Members of the group Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ) marched on Wall Street Thursday in honor of Yvonne McNeal, a 57-year-old homeless lesbian who walked with a cane that NYPD police shot and killed Saturday as she was attempting to enter the shelter where she was staying, according to Care2.com.
McNeal, who was part of a support group for homeless women and transgender men run by QEJ, had been involved in an altercation at the homeless shelter where she was staying on 45th Street in New York, according to reports. The argument moved outside and that’s when police shot and killed her after she failed to respond to orders to drop two knives she was carrying, according to QEJ.
QEJ spokespeople said the following about McNeal’s killing:
“Yvonne’s killing underscores the reality that the police cannot be relied on to respond compassionately to low income LGBTQ people when it concerns issues of safety in our communities. At QEJ, we are asking again how many potentially dangerous situations every year have to end up in a police shooting? It cannot be accepted that calling the police can be deadly for low Income LGBTQ New Yorkers.”
Members of the organization also stated that the police department’s use of lethal force rather than non lethal deterrents to get McNeal to drop her knives was indicative of a, “Repeated pattern of racism and disregard for human life when the police are dealing with issues of violence because we are poor, from communities of color and may also be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or perceived as such.”
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