A City Hall security guard told me to ‘pick up a rifle,’ then I was the one in handcuffs

My wife and I moved from New York City to Burlington, Vermont, approximately 11 years ago for her medical residency. We’re raising two kids in a beautiful city where you could once leave your doors unlocked.But in June 2020, during the defund-the-police movement and while we were experiencing an influx of new people, the City Council cut the police cap by 30%, from 105 officers to 74, and officers left in droves. Progressive policy has gone too far: above-average shoplifting, many closed businesses, including Nectar’s, the legendary music venue where Phish got its start, buckling healthcare, rampant homelessness, limited housing, and economic opportunity. Here, “compassion” now means looking away from crime, dysfunction and, in my case, antisemitism. Recommended Stories In April 2025, a City Hall security guard I’d met outside the mayor’s office saw my Facebook post urging Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) toward balance on Israel and Palestine. He messaged me, which included: “If you feel so passionately, why are you in Burlington, Vermont, whining to City Hall personnel about your right to shout down people protesting genocide, when you could be killing brown kids yourself? Isn’t that supposed to be your birthright?” A few days later: “Go pick up a rifle then.” My complaint and testimony went nowhere for ten months. Then City Attorney Jessica Brown called to tell me there was no reason it hadn’t been addressed, other than that the city had no internal policy for handling a subcontractor.A year later, I started putting real effort into #TruthInVermont on Instagram, interviewing homeless people and everyday Burlingtonians about the city’s issues, City Hall’s inattention, and potential solutions, drawing millions of views. In May 2026, after more online debate, the guard, still employed by City Hall’s security contractor, Chocolate Thunder, though no longer working at City Hall, sent me a video of Hezbollah drones targeting Israelis. I never wanted him fired, just a mayoral apology and for the city to tell Chocolate Thunder he’d harassed me in an antisemitic way. Neither happened.Contrast the stickers reading “No one was ever born in the wrong body.” As a state representative and now the mayor of Burlington, Emma Mulvaney-Stanak co-organized a counter-sticker GoFundMe, backed a council resolution against them, and sought better bias tracking. As mayor, she backed a graffiti ordinance targeting them. A guard telling a Jewish man to pick up a rifle got nothing.I tried to report the discrimination to the mayor and protested outside City Hall. I believe she retaliated through her authority over the police. A Howard Center psychiatric team, whose city funding her administration tripled, was sent to evaluate me at the protest; YouTuber and journalist Todd DeLuca filmed it returning to her office and was trespassed. I was later trespassed for 180 days. I kept legally protesting and holding my mayor accountable, as I learned to as a kid and in law school, and on a Friday night — Shabbat — was arrested for it. After independent YouTubers and First Amendment auditors started showing up at City Hall to ask questions, the city made staying in a public area over 10 minutes “without explicit business” and with “the intent to cause annoyance” a trespassable offense, barred filming into offices, and closed the mayor’s third floor.SILENT ON SUDAN, LOUD ON ISRAEL: YOUR ANTISEMITISM IS SHOWINGArresting someone for petitioning the government, sending a psych team after a critic, and rewriting rules to keep cameras out is authoritarianism from any party. In Bernie Sanders’s city, a Jewish business owner who asked for an apology got a psych team and handcuffs.We need people who’ll plainly say when the Left or Right gets it wrong. My city forgot, and people here now fear speaking their minds. I doubt we’re alone.Aryeh Moskowitz is a Burlington entrepreneur, civic journalist and founder of #TruthInVermont on Instagram. He has a J.D. from Cardozo Law School.