The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a person’s race, and law enforcement’s long history of discrimination against people of color, should be taken into account when determining the legality of police seizures.
The court also clarified state law to say that police has seized a person if an objective observer — who is aware that discrimination and biases “have resulted in disproportionate police contacts, investigative seizures, and uses of force against Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color” — would conclude that the person was not free to leave or refuse a request.
“Today, we formally recognize what has always been true: In interactions with law enforcement, race and ethnicity matter,” Justice Mary Yu wrote for the unanimous court. “Therefore, courts must consider the race and ethnicity of the allegedly seized person as part of the totality of the circumstances when deciding whether there was a seizure.”
The case concerns Palla Sum, a person of color, who was sleeping in his car in Tacoma, when police came upon him. An officer ran his plates and determined the car had not been reported stolen.
The officer knocked on the window, asked Sum questions and asked him for identification.
Sum gave a false name and the officer went back to his cruiser to check records. Sum then drove off, crashed into a front lawn and was caught as he attempted to run away.
He was subsequently charged with making a false statement, attempting to flee police and unlawful possession of a firearm, after a gun was found in his car.
But Sum argued his statements to police should be inadmissible, because he was “unlawfully seized” by police after the officer asked for his identification and said that had been car thefts in the area.
From the moment the officer knew the car wasn’t stolen, Sum argued, he didn’t have “reasonable suspicion” to seize Sum, and that’s exactly what their subsequent interaction amounted to.
“A reasonable person in Sum’s position would not have felt free to ignore the
officer,” Sum’s lawyers wrote. They urged the court to adopt a new standard, for what constitutes an illegal seizure. The hypothetical “reasonable person” should be “familiar with patterns of policing in America and the risks a person of color takes in walking away from or disregarding police interaction.”
The court agreed, writing that an objective observer would have concluded that Sum was not free to refuse the officer’s requests “due to the deputy’s display of authority.”
“At that point, Sum was seized,” Yu wrote, “this seizure was not supported by a warrant, reasonable suspicion, or any other authority of law.”
In an amicus brief, public defender and civil rights groups argued that law enforcement’s history of discriminating against people of color needs to be reflected in how the law is interpreted.
“Centuries of violence and dehumanizing treatment of people of color have required BIPOC communities to develop survival strategies that demand over-compliance with law enforcement,” the groups, including the King County Department of Public Defense and the ACLU of Washington, wrote. “For courts to continue to blind themselves to that reality when evaluating the freedom an individual would feel to unilaterally terminate a law enforcement contact is to further enshrine existing racial disparities into the legal system.”
The “objective observer” standard that the court adopted evolved from a first-in-the-nation 2018 rule change that the court implemented to try to improve diversity on juries.
For years, prosecutors and defense attorneys have been able to exclude a certain number of potential jurors for virtually any reason. They couldn’t exclude jurors explicitly because of race, but if a prosecutor moved to exclude a Black juror it was virtually impossible to prove that it was because of race.
But the state Supreme Court changed the rules to ban any juror challenges based on “implicit, institutional, and unconscious” racial bias. If an “objective observer” could see race as a factor, the juror challenge should not be allowed.
At least 13 other states have since made similar changes or are considering them.
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I guess I’ll have to haul around a certified genealogy to even think of visiting Washington state.
At least one of the ancestors should be good for quashing a parking ticket.
Totally idiotic. So, if I’m a person of color, any color, I don’t have to stop, show I’d, etc.
What about the gun? No mention of that. Washington State like DC has gone to the mentally insane. By the time, those who voted for the left wakes up it will be to late.
” Its Difficul to Remove Chains from Fools that they Revere. ” Author Unknown To Paraphrzse this Quote
YET again, Washing a ton of &&&&, shows its not worth being part of this nation.. TIME to break the entire western seaboard off the continent.
The Washington State Supreme Court quite obviously isn’t qualified to be doing the job it is supposed to be doing. Skin color doesn’t break laws—people do.
Make that “The long history of blacks discrimination against people of white color by failing to pull their own weight in society and create enough of their own self-governing wealth and personal integrity on an equal playing field of law enforced equal opportunity and committing illegal crime seizures of others property in disproportionate people contacts mostly of their of race, allows them to create an indigenous community of rebellious thieves, drug users and murderers, their own people the first to be victimized, as they accomplish acts upon themselves that require police to arrive on the scene and not trust a one of them nor dare turn their backs on them.”
” The fault, my dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings”.,,,Not the police.
Remember to them though, being black IS A pass for crime.
