When I first became a Burlington Police Officer, there were the "Good Guys", and the "Bad Guys". The cops were the "Good Guys", along with the general public. The "Bad Guys" were a relative few who demanded Police intervention on a regular basis.

There was the occasional incident with a member of the general public: traffic accidents, burglar victims, and the like. The general public did not get drunk and chase their spouses around the house with cast iron frying pans. The general public were those whom the Police were supposed to "Protect and Serve"; the productive and honorable pillars of the community.

Today, the opposite exists. The "Bad Guys", guilty of violating and permanently damaging our children, our most precious asset, for example, are given a scolding and a slap on the wrist, and then sent back onto the streets to do it again.

On the other hand the general public, all of those pillars of the community, are being hunted down aggressively by nearly every cop in the State. Why? To make the productive members of society pay additional, exorbitant taxes for violating ridiculously low speed limits, or any other minor motor vehicle regulations they can find.

The whole thing is a scam created unconstitutionally by Bill Sorrell, purely as an additional income stream. As part of this scam, Bill Sorrell instigated the massive Motor Vehicle fine increase: from 100% to 600%.

The fines are so high that an unprecedented number of hardworking Vermonters cannot afford to get their driving licenses back. Now there's a double whammy: getting taxed unmercifully for violating a law which should not be there in the first place, and then in thanks they take your driver's license away which makes you violate another law every time you head to work to make the money to pay the fines. Those who know about it are outraged.

I don't get it. Why are we, the productive members of society, now the bad guys? Why are we, who hire police to protect and serve us, suddenly the bad guys? Why are we tense and afraid when we see a police cruiser? Why are we the victims of unconstitutional taxes levied by the police, who are our employees, whom we pay to protect and serve us; not to harass and extort us.

The answer to all of this is BILL SORRELL. The whole scam was his idea; producing another revenue stream. When abuses were reported, Sorrell did nothing. As the volume of abuses increased, Sorrell not only refused to investigate, but pursued the people reporting the abuses, insuring that the abuses continue.

As Attorney General, Sorrell has to go. He has violated our Public Trust, as well as our Constitution, time after time.

Dennis Carver for Attorney General