This weekend, the streets were teeming with police bringing underage student drinkers to justice. The daylight hours, however, have been much more rowdy and with a lot less justice.

Between Sept. 3 – 9, 13 robberies have been reported in the downtown Burlington area. Few criminals, however, have been brought to justice.

With all of the police out at night, it seems a few clever crooks have figured out that Burlington is an open playground by day.

We at the Cynic are all in favor for police enforcement when it is absolutely needed. Unfortunately, the police are slightly out of balance with the current situation in Burlington.

While 62 noise violations is an impressive stat for the cops to point out, 13 robberies is not. Not sure about you, but the Cynic would gladly put up with a little more noise during the weekends versus the fateful phone call of Dude, where is our TV?

While the rise in blatant criminal activity in the Queen city may disturb some, it is the inadequate police presence by day that is the most troubling. Is the very safety of our downtown homes being threatened by the directing of funding to stopping parties on the weekend?

We at the Cynic have a theory: Catching criminals and busting burglars is tough work, involving costly investigations and long hours. Busting UVM students as they drink on Fridays is comparably much easier most kids arent carrying weapons and instead pay the police large fines for getting busted.

One officer on the S.T.A.R.T Task Force told WCAX that, We just want to let the kids know that we are out there. We Cynics would like to see officers send the same message to the criminals, who are probably stealing our couch as you read this.

We are not advocating for the police to stop their weekend patrols, but we have a feeling that their party-busting efforts are taking more resources that should be directed toward Burlington pre-sunset.

An acheivable balance will create a safer Burlington and… wait, can I help you? Yes this is my computer, why? .3t.sdg b5-6