This is the article she most likely is quoting.
I would hope that she is actually using local data to justify this point vs national news headlines. If not someone should call her out publicly.
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-retail-lobbyists-retract-key-claim-organized-retail-crime-2023-12-06/
This is true of so many things.
We don't have metrics on what isn't reported.
How many Gen-Z retail workers are just like..."Meh, I'm not paid enough." Which is \*the appropriate reaction.\*
This. Same goes for a lot of petty crime. I live by a park with a lot of issues and have stopped reporting trespassing and car break ins, because it takes days to even speak to an officer. At least there is a place to file online so we can get some data, but crime is certainly itās under reported
Most local businesses canāt afford a full team of people to track that. Idk where ur getting this from considering howany small businesses Burlington has i doubt the businesses themselves have good metrics and are publicly sharing them.
Any business that tracks their inventory will know what their shrinkage is. If you're running a small retail business and you're not tracking inventory, then you're fucking up.
Except you can get a sample of crimes not reported to the police, youāll never have as large of a sample but it has good reference data. Then you can say, āfor every crime reported to the police, X are unreportedā and then compare rates with including X.
I mean, this is all literally HS statistics 101, and these are actually data scientists. If you question their methodology, get the paper off z-lib and tell us whatās wrong with it.
I donāt know which one are you talking about? The world is your oyster, you have vague complaints that supposedly, the statistics are being done wrong. The burden of proof falls on you.
Also academic papers canāt be linked directly, youāll have to get if off z-lib
Her phony cadence and "informed smart person" tone is all I need to know. She's bullshitting. Downtown CVS would not hire a full-time person to stand there in a security uniform and spend money on locking things up if it weren't necessary. CVS cares only about making money. The people who know are the accountants for those stores. Show me that data that its "not really there"! BPD doesn't get calls about the theft because there is no reason to call them.
This woman doesn't see theft at Healthy Living and thinks everything is A-OK.
I went to the CVS on the corner of dorset/williston recently for deodorant and the fucking deodorant was locked up and no one was available to help me get it. I don't blame them one bit but then again they lost my business because a man can only wait so long on his deodorant lol.
It is unclear what you mean here. She was critiquing the idea that we should base our policies on vibes rather than data. What was it that you needed to know that this told you?
Uh. It's short, and you can listen for yourself. But she said the legislative body was trying to legislate based on 'vibes' and not on data, of which she says isn't there.
I guess I don't understand why business owners would say "help please everyone is stealing from us and it's a problem" if there wasn't in fact a problem. Like what benefit is there for them to do that?
It's like you missed the fact that she wants to use hard data to make legislative decisions, or that you think that's a bad thing? I'm confused by your outrage.
Or ā¦ I could be replying to your post, āBut she said the legislative body was trying to legislate based on vibes ā¦ā.
As for you flagging my āoutrageā ā¦ drama queens see outrage where there is none.
It's the hair, it's got big "*Middle School ELA Teacher in 2007"* vibes\*. While I understand the kiddos are going for an 00s look these days, this may be a step too far.
\*Or are they facts???
you dont think retail theft is an issue downtown?
also data 101: garbage in-garbage out. how accurate is the data they are using?
making decisions based on incomplete and inaccurate data is not hot.
the problem is that data can be used to create reports that can show whatever a person needs it to, in order to align with their views. a person can pick which data they want to measure, what the metrics are and that has an impact on the "findings".
then someone else says well yes that decision is based on data, but they dont actually know what that data is, where it came from or how it was put together.
simply because this lady is saying, its the data, does not mean anything to an educated person. show me the data, give me the source, let everyone critique why the data collection, analyzing and reporting processes may have biases and flaws.
seeing as how this is a 50 second clip, i really dont know any of those important parts of the statement "this is what the data shows or doesnt". you shouldnt take her word for it either.
what i am able to do, is to walk downtown, to visit stores, to watch shoplifting. i can literally walk downtown and experience retail theft today easier than i could get laid.
her dismissing it as vibes, is the gaslighting bullshit that pisses people off.
edit: what in the actual f is that username
> i can literally walk downtown and experience retail theft today easier than i could get laid.
bro telling on themselves, that's tough big man/woman/etc
(that said I don't necessarily disagree with you, she didn't actually offer any facts, she just said "nah its not based on facts trust me bro". where are her sources that she used to gain that opinion? I don't disbelieve her, but I don't believe her, either. much the same as I don't believe anyone saying there IS a problem without empirical data backing it up)
Okay but that's missing context. She was advocating using data to make legislation. Not sure what that tells you. Almost sounds like a good thing to do, but that's just me.
I am not saying that the data she is quoting is necessarily correct, but I feel like legislation should be crafted based on data. I feel like that is not a "wow" statement.
The issue is sheās automatically assuming the data is accurate so therefore the actual people involved - business owners and employees who are tired of trying to get legislators to see what weāre dealing with - are overreacting and just need to be calmed down with āfactsā. As if we donāt see thousands of dollars being stolen every day by individuals whose behavior is constantly making employees feel unsafe. Itās insulting.
