Book Talk

This book links police violence to an ongoing cycle of racial and spatial redevelopment repression. By delving into the real estate histories of St. Louis and Baltimore, Hyra shows how housing and community development policies advance neighborhood inequality. Repeated decisions to "upgrade" the urban fabric and uproot low-income Black populations have resulted in pockets of poverty inhabited by people experiencing displacement trauma and police surveillance. These interconnected sets of divestments and accumulated frustrations have contributed to uprisings in response to tragic, unjust police killings. To confront unrest, Hyra argues we must end racialized policing, Black displacement, and reduce neighborhood inequality.