetrator in question might have a mental health issue. We had an instance last year where a woman tried to break into our building after hours. After she refused to leave, we called the cops; when they showed up, she pulled a knife, threatened me, threatened them, and slashed one of the cop cars tires. Rather than arrest her, they created a perimeter and waited. What did the proceed to do? Take a dump in the parking lot, and throw the feces at the officers and passers by. This continued for a few hours, before she demanded to be taken elsewhere. Having no other recourse, the police obliged. In speaking with chief Burke, officers had had to respond to incidents involving the same individual over 90 times that year, and hadn’t been able to prosecute for any of them. Many of those calls were violent; more than one resulted in her stabbing someone. She was never arrested; she was never held; she never saw the inside of a courtroom. Not once over 90 cases.
This is only one example highlighting the failure of her policies. Another was from the shooting that happened a few weeks ago, where a man was shot in the head in broad daylight in the old north end. The kid who shot him had been pulled over two nights before the shooting. During the stop, they discovered that he had on his person a stolen handgun, was a suspected gang member, and had a criminal record replete with history of violent offenses. Due to Sarah George’s policies, they had no choice but to let him go. Two nights later, the same kid and the same gun killed an unarmed man in the street in broad daylight.
There are countless other examples of her incompetence. Any idiot can blow something up. It takes conviction, courage, compromise and competence to rebuild what will replace it. Sarah has failed to demonstrate any of these qualities. She’s more than happy to compromise public safety in order to both pursue her political agenda, and build her self-righteous brand.
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White Vermont liberals are out of touch. In other news, water is wet. Go to any major city and ask black residents what they think about letting the repeat offenders victimizing them go free.
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I am reminded of an SNL bit - Bernie Sanders: "when I was ran for Mayor of Burlington I got 100% of the black vote. His name was Marcus."
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Hadn't seen that
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