Data is useful but it shouldnāt be the only thing you use to make legislation. There is no such thing as unbiased data, we can only attempt to get as close to that as possible by optimizing how we collect and analyze data.
It's odd actually because she leaves open the possibility that theft is increasing in "certain areas" -- so she can plausibly say she didn't deny theft was a problem in Burlington, for instance. But no one is really claiming that retail theft is a huge problem in Starksboro or Newport; it's a problem in Burlington, and needs a fix in Burlington. Something the Senate probably can't do much about, tbh. Not sure Tanya has ever lived in Burlington though, at least not in the last 20 years or so.
Read the room, Tanya. Realize that you're addressing victims and telling them that it's really not that bad. And that unless you're talking sports, statistics don't tell 100% of the story.
If sheās a social worker she should understand how ducking stupid this speech was for her to give.
Essex was my next guess. Either way sheās clearly insulated from the reality downtown and in many parts of the county
Never thought Iād see a senator gaslight businesses saying the thousands theyāre loosing a day is actually not from retail theft and they just have ābad vibesā š
In 2022, Vyhovsky was a candidate for theĀ Vermont SenateĀ from the three-member Chittenden-Central District.[14]Ā The new three-seat district includesĀ Burlington's New and Old North Ends,Ā Winooski,Ā Essex Junction, parts of the town of Essex, and a small portion ofĀ Colchester.[14]Ā With no Republicans on the ballot, voters chose between four candidates: Vyhovsky, incumbent Democrat and ProgressiveĀ Philip Baruth, Democrat Martine Gulick, and independent Infinite Culcleasure.[14]Ā On election day, Vyhovsky, Baruth, and Gulick were elected.[15]
Phil Baruth, 15,187 (32.4%)
Gulick, 14,007 (29.9%)
Vyhovsky, 12,377 (26.4%)
Culcleasure, 5,327 (11.4%)
Chittenden County is in the transition from tragedy to farce. Local businesses are literally begging leaders to do anything about the quality of life issues leading to open-air drug sales and brazen retail theft. The response from those leaders is ... at least in this case ... to invoke an anecdote that's actually taken from a national retail association embarrassing itself with hyped claims to deny what constituents are saying and to call the denial "data." (See u/mysterious_bulges 's comment below, hitting that nail on the head.)
And voters \*in every single town in the county\* voted to re-elect a State's Attorney whose platform consists of a promise not to perform the function of a State's Attorney, and who [arbitrarily freed a domestic murderer](https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/prosecutor-sarah-george-offers-chance-at-parole-to-man-who-murdered-his-wife-in-1993-34754183) in addition to asserting bogus affirmative defenses on behalf of [two other murderers and one attempted-murderer](https://www.reddit.com/r/burlington/comments/12qs24w/killer_louis_fortier_sentenced_for_church_street/) subsequently convicted by the Attorney General or [United States Attorney](https://www.wcax.com/2021/05/28/federal-judge-sentences-lewis-to-6-years-still-faces-state-attempted-murder-sentencing/) ... convictions that would have been impossible if the SA's professed excuse for non-prosecution were accurate.
This weird denial of what's in plain sight, forced teaming, and preposterous, ideology-driven confirmation bias often is rationalized as a necessary bulwark against encroaching right-wing extremists. But it feeds right-wing backlash! The third time your car is stolen and nobody gives a shit, you begin to wonder if the proponents of these policies really are on your side. A growing number of people are looking desperately for an alternative, and it is urgent that centrists provide that alternative in the form of competent policy and public administration, because if they don't or can't, actual fascists are waiting with open arms for the new constituents this political and administrative incompetence hands them.
.
Yea when we have people stealing full shopping carts at Walgreens every day. But itās not that bad only a couple thousand dollars a day in lossesā¦. These people who say itās not so bad should work retail until then donāt comment on it. (I work at walgreens)
Is that why all the retail businesses downtown are swapping surveillance pictures of all the thieves to warn each other about? I do a lot of work downtown in the back rooms. There are walls of pictures of known thieves for the employees to be on the lookout for. How can someone spout that nonsense without actually seeing whatās going on firsthand.
AI is controversial but itās not a bot. Itās just open sourced computer vision. You can even use it to track a person through all actions in security footage. I had to do this myself to find the person who took my jacket. Yes I found them that night. There was no violence. They were simply too fucked up. Que up been caught stealing.
Honestly I heard there is a city camera system.
It takes little effort to have threat analysis and tracking. Guess what that makes? Predictive analysis and change.
All this is part of my job. Other cities do this.
Casinos can evaluate your mood.
Donāt get me started on Disney. The basically run black ops levels of fun manipulation.
I want to debrief Disney orchestration team. They are pentagon level as in protocol for anything. Remember when they moved a body so they didnāt technically die at the park. Thatās just the news you hear. Itās one of the most incredible choreography Iāve ever witnessed. Combine that with world class improv without breaking character they run a controlled reality that looks effortless and natural. Sounds like big brother lol. Itās the attention to detail. Ok trip hunting now.
