BURLINGTON, Vt. -
Protesters at the New England Governors and Canadian Premiers conference are sharing their frustration with a police report about the events of that day that lead to demonstrators being shot with pepper balls.
Marni Salerno is still bitter about how Burlington police handled a group of protesters blocking a bus from leaving the Hilton Hotel.
"They weren't protecting us. They were protecting a dinner reservation," Salerno said.
Salerno was shot by pepper balls that day as was Jonathan Leavitt. The report says that officers acted with exceptional professionalism in handling the situation when they told demonstrators they would be arrested for blocking a public highway. police say when they tried to move protesters they responded aggressively. It says Salerno was grabbing an officer's baton when they fired two pepper balls at her. Salerno saw it differently.
"I didn't know a gun was pointed at me at the time I was more focused on the baton being jabbed in my stomach," Salerno said.
The report also said the stingballs deployed were not expired but only past the warranty date and that it is not necessary to skip fire them like the canister advises. Attorney Jared Carter is advising the two demonstrators and says not enough questions were answered about the ammunition.
"A paragraph talking about that is simply insufficient to allow us to feel like we can move forward and have a serious conversation about how we can fix these problems," Carter said.
Jonathan Leavitt says that the only way to fix the problems of the report is to have an independent investigation into the incident.
"I think to have the same police department who shot protesters doing civil disobedience investigate themselves is really compromising the integrity of that investigation," Leavitt said.
