Black Men May Have Good Reason to Flee Police, says Court

The Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts says that black men in Boston have reason to avoid police and should not be considered suspicious for doing so.

The observation came as part of a gun conviction case that the court threw out on September 20. The Supreme Judicial Court noted in its ruling that Boston police had "far too little information" to stop Jimmy Warren after watching him and another black man walking in a Boston neighborhood 30 minutes after police learned of a report of a home break-in in 2011.

The court cited Boston police data and a 2014 ACLU report that found that blacks were disproportionately stopped by Boston police. It noted "the finding that black males in Boston are disproportionately and repeatedly targeted for FIO (field interrogation and observation) suggests a reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt."

The court said that black men who avoid 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."

The court concluded "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."

Warren ran when police approached him. Officers arrested him in a backyard after a foot chase and charged him with unlawful possession of a firearm after finding a hand gun in the front yard.