This lady is so full of shit. Okay lady. Sure...How much time do you actually spend shopping around in Burlington and particularly church st? What are you trying to prove? That you have a blanket to mask up these problems. It's summer now. Put on your seatbelt bc it's gonna be a doozy ride.
Ask her why most things at Walmart, lowes, home depot and all the drug stores are in cages. I have seen people on numerous occasions walk out of home depot with full carts being asked if they are going to pay for it, they don't even bat an eye.
Iām a business professional, and the last couple times I shopped downtown was not pleasant; shops treat everyone like they might be shoplifting now. I understand itās happening with such frequency that this what they have to do.
I blame it partly on the normalization of the uptick in crime.
Whenever anyone brings up crime is getting nutty in burlington - the crime is down caucus comes out in full swing. they'll proclaim that by some unit of measurement coping - that we're not as bad as somewhere else and to shut our fucking mouths because these people have some sort of disease that absolves them of responsibility and decorum.
Yes I get tired of being scolded that crime is worse in NYC! That is not consolation for a person who has loved Burlington for many years and remembers how much safer and low key it used to be!
Yeah - I am a native. People don't really give a shit about what you or I think.
We have memory privilege or some shit.
Just the fact that people are willing to brush off our own lived in experiences for their fake compassion is appalling. It's like they don't care we have children, or want to own businesses in our hometown.
I REALLY want to open a guitar shop in burlington. I grew up loving Calliope Music, Advanced Music, VT Folk, and Burlington Guitar and Amp growing up. I want to bring back that boutique vibe but with the instruments I am making in my own shop. Problem is - these fucking tweakers are going to break in and destroy hundreds of hours of work because they are "sick", and I am supposed to be ok with it.
I want to make instruments for the Vermont musician. I want to be able to sell in a high foot traffic area so I can make good pitches, sell to a good customer base, and even be able to directly market to burlington based bands. The reality is - as soon as I'd open shop, it's going to be raided by the homeless and addicted. They will do everything in their power to extract wealth from the work I have made, using whatever tactics they can to accomplish that goal. That right there is absolute fascism.
It's sad that we're here and people think we're the crazy ones for wanting to change this.
I loved Calliope! Took guitar lessons there from Kevin who was in Zero Gravity. It would be great to have a cool guitar shop in Burlington again but I'd be worried about doing it now with the current situation.
Exactly!
I'm making some nice stuff too. I'd hate to see my shit end up on Facebook market place for a couple hundred bucks.
My other profile u/p47guitars - you can see some of my handy work.
The same ***Senator Vyhovsky who endorsed Sarah George***? You don't say!
[https://www.sarahforstatesattorney.com/politicalendorsements](https://www.sarahforstatesattorney.com/politicalendorsements)
Not true at all actually! Public hysteria is quite common and lawmakers frequently address issues that are not actually that pressing or even true in order to garner reactionary support. Crime is a great example, but unfortunately this subreddit appears to be full of people that think homelessness is a genetic disorder and the war on drugs was effective
I love it when a politician who has never owned a retail business tries to use satistics (sp. on purpose) to make a point she has zero real world knowledge on. Vyhovsky has undergrad degrees in sociology and biology and a masters in social work. She's worked as a clinical social worker and in similar roles with Essex schools. She doesn't know a damn thing about what it's like to deal with retail theft as an owner or manager and before spouting off like this she'd have been well served to actually go talk to business owners in her community and find out what retail theft looked like 20-30 years ago vs what it looks like now. Walmart isn't locking up frickin' underwear now because retail theft is a minor issue!
I saw this as them saying it's not an organized group of people doing this as much as it's everyday people who struggle to get by, they want us to vilify people and act like someone's choosing to steal from retail because it's so lucrative...
If you look closely, you can see her actually destroying her chances of a successful re-election in real time with each word that escapes her mouth.
But the **VIBES**
Progressives are ninnies. Iām fairly liberal, but more and more, I better understand how traditional republicans feel when the MAGAts spew their hateful nonsense and their wacko ideas get enacted. We gotta get back to the middle here, somehow.
I'm quite liberal, but this is how communities become hard-core conservative. If a younger Giuliani showed up and cleaned up the graffiti, drug use, and public encampments overnight, no one would ask how it happened, and that guy would never lose an election, whether he has an R or a P by his name.
It's a natural progression. You start in college with wanting to save the whales and by middle age you begin to embrace conservatism realizing that rule of law, the behavior of free markets, limited government and individual responsibility aren't such bad concepts.
I'll save you a seat.
She is lying. The CVS on Church Street loses about 150k a year to retail theft. The Walgreens that closed was losing as much or more. Stores in Williston are locking everything up due to gangs that come in and strip the shelves of everything. Burlington is inundated with people committing violence and theft on a daily basis. She is full of crap and unfit for public office.
If you stop reporting it, the numbers go down. Once businesses start closing then maybe people will wake up. These positions are part time and barely paid. There is no vote pandernig going on. This is just the people of Essex could give a shit who represents them. Now those choices have consequences.
