In the past 17 years, Brattleboro police shot and killed two men in the town. During that time in Brattleboro, five other people were killed by people who were not police. So 29 percent of these people were killed by police.

In 2015, the most recent year for which data was available, in the USA there were 15,696 or so murders. That year, police killed 1,186 people in the USA. So 8 percent of these people were killed by police.

Michael Fitzgerald is chief of police in Brattleboro. On July 17, he told the Valley Post, “Both incidents were cleared by the State's Attorney and the Attorney General's office as justifiable.... Both individuals were white. One individual had a parent that was white and the other parent Hispanic.... We are currently staffed with 23 full time sworn officers. There are three candidates that are waiting to attend the Vermont Police Academy at the end of the month. That brings our staffing level to 26 out of the authorized 27.”

Brattleboro town manager Peter Elwell told the Valley Post on July 12, “All of BPD’s current officers are Caucasian.”

As of last year, 20 percent of students in Brattleboro public schools were people of color.

Academic studies show that female police officers are better at de-escalating potentially violent situations.

Ninety-two percent of Brattleboro police officers are men, Fitzgerald said.

In other news from the Valley, in Keene on July 21 at 3:30 p.m., there will be a Youth Climate Rally. The rally will be at Ashuelot River Park. "It's time to stop playing games with the health of the planet," organizers say at:

www.facebook.com/events/275882176303779