Reasonable

I listened to another episode of More Perfect, stories of major cases at the Supreme Court. This one was 68 minutes.

Back in 1984 Dethorne Graham was suffering from insulin shock an acting erratically. Police roughly subdued him and cuffed him. Graham was incensed by his treatment and sued the police department for excessive force. In 1989 the case reached the Supremes.

During the hearing there was lots of talk about what the cops were doing. Justice Thurgood Marshall kept coming back to Graham. What had he done to deserve that kind of treatment? The lawyer sputtered a good long time over that question. Chief Justice William Rhenquist wrote the unanimous opinion that the cop’s behavior must be reasonable.

The case went back to the lower court with this standard in mind – and Graham lost.

And over the last couple decades every case of a cop killing an unarmed black man has used this ruling to acquit the cop.

The ruling wrapped the definition of reasonableness rather tightly. The jury can only look at the moment that prompted the cop to pull out the gun. In that exact moment – such as the suspect reaching into a pocket and pulling out … something – was the cop acting reasonably in opening fire?

This standard is now being challenged and various Circuit Courts have come to different conclusions. Rhenquist’s ruling also had a tiny bit about looking at the total situation. So far the Supremes haven’t taken a case that might resolve the differences.

One challenge to this ruling says that if a cop was afraid because he claims the suspect was drawing a gun – there had better be a gun. If not, then the cop goes to jail.

Another challenge is over that little bit about the total situation. And one important piece that Marshall hammered at: Did the suspect deserve to die for what he did?

I had a couple related thoughts. The episode featured a cop who was scared of the suspect, so shot him. Would that cop have been so scared if the suspect was white? One of the cases mentioned in this episode was Tamir Rice, the pre-teen who was carrying a toy gun. Why did the cop shoot him on sight and not even bellow out “DROP THAT!” Why didn’t the cop take a couple seconds to determine if there was a threat right now?