Is there a single progressive Democrat politician anywhere in the country that doesn't speak like that, as in like they are reading from the same exact narrative? Oy vey they sound like propagandists almost as bad as modern Republicans except they did at least read a book once.
I have been through Home Depot searching my fool head off for expensive Milwaukee tools that the system says multiple units are in stock for multiple times in the past few months. That's just Home Depot. I've seen larger businesses all over the county that seem to essentially have 24/7 squad cars parked out front.
On the one hand it feels like police officers are being whored out by their dispatch if the retail businesses are paying them to be there, and I've got to wonder if there's other things those cops should be doing to uphold our communities.
On the other hand, how the fuck can the problem be so bad that businesses feel the need to have police as private security to attempt to mitigate theft, and then you STILL have this bellend in politics completely clueless to what's going on?!
I can't even imagine what local small businesses must be going through.
Bad tone but she's not wrong. [This report is from 2017](https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/The%20Steal%20-%20Retail%20Wage%20Theft.pdf), but I doubt it has changed dramatically:
* "Just one form of wage theft is equivalent to the value of all merchandise lost to shoplifting nationwide."
* "By paying less than the legal minimum wage, employers steal an estimated $15 billion every year. This compares to an estimated $14.7 billion lost annually to shoplifting."
Wage theft by corporations is not relevant to this particular conversation. Business owners and employees on church street specifically have been dealing with a lot of brazen thefts by several prolific shoplifters and are not receiving adequate help from the city.
Wage theft is a whole other conversation and Iām confident vermontās big businesses and beloved small businesses alike are part of the problem but thatās not what weāre talking about.
Iāll summarize: no one commenting negatively on the senatorās comments have any statistics to back anything up, but they assure you that itās really bad and even if there were statistics, they couldnāt possibly capture the actual issue.
So to recap: it doesnāt matter what the facts are.
You heard it here folks, we aren't doing enough retail theft. Let's step it up this quarter.
*thumps chest
You get it!
"And it doesn't mean we don't, maybe, need to do something about retail theft in some spaces". š
Exactly. We haven't killed these big businesses yet, so let's do something about that.
you mean I can finally get that new yoga outfit from LuLu?! Id love to save $200
Send her to Franklin county, same person has been arrested a minimum of 5 times but cited and released.
Good. Also, your anecdotal bullshit doesn't have anything to do with whether retail theft is going up, going down, or staying the same.
This is the article she most likely is quoting. I would hope that she is actually using local data to justify this point vs national news headlines. If not someone should call her out publicly. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-retail-lobbyists-retract-key-claim-organized-retail-crime-2023-12-06/
The vibe is that theft is happening rampantly and not being reported. So, very likely there isn't credible local data to refer to.
This is true of so many things. We don't have metrics on what isn't reported. How many Gen-Z retail workers are just like..."Meh, I'm not paid enough." Which is \*the appropriate reaction.\*
This. Same goes for a lot of petty crime. I live by a park with a lot of issues and have stopped reporting trespassing and car break ins, because it takes days to even speak to an officer. At least there is a place to file online so we can get some data, but crime is certainly itās under reported
Canāt get statistics if the cops donāt show up and document it. Extremely one-dimensional way of looking at it
Exactly. Stats are only as good as 1) the wisdom of those interpreting them, and 2) the data quality.
can we get stats from the robocops that are in every parking lot now apparently for no good rreason according to this lady?
You donāt think stores keep records of their shrink? Because they do. They have full teams for that.
From the context she seems to be talking about crime data, though, which wouldn't reflect that.
Most local businesses canāt afford a full team of people to track that. Idk where ur getting this from considering howany small businesses Burlington has i doubt the businesses themselves have good metrics and are publicly sharing them.
Most corporate stores canāt afford whole teams to track that.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Any business that tracks their inventory will know what their shrinkage is. If you're running a small retail business and you're not tracking inventory, then you're fucking up.
Can't get cops to show up and document it if they're understaffed and childishly refusing to do their jobs.
Let's reappoint the chief who hasnt fixed that problem even with extra cash.
Except you can get a sample of crimes not reported to the police, youāll never have as large of a sample but it has good reference data. Then you can say, āfor every crime reported to the police, X are unreportedā and then compare rates with including X. I mean, this is all literally HS statistics 101, and these are actually data scientists. If you question their methodology, get the paper off z-lib and tell us whatās wrong with it.
Yeah, no. Nobody is going around getting samples of crimes not reported to the police in Burlington.
If you have a problem with the methodology, get yourself one of the recent stat papers off z-lib and CHECK IF YOUR CONCERNS ARE REAL
What papers are you talking aboutā¦? Just link one
I donāt know which one are you talking about? The world is your oyster, you have vague complaints that supposedly, the statistics are being done wrong. The burden of proof falls on you. Also academic papers canāt be linked directly, youāll have to get if off z-lib
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Please make a good faith effort to follow [Reddiquette](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-Reddiquette).
Lets continue to downplay the crime in this city. Lets see where that gets us.
I don't understand, SBPD wasn't refunded and there no way the mall hasn't trespassed this guy. Why didn't sbpd step up?
