Em Megas-Russell

Our real tragedy

When our response to struggling community members centers on policing and surveillance, it can only be punitive and criminalizing


Em Megas-Russell, a licensed social worker, Brattleboro resident, and business owner, collaborated on the Community Safety Review Committee report with Shea Witzberger. To read the full report from 2020, visit bit.ly/782-safety-report.


I am disheartened to be writing this op-ed.

I'd rather celebrate our town's active collaboration in cultivating dignified, innovative, and life-affirming responses to the basic human needs for safety and belonging of all our community members. Instead, I am writing from a place of heartbreak and outrage at the increased criminalization and exile of common people from common land.

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