Just Take away Their Guns: The Hidden Racism of Terry v. Ohio
![handle is hein.journals/frdurb23 and id is 327 raw text is: JUST TAKE AWAY THEIR GUNS: THE
HIDDEN RACISM OF TERRY V. OHIO
Adina Schwartz*
I. Introduction
Noted social scientist James Q. Wilson recently argued that the
best way to deal with illegal gun-carrying in the United States is to
increase police use of stops and frisks, i.e. detaining individuals for-
cibly and patting down the outer surfaces of their clothing for
weapons.1 Wilson conceded that if his proposal were instituted,
[i]nnocent people will be stopped. Young black and Hispanic
men will probably be stopped more often than older white Anglo
males or women of any race.2 These expected consequences,
however, did not give Wilson any pause. Instead of deploring the
expected racially disparate impact, analyzing its normative implica-
tions, or considering its causes or likely effects on race relations,
Wilson simply concluded that the use of stops and frisks must be
escalated if we are serious about reducing drive-by shootings, fa-
tal gang wars and lethal quarrels in public places.3
Wilson's proposal is not merely an abstract possibility. During
the second half of 1992, prominent criminologist Lawrence Sher-
man collaborated with the Kansas City (Missouri) Police Depart-
ment in conducting the Kansas City Gun Experiment.4 In a
* Associate Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of
New York; B.A., Oberlin College, 1971; Ph.D., The Rockefeller University, 1976; As-
sistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Yale University, 1975-1982; J.D., Yale
Law School, 1985; legal practice 1985-1993, including Associate Appellate Counsel,
Federal Defender Services Unit Appeals Bureau, New York City Legal Aid Society.
Versions of this paper were presented to the CUNY Law and Society Study Group,
March 1995; to the New York Group of the Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs,
February 1995; at the 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology,
November 1994; and at a conference on International Perspectives on Crime, Drugs
and Public Order at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, June 1994. I would like to
thank those present for their comments and James B. Jacobs for comments on an
early draft.
1. James Q. Wilson, Just Take Away Their Guns, N.Y. TIMES MAGAZINE, Mar.
20, 1994, at 47 [hereinafter Just Take Away Their Guns]; James Q. Wilson, What to Do
about Crime, 98 COMMENTARY, Sept. 1994, at 25, 28 (Sept. 1994).
2. Just Take Away Their Guns, supra note 1, at 47.
3. Id.
4. For the fullest account of the Kansas City Gun Experiment, see LAWRENCE W.
SHERMAN, ET AL., THE KANSAS CITY GUN EXPERIMENT (National Institute of Justice
Research in Brief, January 1995) [hereinafter KANSAS CITY GUN EXPERIMENT,](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/frdurb23&div=17&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Just Take away Their Guns: The Hidden Racism of Terry v. Ohio
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