It has been just over a year since the May 24, 2020 death of 46-year-old Black man George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The event spurred nationwide – and worldwide – protests and a movement to change policing, especially as applied to Black people and...
police brutality
Supreme Court: Shooting a suspect is a constitutional ‘seizure’
Roxanne Torres didn’t know what was happening when men in dark tactical vests began chasing her car. She thought she was being carjacked. She fled in her Toyota FJ Cruiser, but the men shot her twice in the back. She still managed to get away. She went to a hospital...
What kinds of police raids should we tolerate?
Another high-profile case of mistaken identity recently played out in Nashville. Police officers, acting on bad information, raided a family home at 6:05 a.m. They apparently knocked but gave the family no time to answer before knocking their door down with a ram. Can...
Can police kill with impunity? The ‘qualified immunity’ doctrine
After the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, protests erupted around the globe. Protestors decried the use of excessive force in these cases and in a long list of others over the previous months, years and decades.As a...