Over the last year, the Rake Vermont has scoured newspaper archives to catalogue every instance in which Vermont police used their position of power to lie to the public, steal from neighbors, assault and rape both strangers and family alike, and discriminate and harass marginalized residents because of their identity. Being a bigoted fascist is not a bug of policing, a profession with its founding roots in slave catching: it is its core purpose. While data is sparse, some studies suggest that upwards of half of all police officers abuse their spouses and children. Vermont State Troopers, Vermont County Sheriffs, and your local Vermont Police Department are not an exception. There is no Vermont exceptionalism when it comes to police, as law enforcement officers in Vermont frequently terrorize and abuse the people they are paid handsomely to “protect.”
We’ve written many pieces that highlight, in particular, the Burlington Police Department’s tactics when threatened by the power of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. This campaign, boosted by a false “defunding” narrative led by former interim chief and current head of the Vermont Department of Corrections Jon Murad, an ex-NYPD officer well versed in pro-police abuse propaganda, held the city of Burlington hostage for several years by engaging in work slowdowns, actively not showing up to the incidents they are paid to be at, manipulating schedules to make downtown Burlington feel “less safe,” and demanding, in some cases, the doubling of their pay while the rest of us can barely cover our rent or mortgages.
Through these acts of subterfuge, the Burlington Police won major concessions with the help of the Democratic Party’s pro-police fascist wing. Progressive Party Mayor Emma Mulvaney’s mayoral campaign showed little daylight between her and reactionary, right-leaning Democrat Joan Shannon, as they both agreed to increase police funding and to disempower organizing efforts to reform the department (which have all failed every time).
This month’s ICE raid in South Burlington, buttressed by violent support from the Vermont State Police, South Burlington Police Department, Burlington Police Department, DMV Police, and other police departments, painfully shows that Vermont police officers serve fascists in Washington and at home–not the locals who pay their exorbitant salaries and pensions through increasingly high taxes. These officers do not care about your safety or the safety of your community. Many don’t even live in the towns they serve. What matters to them is their large paychecks, overtime scams, and easy jobs where they get to harass marginalized residents and poor people. They serve themselves and their fellow police officers, which they often call the Thin Blue Line, where as long as you go by the book (and often you don’t have to!), you can assault anyone who gets in your way.
A perfect case in point is Burlington Police Officers’ Association President Joe Corrow, an officer who attacked a Black man, Mabior Jok, in 2018, and faced no serious repercussions for it. Burlington paid out $215,000 to settle a lawsuit for excessive force in 2024. During that time, Corrow’s salary went from $66,000 to $107,000, a 60% increase. In the same time frame, the US real median household income remained flat. While cops made bank during the pandemic, the rest of us continue to struggle.
Over the next few weeks, we will be releasing four separate articles that demonstrate how often Vermont police, whose unions overwhelmingly support the Trump administration’s fascist policies targeting women, trans people, immigrants, and people of color, are the biggest threats to our community safety. These articles will highlight how police violence, abuse, deception, and criminal behavior are not outliers caused by a “few bad apples,” but have been the case since the invention of police and have a documented history in Vermont going back at least 100 years.
The four timelines of police abuse and misconduct will sometimes overlap, and this is because often when a cop is caught stealing or sexually assaulting a partner, they will also lie about it, even under oath. It is also important to remember that these are only the cops who were so violent, abusive, and brazen that their crimes were picked up by local news organizations. Our research also suggests that over time, as more people have recognized that police terrorize the communities they work in, local newspapers have mirrored this trend by writing more often about police misconduct. Needless to say, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of instances of Vermont police abuse that have not and will never see the light of day. What we have uncovered is just a mere fraction of police abuse, violence, and misconduct.
Data shows that for every “serious felony” reported to police, at least one crime that also occurred is not reported. Of those crimes reported, only 1 in 5 result in the police finding someone to pin the blame on. There is no doubt that this number is much, much worse when it comes to police arresting their own. They protect and serve the Thin Blue Line.
The four articles to be published will be: Vermont Cops Lie, Vermont Cops are Sexually and Physically Violent, Vermont Cops Steal and Break the Law, and Vermont Cops are Racist, White Supremacists.
Photo at top: Burlington Police officers Joe Corrow and Julian Gonzalez among a group of local and state police and ICE officers at the Dorset Street ICE raid on March 11, 2026.
