BURLINGTON: The recent shootings of three college students of Palestinian descent in Vermont’s largest city come as the small rural state, often ranked as one of the nation’s safest, is grappling with a spike in gun violence.
Two days after the students were shot and seriously wounded during their Thanksgiving break, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said it “was one of the most shocking and disturbing events in this city’s history.”
Statewide, Vermont has had 10 homicides and one suspicious death since October, including a double homicide in Burlington, Weinberger said. Burlington has seen 16 gunfire incidents so far this year, he said, adding that Vermont’s largest city is not alone.
“Many communities are experiencing an alarming rise in gun violence with recent shootings happening in Newport, Danville, St. Johnsbury, Brattleboro, Castleton, Leicester, Brookfield,” Weinberger said at the time.
Overall the country had a 6 percent decrease in national firearms homicides between 2021 and 2022, but Vermont saw a 185 percent jump, according to Vermont State Police Capt. Shawn Loan.
“So we went from seven firearms deaths in 2021 to 20 in 2022,” he said, adding that he did not yet have the current total for this year.
About half of the homicides in Vermont involved a firearm between 2017 and 2021, he said. Last year that rose to 86 percent, Loan said.
While authorities are investigating the shooting of the students as a possible hate crime, many of the homicides around Vermont this fall are likely drug-related and all are isolated from each other, Vermont State Police Director Col. Matthew Birmingham said.
“Vermont is experiencing many drug-related issues. Fentanyl is a huge problem for this state and the country, for that matter,” said Birmingham. “Our overdose death rate is climbing every year, which is a problem and something that should be on everybody’s radar.”
The shooting deaths this fall have taxed the short-staffed Vermont State Police, which has made arrests in two of them. The agency has a 15 percent vacancy rate — with 51 positions unfilled — and about a 25 percent functional vacancy rate meaning there are a certain number of people on family, military or other leave that are not available, Birmingham said.
“So that puts us in a challenging position. We’re doing more work — our calls for service go up every year — with less people,” he said.
Statewide, Vermont’s homicide rate last year was about 3.9 per 100,000, compared to Los Angeles at 3.1 and New York City at 2.3 per 100,000, Loan said. Burlington’s rate was 11.2 per 100,000, exceeding the rates in Philadelphia, Phoenix and Springfield, Mass., according to Loan.
“We don’t have enough ambulances to run, we don’t have enough homicide investigators because we’re not designed to have that high rate of violent crime. So it has a bigger effect,” he said.
In Burlington, the drug problem is spiraling out of control and it’s routine to see people injecting drugs downtown, in city hall park and in other places, said Andrew Vota, who has lived in the city for 25 years.
“It’s a citywide issue and people experience it in the downtown but they’re also experiencing it in their neighborhoods and it’s everywhere across the city and it’s scary,” he said of the drug activity.
Retail theft and other crime has increased and some businesses have left downtown.
Vota and Jane Knodell, a former chair of the Burlington City Council, drafted a letter this fall that now has been signed by about 1,500 residents in the city of about 45,000, that outlines concerns and makes recommendations.
“The increasing levels of violence, burglary, retail, automobile, and bike theft, unlawful public drug and alcohol consumption, drug dealing, graffiti, and other illegal activity are unacceptable,” the letter states.
The crimes come as the city’s police department tries to rebuild its staffing levels. In 2020, the City Council passed a resolution directing the department to reduce its maximum number of officers through attrition from 105 to 74, amid calls in Burlington and nationwide for racial justice and to defund police.
More than a year later, the City Council authorized the department to increase its staffing level to an effective number of 87, but then-Acting Police Chief Jon Murad said at the time that it would take years to rebuild the department. As of Nov. 15, Burlington had 69 sworn officers.
“I think the fundamental problem is the reduction in the police force because that’s kind of the back bone. Because they are a deterrent,” said Knodell, who did not support the cap.
The city has added security guards to the Church Street Marketplace, a pedestrian outdoor mall downtown, to help shoppers feel safe during the holiday season. Other businesses are planning to fill some of the vacancies, Weinberger said. The city also planned to hold a community public safety forum Thursday and has another one planned next week to discuss drug trafficking, gun crime, substance use and property crime.
After the shooting of the Palestinian students, suspect Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested the next day at his Burlington apartment. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder and is currently being held without bail. The shooting came as threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities have increased across the US since the the Israel-Hamas war erupted in early October.