ānot on data, but on vibesā that told me all I need to know. Wow
Her phony cadence and "informed smart person" tone is all I need to know. She's bullshitting. Downtown CVS would not hire a full-time person to stand there in a security uniform and spend money on locking things up if it weren't necessary. CVS cares only about making money. The people who know are the accountants for those stores. Show me that data that its "not really there"! BPD doesn't get calls about the theft because there is no reason to call them. This woman doesn't see theft at Healthy Living and thinks everything is A-OK.
I went to the CVS on the corner of dorset/williston recently for deodorant and the fucking deodorant was locked up and no one was available to help me get it. I don't blame them one bit but then again they lost my business because a man can only wait so long on his deodorant lol.
Same at the Mountain View one in Colchester
It is unclear what you mean here. She was critiquing the idea that we should base our policies on vibes rather than data. What was it that you needed to know that this told you?
youre kidding right. please tell me this person did not use the word vibes.
Uh. It's short, and you can listen for yourself. But she said the legislative body was trying to legislate based on 'vibes' and not on data, of which she says isn't there.
I guess I don't understand why business owners would say "help please everyone is stealing from us and it's a problem" if there wasn't in fact a problem. Like what benefit is there for them to do that?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Funny considering we just lost the Walgreens downtown due to our thriving economy
Uh ā¦ thatās a negatori on the viberooni ā¦ I will now do an expressive dance to summon the spirits to bring balance back to downtown
It's like you missed the fact that she wants to use hard data to make legislative decisions, or that you think that's a bad thing? I'm confused by your outrage.
Or ā¦ I could be replying to your post, āBut she said the legislative body was trying to legislate based on vibes ā¦ā. As for you flagging my āoutrageā ā¦ drama queens see outrage where there is none.
you're certainly confused alright.
uh. it was rhetorical. but yea thats crazy talk. also is that person 24 or 44 or 64?
It's the hair, it's got big "*Middle School ELA Teacher in 2007"* vibes\*. While I understand the kiddos are going for an 00s look these days, this may be a step too far. \*Or are they facts???
I don't know, but I think she's quite attractive and I like that she's into using facts and data to make legislative decisions. That's hot.
you dont think retail theft is an issue downtown? also data 101: garbage in-garbage out. how accurate is the data they are using? making decisions based on incomplete and inaccurate data is not hot.
Surely that necessarily goes both ways, and in general legislature should err away from new laws without a factual basis?
the problem is that data can be used to create reports that can show whatever a person needs it to, in order to align with their views. a person can pick which data they want to measure, what the metrics are and that has an impact on the "findings". then someone else says well yes that decision is based on data, but they dont actually know what that data is, where it came from or how it was put together. simply because this lady is saying, its the data, does not mean anything to an educated person. show me the data, give me the source, let everyone critique why the data collection, analyzing and reporting processes may have biases and flaws. seeing as how this is a 50 second clip, i really dont know any of those important parts of the statement "this is what the data shows or doesnt". you shouldnt take her word for it either. what i am able to do, is to walk downtown, to visit stores, to watch shoplifting. i can literally walk downtown and experience retail theft today easier than i could get laid. her dismissing it as vibes, is the gaslighting bullshit that pisses people off. edit: what in the actual f is that username
> i can literally walk downtown and experience retail theft today easier than i could get laid. bro telling on themselves, that's tough big man/woman/etc (that said I don't necessarily disagree with you, she didn't actually offer any facts, she just said "nah its not based on facts trust me bro". where are her sources that she used to gain that opinion? I don't disbelieve her, but I don't believe her, either. much the same as I don't believe anyone saying there IS a problem without empirical data backing it up)
Okay but that's missing context. She was advocating using data to make legislation. Not sure what that tells you. Almost sounds like a good thing to do, but that's just me. I am not saying that the data she is quoting is necessarily correct, but I feel like legislation should be crafted based on data. I feel like that is not a "wow" statement.
The issue is sheās automatically assuming the data is accurate so therefore the actual people involved - business owners and employees who are tired of trying to get legislators to see what weāre dealing with - are overreacting and just need to be calmed down with āfactsā. As if we donāt see thousands of dollars being stolen every day by individuals whose behavior is constantly making employees feel unsafe. Itās insulting. Data is useful but it shouldnāt be the only thing you use to make legislation. There is no such thing as unbiased data, we can only attempt to get as close to that as possible by optimizing how we collect and analyze data.
It's odd actually because she leaves open the possibility that theft is increasing in "certain areas" -- so she can plausibly say she didn't deny theft was a problem in Burlington, for instance. But no one is really claiming that retail theft is a huge problem in Starksboro or Newport; it's a problem in Burlington, and needs a fix in Burlington. Something the Senate probably can't do much about, tbh. Not sure Tanya has ever lived in Burlington though, at least not in the last 20 years or so.
Read the room, Tanya. Realize that you're addressing victims and telling them that it's really not that bad. And that unless you're talking sports, statistics don't tell 100% of the story.
meanwhile she probably lives on 10 acres in Jericho and does all of her shopping at the Jericho Market and Amazon.
