A lot of actions happened on Saturday. This is a report back on one of them: folks supporting bad cops put on out in Burlington, Vermont and those that opposed them.

Barry Wyman

BURLINGTON-VT On Saturday, August 15th, anti-fascists organized to interrupt yet another Blue Lives-All Lives Matter event. The parade staged to “thank” cops in several local municipalities comes in the wake of a large Blue Lives Matter rally held in the state capital of Montpelier, so-called Vermont, of which comes as a racist pro-police response to the unrest ignited after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. 

Anti-facists planned to engage the parade both in-route and in front of the Burlington Police Department. During the organizing stage, an unknown comrade managed to infiltrate and cancel the parade organizer’s event on social media, creating initial confusion to the boot lickers as they were in the final hours of event planning. Due to the explicit racism caught on camera at their recent Blue Lives event in Montpelier, the boot licker event page was last seen encouraging “friendliness” in front of an anticipated media presence. 

Organizers followed the parade for a large part of its route before losing it. Organizers eventually saw the bootlickers arriving at the Burlington Police Department and were caught off guard by the chant of “No Justice! No Peace!” sounding from the pro-police parade. Members of a BIPOC activist organization hijacked the bootlicker parade at its head, leading the line of flag-laden trucks with a bull horn, and drowning them out with chants. Following the bootlicker parade was a line of cars full of community members and allies who organized to overwhelm the presence of Blue Lives Matter activists. 

The counter response was a vibrant success and a clear example of the effectiveness of a diversity of tactics. The pro-police rally was diminished in size and volume by the end, allowing more space for BIPOC voices and support for BLM and abolishing the police.