Meanwhile, Vermont State Police are making progress on the investigations into other shooting deaths around the state this fall, Birmingham said, including that of a 77-year-old retired college dean who was shot while walking on a recreational trail in the small town of Castleton in October.
Castleton residents are still rattled. They don’t think police are doing enough and don’t feel safe walking on the trail, said Mark Brown, a business owner in town, who has organized a daily group walk Monday through Friday on the trail. A fundraising effort led by Brown has raised more than $25,000 for a reward leading to an arrest.
Some investigations will take longer than others, Birmingham said last month. “But I am confident that we are going to make progress on all of them that will end in resolutions for victims,” he said.
Shooting of Palestinian college students came amid spike in gun violence in Vermont
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Shooting of Palestinian college students came amid spike in gun violence in Vermont
- After the shooting of the Palestinian students, suspect Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested the next day at his Burlington apartment.
- Overall the country had a 6 percent decrease in national firearms homicides between 2021 and 2022
15 EU states demand plan to send asylum seekers to third countries
The demand, sent in a letter to the European Commission that AFP received on Thursday, comes less than a month before European Parliament elections, in which far-right anti-immigration parties are forecast to make gains.
The letter asks the European Union’s executive arm to “propose new ways and solutions to prevent irregular migration to Europe.”
The group includes Italy and Greece, which receive a substantial number of the people making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to reach the EU — many seeking to escape poverty, war or persecution, according to the International Organization for Migration.
They want the EU to toughen up its recently adopted asylum pact, which introduces tighter controls on those seeking to enter the 27-nation bloc.
That reform includes speedier vetting of people arriving without documents, new border detention centers and faster deportation for rejected asylum applicants.
The 15 proposed in their letter the introduction of “mechanisms... aimed at detecting, intercepting — or in cases of distress, rescuing — migrants on the high seas and bringing them to a predetermined place of safety in a partner country outside the EU, where durable solutions for those migrants could be found.”
They said it should be easier to send asylum seekers to third countries while their requests for protection are assessed.
They cited the example of a controversial deal that Italy has struck with non-EU Albania, under which Rome can send thousands of asylum seekers plucked from Italian waters to holding camps in the Balkan country until their cases are processed.
The concept in EU asylum law of what constitutes “safe third countries” should be reassessed, they continued.
EU law stipulates that people arriving in the bloc without documents can be sent to a third country, where they could have requested asylum — so long as that country is deemed safe and the applicant has a genuine link with it.
That would exclude schemes like the divisive law passed by the UK, which has now left the EU, enabling London to refuse all irregular arrivals the right to request asylum and send them to Rwanda.
Rights groups accuse the African country — ruled with an iron fist by President Paul Kagame since the end of the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people — of cracking down on free speech and political opposition.
The 15 nations said they wanted the EU to make deals with third countries along the main migration routes, citing the example of the arrangement it made with Turkiye in 2016 to take in Syrian refugees from the war in their home country.
The letter was signed by Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania.
It was not signed by Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has resisted EU plans to share out responsibility across the bloc for hosting asylum seekers, or to contribute to the costs of that plan.
German police raid properties as pro-Palestinian group banned
- Palestine Solidarity Duisburg had repeatedly propagated its anti-Israeli and antisemitic worldview, at meetings and on social media channels goverment claimed
BERLIN: German authorities banned a pro-Palestinian group on Thursday for its alleged support of Hamas and police raided properties to confiscate devices and documents, the interior minister of North-Rhine Westphalia said.
Herbert Reul said the group, Palestine Solidarity Duisburg, had repeatedly propagated “its anti-Israeli and antisemitic worldview, at meetings and on social media channels.”
Some 50 police officers searched the properties in the northwestern state, confiscating laptops, cash, cell phones and documents, he said in a statement.
Palestine Solidarity Duisburg was not immediately available for comment.
The group had been known to the authorities since May 2023, the minister said. It organized a rally in front of German arms maker Rheinmetall’s headquarters, protesting the delivery of weapons to Israel, which is fighting Hamas in Gaza.
The German government last year imposed a complete ban on the activities of Palestinian militant group Hamas, already a designated terrorist organization in the country.
North-Rhine Westphalia’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution recommended the ban on Palestine Solidarity Duisburg, Reul said.
