The head of the Vermont State Police has pulled out of a counter-terrorism seminar in Israel at the urging of several organizations in the state who mounted a “Skip the Trip” campaign expressing concern that the training leads to the militarization of law enforcement.
“I’m really surprised that he turned around and changed his mind, I really am,” Kathy Shapiro, of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, said Thursday afternoon. “I do not want to have our police training in those kind of tactics so I got very involved.”
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, as well as other groups, including Migrant Justice, the Peace & Justice Center, and the National Lawyers Guild of Vermont, sent a petition to Col. Matthew Birmingham, state police director, asking him to cancel his participation in the seminar.
This week, according to a press release sent out Thursday by the group members, they heard back from Birmingham saying he would no longer take part in the seminar.
Birmingham had been set to attend the weeklong training in Israel early next month.
State Police spokesperson Adam Silverman said in a statement that Birmingham accepted the invitation from the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights organization that advocates for Israel, to take part in the seminar along with about 50 fellow law enforcement leaders from across the United States.
The event provided “an opportunity to interact with Israeli and Palestinian law-enforcement agencies, observe the security strategies and systems Israel uses to prevent terror attacks, and discuss the challenges the parties face in the region,” the statement said.
It would have been Birmingham’s first time taking part in the seminar, with expenses covered by the ADL, according to state police. A previous state police director, Col. Thomas J. L’Esperance, attended the seminar in the past.
“Following his acceptance of the invitation, Col. Birmingham heard concerns from fellow Vermonters about attending the seminar,” Silverman’s statement said.
“The Colonel and Commissioner of Public Safety Thomas D. Anderson weighed the pros and cons of the trip,” it added, “and after discussing the options agreed that it would be in the best interests of the Vermont State Police for Col. Birmingham to withdraw his participation.”
Neither Anderson or Birmingham could immediately be reached Thursday afternoon for comment.
Shapiro said that when she heard a couple weeks ago that Birmingham was planning to take part in the event, she called his office and asked to meet with him in person about it.
A meeting was set, but shortly after Shapiro said she was contacted by his office saying that he was rethinking the trip and wanted more time to consult with others before meeting. And on Monday, she said, she received an email from Birmingham announcing he was canceling the trip.
“After further deliberation and consultation, I have decided that the Vermont State Police will not be participating in this seminar,” Birmingham wrote in an email to Shapiro. “I want to thank you for your thoughts and concerns.”
Robert Trestan, ADL New England regional director, disputed the characterization that the seminar consists of “tactical military-style training” with the Israeli military.
“The assertion that American Jewish institutions are responsible for rising levels of police brutality and racism against people of color in the U.S. because of this program is patently false,” Trestan said in a statement, “and neither helpful in dealing with the racial challenges facing this country nor in solving the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Among those signing onto to the petition sent to Birmingham was Sylvia Knight of the Jubilee Justice Committee of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington.
“Our state police need to root out institutional racism in their operations, to cease perceiving people of color as threats, to uphold the dignity of all persons, and to learn how to de-escalate conflict,” she said in the press release issued Thursday by the organization opposed to the trip.
“These are skills and attitudes they can learn here in the states,” she added. “Let the decision to not learn from Israeli militarization be a catalyst for incorporating a new paradigm of non-violence and mitigation of institutional racism in Vermont according to our own laws.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: State police leader backs out of training in Israel after blowback.