A Mass. Court Says Black Men May Have Cause To Flee Police. How About Chicagoans?

By Stephen Gossett in News on Sep 27, 2016 4:40PM

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court sent reverberations through legal-watching communities when it ruled that a black man running from police is not necessarily suspicious behavior. While the judgment makes no immediate impact in Illinois, it could potentially open the door to challenges against a search-and-seizure precedent that has roots right here in Chicago.

In Massachusetts, the court threw out a 2011 gun conviction of Jimmy Warren. According to WBUR, Warren was arrested after police pursed him because he matched the vague description of one of three suspects in a break-in: a black man wearing “dark clothing.” Police found an illegal .22 handgun on his person, and he was later convicted of criminal possession.

But the MSJC ruled that ambiguous description was unreasonable, and more notably, that fleeing is not inherently suspect.

The court ruled, as reported by WBUR:

"We do not eliminate flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion analysis whenever a black male is the subject of an investigatory stops. However, in such 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 for FIO [Field Interrogation and Observation] encounters suggests a reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt. Such an individual, 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." (Our emphasis)

The court cited a 2014 ACLU study that showed disproportionate stops against blacks in Boston.

Such a defense is “certainly something we ought to be exploring” in Chicago, Alan Mills, Executive Director at Uptown Peoples Law Center, told Chicagoist.

“It’s particularly notable that the court cited the report done by the ACLU of stop-and-frisks,” Mills said. "The same thing has been established in New York City and Chicago. It might be time to revisit in Illinois.”

A study by the ACLU in 2015 found that, in Chicago, people of color are stopped disproportionately, just as they were in Boston. Blacks were exposed to 72 percent of all stops, and predominantly African-American neighborhoods were unduly targeted, the report found.

“The Massachusetts court is recognizing what’s happening in the world out here—The public perceives it, and the courts perceive it," Mills said. "There’s an unjust relationship between police and young black men.”

Stemming from a 1995 arrest in on the West Side of Chicago, the Supreme Court determined in 2000 that “sudden,” “unprovoked” flight from police constituted suspicious behavior if a “location's characteristics” were relevant (i.e. high crime) in Illinois v. Wardlow.

When asked about the “fleeing felon” rule—which dictates when Chicago police are allowed to use force—Mills said that guideline “ought to be revised.” “It has led to the slaughter of too many young black men by police,” he added. Under current law, police can use deadly force against a suspected felon who is in flight.

Prominent cases in which Chicago police controversially used deadly force include Laquan McDonald and Paul O’Neal. Police footage appears to show McDonald walking away from police when he was fatally shot by in October 2014. O’Neal was shot in the back while fleeing from police after officers attempted to pin his allegedly stolen car. McDonald was carrying a knife when he was shot and killed; O’Neal was unarmed.