ACLU and Burlington police spar over free speech

An ongoing conversation about public safety, bail and civil liberties has prompted Burlington police to accuse the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont of stifling free speech, a charge the organization adamantly rejected.

Last Wednesday, David Clements, the president of the Burlington Police Officers' Association wrote a public letter to the ACLU of Vermont's executive director, James Duff Lyall, criticizing staff attorney Jay Diaz's statement that was published in Seven Days.

Diaz is quoted as saying "if law enforcement wants to get into the business of criticizing judges, I think that the criminal justice system has a bigger problem, because that's not a police officer's job," Clements wrote.

Clements wrote Diaz had attacked the First Amendment rights of public employees and that his statement "tends to chill the Union's right to participate meaningfully in the public debates that are critical to a democratic society."

Read more: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2017/10/20/aclu-and-burlington-police-spar-over-free-speech/780463001/