Black Men Have Legitimate Reasons to Flee Police, Rules Massachusetts Court

The state’s highest court, tossing out a Boston man’s gun conviction, ordered judges Tuesday to consider whether a black person who walks away from a police officer is attempting to avoid the “recurring indignity of being racially profiled” — and not because the person is guilty of a crime.

 

The Supreme Judicial Court overturned the conviction of Jimmy Warren, citing studies by the American Civil Liberties Union and Boston police, both of which found that black people were more likely to be stopped and frisked by police between 2007 and 2010.

 

 

“The finding that black males in Boston are disproportionately and repeatedly targeted for [what police call “Field Interrogation and Observations,” or stops] suggests a reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt,’’ Justice Geraldine Hines wrote in the court’s unanimous opinion.

 

Civil rights advocates lauded the decision, but police insisted that they did not engage in racial profiling.

 

“This is huge for advocates who have been trying to get courts to recognize racial profiling across the country,” said Boston NAACP president Michael Curry.