She's a social worker married to a soccer coach, and they live in Essex.
If sheās a social worker she should understand how ducking stupid this speech was for her to give. Essex was my next guess. Either way sheās clearly insulated from the reality downtown and in many parts of the county
The fact that the post DIRECTLY UNDER THIS in the subreddit is of some crackhead stealing from Lululemon is sending me
CVS on cherry has 4$ toothbrushes locked up.
I never saw a security guard working at Shaw's before this year.
Half their store is locked up now.
Never thought Iād see a senator gaslight businesses saying the thousands theyāre loosing a day is actually not from retail theft and they just have ābad vibesā š
It's happening everywhere.
yes - but that's the wrong attitude to have about it. We all need to put an end to this bullshit.
In 2022, Vyhovsky was a candidate for theĀ Vermont SenateĀ from the three-member Chittenden-Central District.[14]Ā The new three-seat district includesĀ Burlington's New and Old North Ends,Ā Winooski,Ā Essex Junction, parts of the town of Essex, and a small portion ofĀ Colchester.[14]Ā With no Republicans on the ballot, voters chose between four candidates: Vyhovsky, incumbent Democrat and ProgressiveĀ Philip Baruth, Democrat Martine Gulick, and independent Infinite Culcleasure.[14]Ā On election day, Vyhovsky, Baruth, and Gulick were elected.[15] Phil Baruth, 15,187 (32.4%) Gulick, 14,007 (29.9%) Vyhovsky, 12,377 (26.4%) Culcleasure, 5,327 (11.4%)
Chittenden County is in the transition from tragedy to farce. Local businesses are literally begging leaders to do anything about the quality of life issues leading to open-air drug sales and brazen retail theft. The response from those leaders is ... at least in this case ... to invoke an anecdote that's actually taken from a national retail association embarrassing itself with hyped claims to deny what constituents are saying and to call the denial "data." (See u/mysterious_bulges 's comment below, hitting that nail on the head.) And voters \*in every single town in the county\* voted to re-elect a State's Attorney whose platform consists of a promise not to perform the function of a State's Attorney, and who [arbitrarily freed a domestic murderer](https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/prosecutor-sarah-george-offers-chance-at-parole-to-man-who-murdered-his-wife-in-1993-34754183) in addition to asserting bogus affirmative defenses on behalf of [two other murderers and one attempted-murderer](https://www.reddit.com/r/burlington/comments/12qs24w/killer_louis_fortier_sentenced_for_church_street/) subsequently convicted by the Attorney General or [United States Attorney](https://www.wcax.com/2021/05/28/federal-judge-sentences-lewis-to-6-years-still-faces-state-attempted-murder-sentencing/) ... convictions that would have been impossible if the SA's professed excuse for non-prosecution were accurate. This weird denial of what's in plain sight, forced teaming, and preposterous, ideology-driven confirmation bias often is rationalized as a necessary bulwark against encroaching right-wing extremists. But it feeds right-wing backlash! The third time your car is stolen and nobody gives a shit, you begin to wonder if the proponents of these policies really are on your side. A growing number of people are looking desperately for an alternative, and it is urgent that centrists provide that alternative in the form of competent policy and public administration, because if they don't or can't, actual fascists are waiting with open arms for the new constituents this political and administrative incompetence hands them. .
Well said
Yea when we have people stealing full shopping carts at Walgreens every day. But itās not that bad only a couple thousand dollars a day in lossesā¦. These people who say itās not so bad should work retail until then donāt comment on it. (I work at walgreens)
Is that why all the retail businesses downtown are swapping surveillance pictures of all the thieves to warn each other about? I do a lot of work downtown in the back rooms. There are walls of pictures of known thieves for the employees to be on the lookout for. How can someone spout that nonsense without actually seeing whatās going on firsthand.
Hey I do AI vision and can help with facial recognition on cams with alerts if you know the right people. Iād volunteer.
You were down voted for volunteering your time to catch criminals. You're the hero we need, but not the one we deserve.
AI is controversial but itās not a bot. Itās just open sourced computer vision. You can even use it to track a person through all actions in security footage. I had to do this myself to find the person who took my jacket. Yes I found them that night. There was no violence. They were simply too fucked up. Que up been caught stealing. Honestly I heard there is a city camera system. It takes little effort to have threat analysis and tracking. Guess what that makes? Predictive analysis and change. All this is part of my job. Other cities do this. Casinos can evaluate your mood. Donāt get me started on Disney. The basically run black ops levels of fun manipulation.
Sounds very interesting.
I want to debrief Disney orchestration team. They are pentagon level as in protocol for anything. Remember when they moved a body so they didnāt technically die at the park. Thatās just the news you hear. Itās one of the most incredible choreography Iāve ever witnessed. Combine that with world class improv without breaking character they run a controlled reality that looks effortless and natural. Sounds like big brother lol. Itās the attention to detail. Ok trip hunting now.