“a person’s race, and law enforcement’s long history of discrimination against people of color, should be taken into account when determining the legality of police seizures.”,,,,” disproportionate police contacts, investigative seizures, and uses of force against Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color” — would conclude that the person was not free to leave or refuse a request.”,,,,,,,Nor should any criminal of any color be free to walk away. These criminals who write these laws do so not to end racial discriminations because they are EXTREMELY racial themselves, but are only there to protect the party members of their criminal political party or gang. Those who wrote these laws are the ones in need of disproportionate police contacts and investigative seizures of their Emails, political affiliations and organization memberships. Their proposed racial cures are more racially discriminative than what they accuse others of.
— who is aware that discrimination and biases “have resulted in disproportionate police contacts, investigative seizures, and uses of force against Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color” — would conclude that the person was not free to leave or refuse a request.
We have allowed the Blacks and Mexicans to think that they are above the law, they don’t have to follow the law or a request by a police officer.
I.A.W. U.S. Census & FBI (Table 43a)
Black males make up about 7% of the U.S. population but every year commit ~56% of all the murders and ~64% of all robberies in the U.S… Every year in the U.S. there are ~6,000 African-Americans men, women and children killed and 92% of them were killed by fellow African-Americans.
“Black people make up 23% of New York’s population, but they commit 75% of all shootings. …
Whites are 33% of the city’s population, but they commit fewer than 2% of all shootings…
Now these fools in Washington State are giving people of color criminals the right to tell police officers to buzz off just because of their race. Just look at the behavior the destructive, unethical, immoral Democrats encourage, promote, protect and support –
Remember, the non-Trump patriots of all colors are being used (“useful idiots;” NOT a “racial” definition, but a historical definition) to divide the country, so when the Great Reset begins in earnest, which means depopulating 90% of the planet, the first 100% to go are the Trump patriots. Once they are gone, then the useful idiots will be taken out…and their screaming of “racism!” will fall upon deaf ears, for the Trump patriots will be long gone to protect their rights.
New York City was A Criminals Paradise until they implemented “ STOP AND FRISK” . It has been reported that Black Males represent 8% of the population and commit 44% of the crime! The fast majority of Terrorists around the World are Muslims! The Police cannot ignore the ODDS when confronting potential criminals because If they do they can end up Dead! If you are hunting Big Game in Africa you better know what can potentially kill you and what can not…Period!
Exactly. IF a dalmation bites someone, you don’t go looking for a golden retriever..
Profiling? Discrimination? If a Dalmatian has been biting the children in the neighborhood.
I think we’re going to look for a black and white dog. Not a white poodle.
So, this just gives people permission to break the law. We need to all drop hyphens from who we are and just be Americans. No one mentions the elephant in the room for all the open looting, aggressive BS on the streets and subways etc. And it should be discussed. Policies like this are divisive and certainly helps no one.
This is overkill. Right out of the gate, the guy lied about his identity. Then while the officer is checking back at his police car, the guy takes off, crashes and tries running away. This has nothing to do with color. It has to do with stupidity. Let the cops do their jobs. If you are truly innocent, that will be proven. Resisting and lying is asking for trouble.
According to this asinine legal approach, the “objective observer” also knows that people of color commit most crimes, especially violent crimes. So, police should target people of color for vigilant protection of society, obviously.
Madness!! Madness!!
Do you expect anything else, from libtards?
Sleeping in your car is a crime? Did he break a law? Why were cops asking for ID, if he didn’t violate a law?
Police need probable cause to believe a law was broken. Seems like it was the cops that broke the law and violated his rights. Prosecute the cops, for once.
Why not? Cleavage definition and hairstyle have historically been a criteria in traffic stops. Hubba hubba.
“From the moment the officer knew the car wasn’t stolen, Sum argued, he didn’t have “reasonable suspicion” to seize Sum…..”
Yes, except: “Sum gave a false name and the officer went back to his cruiser to check records. Sum then drove off, crashed into a front lawn and was caught as he attempted to run away.”
” The hypothetical “reasonable person” should be “familiar with patterns of policing in America and the risks a person of color takes in walking away from or disregarding police interaction.” ”
“Patterns of policing” my Biden!
If you are “familiar” all that you should be aware that you should be aware that IGNORANCE is no excuse from the law. I think it’s racist to insist that a black man can’t figure this out.
Should not a person of LGBTQWTF also get a pass?
Don’t give them any ideas.
“The court agreed, writing that an objective observer would have concluded that Sum was not free to refuse the officer’s requests “due to the deputy’s display of authority.””
BUT, the law has set forth the authority of law enforcement officers to perform the afore mentioned actions.
So, you cannot have it both ways.
The left always like, having things both ways.
You have hate crime laws, but only one race ever gets charge with it.
You have sexism laws, but only one sex ever is seen to ‘violate’ them.
You have laws saying kids are ‘mature enough’ to screw or get sex change stuff at 15 and under, but then they say you are NOT mature enough to own guns/buy guns/smoke etc, till 21…
If you think like a criminal, act like a criminal ,worship criminals, then that what we will see you as a criminal