As WBUR first reported, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that running away from the police may be a Black man’s reasonable response to police contact. Therefore, the police cannot use the man’s running away to justify a stop or search unless they already had a reasonable suspicion that a crime is being, is about to be, or just has been, committed.
It’s well known that the police stop Black people often, without a lawful reason. Black people have the right to avoid unjustified stops by the police, so running away does not necessarily reflect guilt.
A Vague Description
A police officer responded to report of a breaking and entering. A victim told the officer that he found a Black male in a red hoodie jumping out the window of his bedroom. When he looked out the window, he saw two more Black men, one wearing a black hoodie and the other wearing dark clothing. When he looked around his room, he noticed that his backpack, a computer, and five baseball bats were missing.
He could not tell where they had gone when they reached the end of his block.
The officer who came to the scene talked to the witness and his mother for several minutes, then drove around the immediate area for 15 minutes or so. Because it was a cold night, the officer didn’t see any pedestrians until he was on his way back to the station. Then, he saw two Black males wearing dark clothing; one was wearing a dark hoodie.
The officer rolled down his window and called,
“Hey, guys, wait a minute.”
A Second Try
The two men ran into a nearby park. The officer then called dispatch and said that three (not two) men who fit the witness’s description were running through park. Two other officers, who had heard the original call, saw the two Black men leaving the park.
Their hands were visible and empty, and there were no bulges in their clothing to suggest that either of them was hiding a weapon.
When one of the officers called out, “Hey, fellas,” one of the men stood still, while the other ran back into the park. The officer ordered him to stop running. He didn’t. He kept running and held onto the leg of his pants, as someone might when carrying a gun without a holster.
The officer chased him, searched him, and found nothing. But a gun was found near the scene a few minutes later.
A Reasonable Suspicion
The court found that the police had no reasonable suspicion that either man was committing a crime, was about to commit one, or had just done so.
The description the witness gave them just wasn’t enough to act on – Black men wearing dark clothes, one with a hoodie. No height, weight, build, hair color or style, eye color, skin tone, or distinguishing features. Neither one was wearing a red hoodie. They weren’t carrying the backpack or other missing property.
And the absence of other pedestrians did not mean it was likely that the Black males the officer saw had committed the crime.
Does Running Away Mean You’re Guilty?
The court had recognized in the past that when someone who is close to the scene of a crime, very shortly after it happened, tries to evade the police, that combination of facts could support a reasonable suspicion.
But not here.
The men were headed in the opposite direction from the potential paths given by the dispatcher, and it was half an hour or so after the perpetrators left the scene. They were likely to be two or miles away. These men were detained as the result of racial profiling.
Racial Profiling: Black Realities Matter
The court observed that two studies had recently been released that showed that the Boston police stopped Black men more often, without justification.
In particular, a 2014 study by the Massachusetts ACLU, titled Black, Brown, and Targeted, showed that 63 percent of people stopped and questioned by the Boston police were Black, even though the city’s population was only 24 percent Black.
Black people were also more likely to be stopped repeatedly.
The second study, by the Boston Police Department, found that Black people were 8 percent more likely to be stopped repeatedly, and 12 percent more likely to be searched or frisked – even after controlling for criminal history and gang membership in areas with a high level of violent crimes.
The court observed that people do not have an obligation to talk to the police, and preferring not to do so is not grounds for suspicion. As the court said in its decision, a Black male 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. Given this reality for black males in the city of Boston, a judge should … consider the report’s findings in weighing flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion calculus.”
Watch this young Black man’s account of a stop-and-frisk that happened for no reason other than racial profiling:
Featured Image: Screenshot Via YouTube Video.
