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69 Ind. L.J. 659 (1993-1994)
Factors for Reasonable Suspicion: When Black and Poor Means Stopped and Frisked

handle is hein.journals/indana69 and id is 667 raw text is: Factors for Reasonable Suspicion: When Black and Poor Means Stopped and Friskedt DAVID A. HARRIS* INTRODUCTION In 1992, the release of the song Cop Killer' by the rap musician Ice-T ignited a nationwide protest. The song, an imagined response to police mistreatment of African Americans, incensed law enforcement groups2 with lyrics such as I'm 'bout to bust some shots off, I'm 'bout to dust some cops off' and die, pig, die.' A boycott of Time-Warner, Inc., whose subsidiary distributed the recording, resulted in the elimination of the song from the album and the eventual release of Ice-T from his recording contract.4 Other lyrics of the song, however, received scant attention. They reveal what may be the source of the anger behind the speaker's violent reverie: I'm 'bout to kill me somethin' A pig stopped me for nuthin' ' Unfortunately, being stopped for nothing-or almost nothing-has become an all-too-common experience for some Americans since 1968, when the United States Supreme Court decided Terry v. Ohio.6 Terry marked a transformation in the law: For the first time, the Court allowed a criminal search and seizure without probable cause.7 From Terry forward, the question t © Copyright 1994 by David A. Hams. All rights reserved. * Associate Professor of Law, University of Toledo College of Law. LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center, 1988; J.D., Yale Law School, 1983. My thanks to Daniel Steinbock and Lawrence Ponoroff for their insightful comments on an earlier draft. Thanks also to my research assistant, Michael Merlino, and to Marcia Minnick, my excellent secretary. 1. ICE-T, Cop Killer, on BODY COuNT (Warner Brothers Records 1992). 2. Jerry Seper, 'Cop Killer Song Spurs Time Boycott, WASH. TiMEs, June 11, 1992, at A5 (law enforcement groups say song advocates the killing of police officers). 3. IcE-T, supra note 1. 4. Sheila Rule, lce-T and Warner Are Parting Company, N.Y. TiMES, Jan. 29, 1993, at C6. 5. IcE-T, supra note 1. 6. Terry, 392 U.S. I (1968). Of course, police officers stopped and frisked people, especially African Americans, on very little evidence, before Terry; perhaps it would be more accurate to say Terry legitimated the practice. See Gregory H. Williams, The Supreme Court and Broken Promises: The Gradual but Continual Erosion of Terry v. Ohio, 34 How. L.J. 567 (1991) (recounting widespread use of warrantless searches and seizures on the street against African Americans). 7. The first case to allow any search and seizure on less than probable cause was Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523 (1967). Camara, however, involved the search of a building for violations of city housing codes. Terry was the first case to allow a search and seizure on less than probable cause in the context of more typical street crimes. See infra notes 25-52 and accompanying

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