PAX 212 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: The New Jim Crow, American Bar Association, United States Court Of Appeals For The Ninth Circuit
15 May 2019
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Chapter 2 – The New Jim Crow
• TVs image of crime
o Similar to evening news
o Focus on individual stories of crime and punishment
o Told from point of view of law enforcement
▪ I.e. charming cop struggles with their own issues while trying
to solve a horrible crime
▪ Achieves moral victory by arresting bad guy
▪ Romanticize law enforcement
▪ Gloss over brutal system of radicalized control
o Perpetuates myth that we have to keep our streets safe ad homes
secure by finding dangerous criminals and punishing them
• Many people never meet with an attorney
• Witnesses are routinely paid and coerced by government
• People plead guilty to crimes to avoid severe penalties
• Children sent to adult prisons
• Rules of law and procedure
o Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt
o Probable cause
o Hard to find those things in real life
• War on Drugs
o Convictions for drug offenses are the most important cause of prison
boom
o Nothing has contributed more to systematic mass incarceration of
people of color
o Common myths
▪ War is aimed at ridding the nation of big time dealers
• Most people in state prisons for drug offenses have no
history of violence or selling activity
▪ Concerned only with dangerous drugs
• Nonviolent minor offenses
o Point of entry
▪ Arrest by police
Rules of the Game
• Absence of significant constraints on exercise of police discretion
• Supreme Court facilitates drug war
o Fail to use 4th amendment prosecution against unreasonable searches
and seizures by police
o Fourth Amendment
▪ Governs searches and seizures by police
▪ Prevents arbitrary searches
o California v. Acevedo
▪ 1982-1991 court heard 30 cases involving narcotics and the 4th
amendment
o Approved mandatory drug testing of employees and schools
o Upheld random searches and sweeps of public schools and students
o Permitted police to obtain search warrants based on anonymous
informants tip
o Expanded governments wiretapping authority
o Legitimatized use of paid informants by police
o Approval of helicopter surveillance of homes without a warrant
Unreasonable Suspicion
• Terry v. Ohio
o 1968
o Supreme court ruled that if and when a cop observes unusual conduct
by someone the cop believes to be dangerous the cop can protect
himself and others in the area by conducting a limited search
o Stop and frisk rule
o Justice Douglas
▪ Dissented
▪ Gave cops too much power
▪ Objected to notion that cops could conduct warrantless
searches whenever they pleased
Just Say No
• Florida v. Bostick
o Terrance Bostick
▪ 28 yr. old black man
▪ Sleeping in back seat of grey hound bus
▪ Two cops were looking for people who might be carrying drugs
▪ Cops searched his bag where he had a pound of cocaine
▪ Arrested him and was convicted of trafficking cocaine
o Suscpionless police sweeps of buses in interstate travel
o Cops never inform people that they can remain silent or refuse
• Confused about this **************
• Schneckloth vs. Bustamonte
o 1973
o If wavier of ones rights to refuse consent were truly knowing and
voluntary it would create doubt as to whether consent searches would
continue to be conducted
Poor Excuse
• To perform a drug investigation a cop has to ask to speak with someone and
then get their consent to be searched
o “May I Speak to you?” implies consent
• Almost no one refuses
