Police Use of Deadly Force against Minorities: Ways to Stop the Killing
![handle is hein.journals/hblj9 and id is 5 raw text is: POLICE USE OF DEADLY FORCE AGAINST
MINORITIES: WAYS TO STOP THE
KILLING
Kevin P. Jenkins*
May I ask what we are killing him for when he steals an auto-
mobile and runs off with it? Are we killing him for stealing the
automobile? If we catch him and try him, we throw every pro-
tection around him. We say he cannot be tried until 12 men of
the grand jury indict him, and then he cannot be convicted until
12 men of the petit jury have proved him guilty beyond a rea-
sonable doubt, and then when we have done all that, what do
we do to him? Put him before a policeman and have a policeman
shoot? Of course not. We give him three years in a penitentiary.
It cannot be then that we allow the officer to kill him because he
stole the automobile, because the statute provides only three
years in a penitentiary for that. Is it then for fleeing? And again,
I insist this [is] not a question of resistance to the officer. Is it
for fleeing that we kill him? Fleeing from arrest is also a common
law offense and is punishable by a light penalty, a penalty much
less than that for stealing the automobile. If we are not killing
him for stealing the automobile and are not killing him for fleeing,
what are we killing him for?'
INTRODUCTION
With stories of beatings and other brutality by the police constantly
making headlines in the media, police use of deadly force against mi-
norities is particularly relevant. The police have a long history of using
both excessive and deadly force against suspected criminals.2 Scholars
have examined the connection between police use of excessive or deadly
force and the race of the victims. Researchers seek reasons underlying
disproportionately high rates of the use of excessive or deadly force
against minorities. Is it primarily a function of some form of racial
discrimination? Or is it related to an allegedly higher rate of participation
by Blacks in crimes that would arguably require a more violent response?
One area that may provide a useful structure for examining these issues
* B.A. 1985, Williams College; M.S. 1987, New York University; J.D. 1991, Harvard
Law School.
1. Mattis v. Schnarr, 547 F.2d 1007, 1014-15 (8th Cir. 1977) (vacated and remanded)
(quoting Professor Michael Mikell in 9 ALI Proceedings 186-87 (1931), discussing
the rationale for the fleeing felon rule).
2. Although the primary focus of this Article is the use, by the police, of deadly force
against Blacks and other minorities, information and analysis that has mainly
examined police use of excessive force is also useful. It appears that many of the
factors which may motivate white police officers to engage in the use of excessive
force are also present in the use of deadly force. Deadly force, under certain
circumstances, after all, is simply an extremely high level of excessive force.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hblj9&div=4&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Police Use of Deadly Force against Minorities: Ways to Stop the Killing
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