Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Walter Scott. Freddie Gray. The past year has been dominated by news of encounters between police officers and unarmed black citizens that have resulted in tragedy. Sandra Bland is the latest name on the list. She died in jail from what is reported to be a self-inflicted hanging, but the videotape of the traffic stop that led to her arrest has many questioning why the encounter, which began with an officer stopping Bland for failing to use her turn signal, ever resulted in her arrest. The New York Times evaluated the lawfulness of the stop and arrest of Bland in this article, which reads like a tailored version of Jeff’s paper on traffic stops. Yes, the stop was lawful. Yes, an officer may order a suspect out of his or her car for officer safety. And, yes, a person may be arrested for a minor traffic offense. Unlike Jeff’s paper, the Times article includes commentary from experts about how the officer should have exercised the lawful authority he possessed differently. (After this post was published, a colleague suggested I clarify that, while a person may be arrested for a misdemeanor traffic offense in North Carolina, a person may not be arrested for an offense classified as an infraction.) Mass shootings and armed civilians. Another disturbing trend of the past year—and the past decade before it—is the gunning down of unarmed people by an armed assailant. CNN reports that last night a shooter in a Lafayette, Louisiana movie [...]
Faculty Coordinators
