Like many poor people, I grew up learning not to trust the police, and nobody had to sit me down to tell me why. I knew that poor people had a good chance of getting into more trouble if they called the police—you might have a warrant for unpaid traffic fines, or maybe the baby has a bruise and the police call Social Services. Maybe you had a drink or something to calm the nerves, and now your husband’s come home to knock you into the wall a little. Call the cops—maybe you’ll go to jail, maybe he will. Maybe both. It’s harder to pretend when you’re poor—harder to keep up the shiny veneer that
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