Salon, July 23, 2020: Was Breonna Taylor killing driven by gentrification? Studies suggest it’s possible
Alawsuit filed by Breonna Taylor’s family alleges that her police killing was linked to a redevelopment effort in the West End of Louisville (even though she did not live there). Although city officials have denied this, policing experts say departments around the country have targeted Black people in the pursuit of gentrification for years.
Taylor, a Black emergency room technician, was repeatedly shot in her apartment in Louisville’s South End and left to die on the floor by police executing a no-knock search warrant in the early hours of March 13. A lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family alleges that the operation, which targeted Taylor’s former boyfriend for alleged drug offenses committed in a different part of town, was part of an effort to clear residents from the area where he lived, in the West End, which was slated for demolition to make way for a multi-million-dollar development project.
