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Vermont State Police announced Thursday that Sergeant Lucas Hall has been suspended without pay pending an internal investigation into social media posts that “appear to support the criminal insurgency that has occurred. “to the United States Capitol and” plead for this insurgency to continue. “
Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling released the statement and said the VSP received reports of the messages on Thursday morning.
“While we recognize the rights of everyone, including sworn law enforcement officers, to express their opinions, advocating for the overthrow of the constitutionally defined democratic electoral process by force or violence violates our oath to uphold the Constitution, ”Schirling said.
Schirling said the sergeant, who was stationed at Shaftsbury Barracks in the south of the state, is now under investigation and the results are expected in a few days.
Schirling said Hall’s actions, “if they are true, have caused pain and anguish on the part of Vermonters during an already indescribably stressful time in our national history and for that we are saddened and sorry.”
“It is important to state in the strongest terms that these positions do not in any way reflect the beliefs and values of the Vermont State Police or its dedicated soldiers and employees, who work every day to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. Schirling said.
Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan in a statement to VTDigger called on Hall to step down.
“This soldier must be fired or must resign immediately,” Donovan said. “You cannot have a law enforcement officer calling for the violent overthrow of our government. He has lost my trust, he has lost the trust of the public. This is completely unacceptable.”
Moderate Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who condemned Trump shortly after Tuesday’s riots, joined Donovan, a Democrat, in his condemnation of President Donald Trump’s role in instigating the Capitol riots.
“President Trump has orchestrated a campaign to provoke an insurgency that overturns the results of a free, fair and legal election,” Scott said, calling for Trump’s impeachment either by impeachment or by the 25th Amendment.
A spokesperson for Scott did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment on the soldier’s suspension.
Hall did not answer calls to the numbers listed for him on Friday, and the Vermont Troopers Association did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
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