brutality grandmother—demonstrating officer

POLICING POVERTY: POLICEBRUTALITY AT THE INTERSECTIONSOF GENDER, RACE AND CLASSBlack women’s encounters with police often take place against a backdrop of disproportionate poverty.Overall, Black women are poorer than Black men and white women, and many confront desperate conditionswhile attempting to keep themselves and their families afloat. Black women continue to face gravesocioeconomic disparities even in the face of the economic recovery that others in America have enjoyed.They are the only group whose unemployment rate failed to decrease in 2014. 27 Many Black women whoare abused and killed by police are among the low-income and homeless people increasingly targeted bythe policing of poverty and “broken windows” 28 policing practices. The criminalization of poor people,when coupled with negative stereotypes about Black women, may result not only in police harassmentbut also in police killings.Shelly FreyDecember 6, 2012 / Houston, TexasLouis Campbell, an off-duty sheriff and Houstonarea minister, shot and killed Shelly Freyin an attempt to apprehend her friend whomhe suspected to be shoplifting from a Walmartstore. After Campbell failed to stop the groupfrom leaving the store, Frey and her friend gotinto a car and attempted to drive away. Campbellfired shots into the car, hitting Frey twicein the neck. 29 He later claimed that he firedshots in self-defense because the driver hadattempted to run him over. Sharon Wilkerson,Frey’s mother, explained that after her daughterwas shot, neither the driver nor the policesought medical attention for Frey. Her bodywas left in the car for eight hours. 3014