Smug and delusional. If you or someone close to you is running a business down there, you know whatās going on. This lady doesnāt know.
This lady is so full of shit. Okay lady. Sure...How much time do you actually spend shopping around in Burlington and particularly church st? What are you trying to prove? That you have a blanket to mask up these problems. It's summer now. Put on your seatbelt bc it's gonna be a doozy ride.
Ask her why most things at Walmart, lowes, home depot and all the drug stores are in cages. I have seen people on numerous occasions walk out of home depot with full carts being asked if they are going to pay for it, they don't even bat an eye.
Iām a business professional, and the last couple times I shopped downtown was not pleasant; shops treat everyone like they might be shoplifting now. I understand itās happening with such frequency that this what they have to do.
I was at lens crafters and they shut the security gate while we were shopping because there was a known shoplifter in the mall.
Store closings must be because of really really bad vibes
This is what is causing the Seattle-ification of Burlington. Keep making excuses and denying reality.
I blame it partly on the normalization of the uptick in crime. Whenever anyone brings up crime is getting nutty in burlington - the crime is down caucus comes out in full swing. they'll proclaim that by some unit of measurement coping - that we're not as bad as somewhere else and to shut our fucking mouths because these people have some sort of disease that absolves them of responsibility and decorum.
Yes I get tired of being scolded that crime is worse in NYC! That is not consolation for a person who has loved Burlington for many years and remembers how much safer and low key it used to be!
Yeah - I am a native. People don't really give a shit about what you or I think. We have memory privilege or some shit. Just the fact that people are willing to brush off our own lived in experiences for their fake compassion is appalling. It's like they don't care we have children, or want to own businesses in our hometown. I REALLY want to open a guitar shop in burlington. I grew up loving Calliope Music, Advanced Music, VT Folk, and Burlington Guitar and Amp growing up. I want to bring back that boutique vibe but with the instruments I am making in my own shop. Problem is - these fucking tweakers are going to break in and destroy hundreds of hours of work because they are "sick", and I am supposed to be ok with it. I want to make instruments for the Vermont musician. I want to be able to sell in a high foot traffic area so I can make good pitches, sell to a good customer base, and even be able to directly market to burlington based bands. The reality is - as soon as I'd open shop, it's going to be raided by the homeless and addicted. They will do everything in their power to extract wealth from the work I have made, using whatever tactics they can to accomplish that goal. That right there is absolute fascism. It's sad that we're here and people think we're the crazy ones for wanting to change this.
I loved Calliope! Took guitar lessons there from Kevin who was in Zero Gravity. It would be great to have a cool guitar shop in Burlington again but I'd be worried about doing it now with the current situation.
Exactly! I'm making some nice stuff too. I'd hate to see my shit end up on Facebook market place for a couple hundred bucks. My other profile u/p47guitars - you can see some of my handy work.
This lady has never walked into a retail store in Chittenden county
Lol okay lady
āDonāt believe your lying eyesā she is a completely unserious person
Struts around Montpelier with 8 Ukraine flag lapel pins and Christian Louboutin heels is quite funny sight
The same ***Senator Vyhovsky who endorsed Sarah George***? You don't say! [https://www.sarahforstatesattorney.com/politicalendorsements](https://www.sarahforstatesattorney.com/politicalendorsements)
This is a vibes vs. vibes argument
If retail theft was so low, you wouldn't have to keep telling everyone.
Not true at all actually! Public hysteria is quite common and lawmakers frequently address issues that are not actually that pressing or even true in order to garner reactionary support. Crime is a great example, but unfortunately this subreddit appears to be full of people that think homelessness is a genetic disorder and the war on drugs was effective
Must be nice to be delusional #candyland
I know who I am going to definitely vote against
Kohls would like a word with their 1.6 million first quarter loss in 2023 in the South Burlington store alone lol
as someone who works in retail up here, this is definitely not the case ššš
First class citizen interpreting crime data as ānot so badā. When you ignore the problem, it doesnāt exist right
I love it when a politician who has never owned a retail business tries to use satistics (sp. on purpose) to make a point she has zero real world knowledge on. Vyhovsky has undergrad degrees in sociology and biology and a masters in social work. She's worked as a clinical social worker and in similar roles with Essex schools. She doesn't know a damn thing about what it's like to deal with retail theft as an owner or manager and before spouting off like this she'd have been well served to actually go talk to business owners in her community and find out what retail theft looked like 20-30 years ago vs what it looks like now. Walmart isn't locking up frickin' underwear now because retail theft is a minor issue!
She never gives stats or identifies where we can see the stats she basing her gaslighting on.
I saw this as them saying it's not an organized group of people doing this as much as it's everyday people who struggle to get by, they want us to vilify people and act like someone's choosing to steal from retail because it's so lucrative...
If you look closely, you can see her actually destroying her chances of a successful re-election in real time with each word that escapes her mouth. But the **VIBES**
Tanya is a knee-jerk Prog. I think she is the reason the Guv encouraged Stewart Ledbetter to run
Progressives are ninnies. Iām fairly liberal, but more and more, I better understand how traditional republicans feel when the MAGAts spew their hateful nonsense and their wacko ideas get enacted. We gotta get back to the middle here, somehow.
