Last month, George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. The criminal complaint filed late last week against the officer states that the officer "had
his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes
and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive. Police are
trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is
inherently dangerous."
Police kill all the time. Indeed, there were only 27 days in 2019 when police did not kill someone. And law
enforcement’s victims are much
more likely to be black.
Horrific,
and likely underestimated. Statistician Patrick Ball, who has tracked state killings in 30
countries, points out that when a police killing occurs on video, as Mr.
Floyd’s did, “police are very likely to report this case to the FBI because
they know the FBI will hear about it.” But “conversely, if a person is killed
by police without the presence of witnesses,” the killing “is unlikely to be
reported at all.” So unless the killing was recorded on camera, it is unlikely
to be reported in national statistics.
Using
advanced statistics to account for unreported police killings, Mr. Ball’s
research concludes that “eight to ten per cent of all American homicide victims
are killed by the police. Of all American homicide victims killed by people
they don’t know, approximately one-third of them are victims of the police.”
While national statistics may not accurately record police killings, local
communities know. Justin
Feldman, a social epidemiologist at the NYU School of Medicine, explains
that “if it’s not you being killed by police, it’s someone you know or someone
in your community.”
Police
have recently killed black men for suspected forgery, selling
cigarettes, reaching
for a driver’s license, and sitting at home. These killings have a profound
effect on the communities they traumatize.
In a rare departure from the norm, the officer who killed Mr. Floyd has now been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But the charges may not represent a full-throated prosecutorial response. And they are certainly not enough to alleviate the effects of centuries of state-sponsored violence.
And so. The next time a judge wonders
why your client ran from the police, explain that your client knew that his
life was in danger, and that the police would not be held accountable for what
might happen.
Some courts have recognized this reality. See,
e.g., United States v. Brown,
925 F.3d 1150, 1156 (9th Cir. 2019) (“flight can be a problematic factor in the
reasonable suspicion analysis because some citizens may flee from police for
their safety”; “[t]here is little doubt that uneven policing may reasonably
affect the reaction of certain individuals—including those who are innocent—to
law enforcement”) (citing Illinois v. Wardlow,
528 U.S. 119, 126-40 (2000) (Stevens, J., concurring in part and dissenting in
part)); Miles v. United States, 181
A.3d 633, 641-42 (D.C. App. 2018) (discussing reasons people might flee,
including fear in the face of police shootings of African Americans); Commonwealth v. Warren, 58 N.E.3d 333,
342 (Mass. 2016) (“the finding that black males in Boston are
disproportionately and repeatedly targeted for [police] encounters suggests a
reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt”); Dancy v. McGinley, 843 F.3d 93, 110 (2d
Cir. 2016) (“Indeed, it is natural for people to take an interest in police
activity nearby out of a desire to avoid some minor misstep, such as a minor
traffic violation, which would involve them unnecessarily with the police.”). Help your court understand it as well.
--From Kirk Redmond