Afghan asylum-seeker in UK still wearing ankle tag months after it was deemed unlawful
- Man identified as MM had GPS anklet affixed as part of Home Office pilot scheme
- MM: ‘People in my community do not understand why I have been tagged. They think I am a dangerous criminal’
LONDON: An Afghan asylum-seeker in the UK has been left wearing an ankle tag months after the pilot scheme he was part of was ended for being unlawful.
The man, identified as MM, revealed he has been made to wear the tag monitoring his location for 20 months and has been given no explanation why, which has left him in a state of “constant stress.”
The GPS tag, part of a Home Office pilot scheme to monitor the locations of 600 migrants, was put on in 2022 after MM spent 60 days in a detention center, having arrived in the UK via a small boat across the English Channel.
The Home Office insisted the tags of all the scheme’s participants were removed when it ended in December after the UK Information Commissioner John Edwards declared it breached data protection law and was “highly intrusive.”
MM, though, was left with his still attached and was provided no explanation from the Home Office as to why.
“Being fitted with this tag has been a constant stress for more than a year and a half. I struggled with sleep because I had to keep the tag charged at all times, including at night, but it would often beep and wake me up,” he said.
“I have had security guards following me like I’m a thief when I go shopping. People in my community do not understand why I have been tagged. They think I am a dangerous criminal. There is physical pain too — it caused a wound that keeps opening up and bleeding.
“It has really affected all parts of my life.”
He continued: “If the law is applied equally, I do not understand why I was fitted with a tag but others were not. Nobody else in the hotel I stayed in had a tag.
“I don’t understand why this injustice has happened. I do not understand why the Home Office needed to monitor everywhere I went and everything I was doing. This was not explained to me at all.”
Niamh Grahame, a solicitor at the Public Law Project, which represented MM, said: “Our client has been subject to a harmful and unnecessary experiment. There is mounting evidence of the harm caused by GPS tagging and incredibly limited evidence of asylum-seekers absconding in significant numbers.
“GPS tagging is an inhumane and disproportionately invasive bail condition. Instead of expanding its use, the Home Office should stop this practice altogether.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “All individuals who were subject to electronic monitoring as part of the Expansion Pilot, and remained in contact with us, had their tags removed before the pilot ended on Dec. 14, 2023.”
Dance videos of Modi, rival turn up AI heat in India election
- Videos created using AI underscore how its use and abuse is increasing and creating worries for regulators
- WEF says risk to India from misinformation higher than risk from infectious diseases, illicit economic activity
NEW DELHI: An AI video shows an ecstatic Narendra Modi sporting a trendy jacket and trousers, grooving on a stage to a Bollywood song as the crowd cheers. The Indian prime minister reshared the video on X, saying “such creativity in peak poll season is truly a delight.”
Another video, with the same stage setting, shows Modi’s rival Mamata Banerjee dancing in a saree-like outfit, but the background score is parts of her speech criticizing those who quit her party to join Modi’s. State police have launched an investigation saying the video can “affect law and order.”
The different reactions to videos created using artificial intelligence (AI) tools underscore how the use and abuse of the technology is increasing and creating worries for regulators and security officials as the world’s most populous nation holds a mammoth general election.
Easy to make AI videos, which contain near-perfect shadow and hand movements, can at times mislead even digitally-literate people. But risks are higher in a country where many of the 1.4 billion people are tech challenged and where manipulated content can easily stir sectarian tensions, especially at election time.
According to a World Economic Forum survey published in January, the risk to India from misinformation is seen higher than the risk from infectious diseases or illicit economic activity in the next two years.
“India is already at a great risk of misinformation — with AI in picture, it can spread at the speed of 100X,” said New Delhi-based consultant Sagar Vishnoi, who is advising some political parties on AI use in India’s election.
“Elderly people, often not a tech savvy group, increasingly fall for fake narratives aided by AI videos. This could have serious consequences like triggering hatred against a community, caste or religion.”
The 2024 national election – being held over six weeks and ending on June 1 – is the first in which AI is being deployed. Initial examples were innocent, restricted to some politicians using the technology to create videos and audio to personalize their campaigns.
But major cases of misuse hit the headlines in April including deepfakes of Bollywood actors criticizing Modi and fake clips involving two of Modi’s top aides that led to the arrest of nine people.
