MA court: Black men fleeing police doesn’t signify guilt
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling states that black men…
…when approached by the police, “might just as easily be motivated by the desire to avoid the recurring indignity of being racially profiled as by the desire to hide criminal activity.”
The court pointed to statistics in a recent Boston Police Department report that revealed that “black men in the City of Boston were more likely to be targeted for police-civilian encounters such as stops, frisks, searches, observations and interrogations.”
…the court pointed out a “cautionary note” pointing to statistics specific to Boston. The court warned that a reasonable suspicion calculus “cannot be divorced from the finding in a recent Boston Police Department report documenting a pattern of racial profiling” of black males in the city.
The court said it did not eliminate flight as a factor for the reasonable suspicion analysis whenever a black male is the subject of an investigatory stop, but in those circumstances “flight is not necessarily probative of a suspect’s state of mind or consciousness of guilt.”
“Rather, the finding that black males in Boston are disproportionately and repeatedly targeted” the Court said, “suggests a reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt.”
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5 responses to MA court: Black men fleeing police doesn’t signify guilt
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Suzanne McFly September 25th, 2016 at 09:22
It is pretty sick that a segment of our population feels the need to flee from police just so they don’t end up dead. I would hate to be a black male in the United States right now, and that is the only group of people who completely understand what kind of prejudice they face. Others of us need to understand what they are having to deal with and show empathy for this trial they are having to go through.
Mensa Member September 25th, 2016 at 23:23
I share your dismay at the situation we have found ourselves.
I’m old enough to clearly remember the Rodney King riots. Way back then, it was glarinly apparent that we had a deep problem with the police and the black community.
But it seems like we did nothing. If anything, it’s worse now.
Suzanne McFly September 26th, 2016 at 07:21
Most of us believe the blue on black racism doesn’t directly effect us so why bother fighting against it.
pignose4.0 September 25th, 2016 at 15:48
This is good news now we know it is not OK to shoot a fleeing/jogging/running black man in the back, glad we got that settled.
bpollen September 25th, 2016 at 20:10
Good thing they told us… who’d a thunk it?