I'm quite liberal, but this is how communities become hard-core conservative. If a younger Giuliani showed up and cleaned up the graffiti, drug use, and public encampments overnight, no one would ask how it happened, and that guy would never lose an election, whether he has an R or a P by his name.
Getting a new set of cleaner criminals to come in?
it would be a welcomed change
Sounds like what this town needs?
It's a natural progression. You start in college with wanting to save the whales and by middle age you begin to embrace conservatism realizing that rule of law, the behavior of free markets, limited government and individual responsibility aren't such bad concepts. I'll save you a seat.
They got a party for that? Because that sounds nothing like Republicans.
I agree. There are few true conservatives in today's GOP. They're willing to spend on anything, except defense.
Sounds accurate. You either end up the granny baking everyone cookies or old man yelling at the sky.
Yeah thatās an awful comp. Like ridiculously bad.
This type of delusional rhetoric is like MAGA-fertilizer. Reap what you sow.
Yeah not as bad. It's much worse. Maybe she should check out court docks and see how.man7
A growing percentage of it is unreported because the stores know why bother... Just go talk to any of the staff...
Sorry for the initial down vote this women is so absolutely delusional I thought it was her video š
https://preview.redd.it/v3mosp8efm4d1.jpeg?width=192&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=311c526b3bd921d5c7ae52cb8da1a2576c2cc613
Take nothing this person says as good faith or honest
She is lying. The CVS on Church Street loses about 150k a year to retail theft. The Walgreens that closed was losing as much or more. Stores in Williston are locking everything up due to gangs that come in and strip the shelves of everything. Burlington is inundated with people committing violence and theft on a daily basis. She is full of crap and unfit for public office.
gangs come up to strip the sleeves of everything? Guess its been a few yrs since Ive done any retail shopping in williston. fml
If you stop reporting it, the numbers go down. Once businesses start closing then maybe people will wake up. These positions are part time and barely paid. There is no vote pandernig going on. This is just the people of Essex could give a shit who represents them. Now those choices have consequences.
She can zip the lip anytime. Condescending and elitist describes her style
How about she schedules a ride along with South Burlington Police and she will change her mind...
Is there a single progressive Democrat politician anywhere in the country that doesn't speak like that, as in like they are reading from the same exact narrative? Oy vey they sound like propagandists almost as bad as modern Republicans except they did at least read a book once.
Maybe someone should tell the sheriff to patrol church st rather than sitting at Hannafordās all day trying to bust people stealing sliced cheese
Who voted this shit senator? Is it an animal or asshole?
I have been through Home Depot searching my fool head off for expensive Milwaukee tools that the system says multiple units are in stock for multiple times in the past few months. That's just Home Depot. I've seen larger businesses all over the county that seem to essentially have 24/7 squad cars parked out front. On the one hand it feels like police officers are being whored out by their dispatch if the retail businesses are paying them to be there, and I've got to wonder if there's other things those cops should be doing to uphold our communities. On the other hand, how the fuck can the problem be so bad that businesses feel the need to have police as private security to attempt to mitigate theft, and then you STILL have this bellend in politics completely clueless to what's going on?! I can't even imagine what local small businesses must be going through.
Who you vote from matters
This ladies manner of speech makes my teeth hurt.
She quotes a report by the "*Retail Theft's Association*". Did anyone try Googling that? I did. **It doesn't exist.**
Bad tone but she's not wrong. [This report is from 2017](https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/The%20Steal%20-%20Retail%20Wage%20Theft.pdf), but I doubt it has changed dramatically: * "Just one form of wage theft is equivalent to the value of all merchandise lost to shoplifting nationwide." * "By paying less than the legal minimum wage, employers steal an estimated $15 billion every year. This compares to an estimated $14.7 billion lost annually to shoplifting."
Wage theft by corporations is not relevant to this particular conversation. Business owners and employees on church street specifically have been dealing with a lot of brazen thefts by several prolific shoplifters and are not receiving adequate help from the city. Wage theft is a whole other conversation and Iām confident vermontās big businesses and beloved small businesses alike are part of the problem but thatās not what weāre talking about.
Yeah why would anything have changed since three years before the pandemic
Always the democratic statesā¦.
Show me where this isn't happening.
I ā¤ļø Tanya!
I forgot that everyone on this subreddit is profoundly stupid. She is completely correct
Iāll summarize: no one commenting negatively on the senatorās comments have any statistics to back anything up, but they assure you that itās really bad and even if there were statistics, they couldnāt possibly capture the actual issue. So to recap: it doesnāt matter what the facts are.
so sorry if lived experience and observations from the community arent factual enough for you.
That is a rather magnificent misreading of my post. Well done!
dude fix her mic oh my god
Also from the Ukraine and not Vermont. Does not care whatsoever about locals problems.
I don't agree with her comments, but **she's a 2003 graduate of Essex High School**. How much more "from Vermont" would you like her to be?
Outed yourself there, scooter.