DIFFICULT TO COUNTER
India’s Election Commission last week warned political parties against AI use to spread misinformation and shared seven provisions of information technology and other laws that attract jail terms of up to three years for offenses including forgery, promoting rumors and enmity.
A senior national security official in New Delhi said authorities are concerned about the possibility of fake news leading to unrest. The easy availability of AI tools makes it possible to manufacture such fake news, especially during elections, and it’s difficult to counter, the official said.
“We don’t have an (adequate monitoring) capacity...the ever evolving AI environment is difficult to keep track of,” said the official.
A senior election official said: “We aren’t able to fully monitor social media, forget about controlling content.”
They declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to media.
AI and deepfakes are being increasingly used in elections elsewhere in the world, including in US, Pakistan and Indonesia. The latest spread of the videos in India shows the challenges faced by authorities.
For years, an Indian IT ministry panel has been in place to order blocking of content that it feels can harm public order, at its own discretion or on receiving complaints. During this election, the poll watchdog and police across the nation have deployed hundreds of officials to detect and seek removal of problematic content.
While Modi’s reaction to his AI dancing video — “I also enjoyed seeing myself dance” — was light hearted, the Kolkata city police in West Bengal state launched an investigation against X user, SoldierSaffron7, for sharing the Banerjee video.
Kolkata cybercrime officer, Dulal Saha Roy, shared a typed notice on X asking the user to delete the video or “be liable for strict penal action.”
“I am not deleting that, no matter what happens,” the user told Reuters via X direct messaging, declining to share their number or real name as they feared police action. “They can’t trace (me).”
Election officers told Reuters authorities can only tell social media platforms to remove content and are left scrambling if the platforms say the posts don’t violate their internal policies.
VIGGLE VIDEOS
The Modi and Banerjee dancing videos, with 30 million and 1.1 million views respectively on X, were created using a free website, Viggle. The site allows a photograph and a few basic prompts that are detailed in a tutorial to generate videos within minutes that show the person in the photograph dancing or making other real-life moves.
Viggle co-founder Hang Chu and Banerjee’s office did not respond to Reuters queries.
Other than the two dancing AI videos, one other 25-second Viggle video spreading online shows Banerjee appear in front of a burning hospital and blowing it up using a remote. It’s an AI altered clip of a scene from the 2008 movie, The Dark Knight, that shows Batman’s foe, Joker, wreaking havoc.
The video post has 420,000 views.
The West Bengal police believes it violates Indian IT laws, but X has not taken any action as it “strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users,” according to an email notice sent by X to the user, which Reuters reviewed.
“They can’t do anything to me. I didn’t take that (notice) seriously,” the user told Reuters via X direct messaging.
UK tightens scrutiny of all Indian spice imports amid contamination allegations
- Hong Kong last month suspended sales of three spice blends produced by MDH and one by Everest
- Singapore ordered a recall of Everest mix, New Zealand, US India, Australia also looking into issues
HYDERABAD: Britain’s food watchdog has applied extra control measures on all spice imports from India, it said on Wednesday, becoming the first to ramp up scrutiny of all Indian spices after contamination allegations against two brands sparked concerns among global food regulators.
Hong Kong last month suspended sales of three spice blends produced by MDH and one by Everest, saying they contained high levels of a cancer-causing pesticide ethylene oxide.
Singapore also ordered a recall of the Everest mix, and New Zealand, the United States, India and Australia have since said they are looking into issues related to the two brands.
MDH and Everest — two of India’s most popular brands — have said their products are safe for consumption.
In the most stringent crackdown so far impacting all Indian spices, the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) said that in light of the concerns it has “applied extra control measures for pesticide residues in spices from India which includes ethylene oxide.”
The agency did not elaborate on the exact steps it is taking.
“The use of ethylene oxide is not allowed here and maximum residue levels are in place for herbs and spices,” James Cooper, Deputy Director of Food Policy at the FSA, said in a statement to Reuters.
“If there is any unsafe food or food on the market, the FSA will take rapid action to ensure consumers are protected.”
India’s Spices Board, which regulates exports, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
India is the biggest exporter, consumer and producer of spices in the world.
In 2022 Britain imported $128 million worth of spices, with India accounting for almost $23 million, data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity website shows.
MDH and Everest export their products to many regions including the US, Europe, South East Asia, Middle East and Australia.
