Massachusetts Supreme Court Rules Blacks Have Right to Run from Police

Yes, the state’s highest court really ruled that people can run away from cops so long as they are black. Putting aside the obvious risk this ruling poses for law enforcement, it also says that African-Americans warrant different treatment from white Americans, effectively amounting to the textbook definition of racism:

“Warren attempted to suppress the firearm and statements made after his arrest, arguing the stop was unlawful because police lacked reasonable suspicion (their clothing or bearing a general similarity to the description they had.) The state argued the fact Warren fled strengthens the officer’s reasonable suspicion analysis.

The Massachusetts supreme court rejected that argument, finding that, while the fact of flight is reasonably suspicious, a black male in Boston may have good reason to evade any encounter with police due to systemic racism in the city police department.

The court writes:

We do not eliminate flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion analysis whenever a black male is the subject of an investigatory stop. However, in such circumstances, flight is not necessarily probative of a suspect’s state of mind or consciousness of guilt. Rather, the finding that black males in Boston are disproportionately and repeatedly targeted for FIO encounters suggests a reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt. Such an individual, when approached by the police, might just as easily be motivated by the desire to avoid the recurring indignity of being racially profiled as by the desire to hide criminal activity. Given this reality for black males in the city of Boston, a judge should, in appropriate cases, consider the report’s findings in weighing flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion calculus.”

Source: The Daily Caller