By Rasheed Stewart Associate Editor, Volume 23 The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, passed following the publicly videotaped 1991 beating of African American motorist Rodney King by four LAPD officers and the catastrophic Los Angeles Riots a year later, gave the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice an extraordinary […]
use of force
Task Force on Chicago PD Reforms Highlights Race Problems
By Dan Cho Associate Editor, Vol. 21 Contributing Editor, Vol. 22 Last December, after the release of a dash cam video showing Jason Van Dyke, a white Chicago police officer, shooting Laquan MacDonald, an unarmed black teenager and in the midst of the subsequent protests, Mayor Rahm Emanuel created a task force to “review the system […]
The case of Tamir Rice: race, self-defense, and the objective reasonableness standard
By Emmanuela Jean-Etienne Associate Editor, Vol. 21 On a cold November afternoon in Cleveland, twelve-year-old Tamir Rice sat alone at a gazebo outside the Cudell Recreation Center, a place he frequented daily.[1] In his hand was an airsoft pistol and, according to the witness who would later call 9-1-1, he was pointing it at cars […]
Michigan Journal of Race & Law 