"I Can't Breathe" Why courts can't stop police from using chokeholds -- Confronting the realities of race and policing -- The Supreme Court's essential role in enforcing the Constitution and controlling police -- The Court and policing before 1953 -- Why the Court ignored policing for much of American history -- Judicial silence on Constitutional protections and remedies before 1953 -- Finally enforcing constitutional protections and remedies -- "Each era finds an improvement in law for the benefit of mankind" applying the Bill of Rights to state and local police -- Both limiting and empowering police the Warren Court and the Fourth Amendment -- Miranda trying to solve the problem of coercion in police interrogations -- Protecting the innocent from wrongful convictions -- Safeguards against false eyewitness identifications -- Rights need remedies -- "Only the guilty have something to hide" undermining Fourth Amendment protections -- Hollowing out Miranda -- Refusing to check police eyewitness identification procedures -- Eroding remedies for police misconduct -- Police can stop anyone, at any time, and search them -- You don't really have the right to remain silent -- Ignoring the problem of false eyewitness identifications -- The vanishing remedies for police misconduct -- Overcoming the Supreme Court to reform policing -- The path to meaningful police reform.
Summary:
"Presumed Guilty reveals how the Supreme Court allows the perpetuation of racist policing by presuming that suspects, especially people of color, are guilty. Presumed Guilty, like the best-selling The Color of Law, is a "smoking gun" of civil rights research, a troubling history that reveals how the Supreme Court enabled racist policing and sanctioned law enforcement excesses. The fact that police are nine times more likely to kill Black men than other Americans is no accident; it is the result of an elaborate body of doctrines that allow the police and courts to presume that suspects are guilty before being charged. Demonstrating how the prodefendant Warren Court was a brief historical aberration, Erwin Chemerinsky shows how this more liberal era ended with Nixon's presidency and the ascendance of conservative justices, whose rulings-like Terry v. Ohio and Los Angeles v. Lyons-have permitted stops and frisks, limited suits to reform police departments, and even abetted the use of chokeholds. Presumed Guilty concludes that an approach to policing that continues to exalt "Dirty Harry" can be transformed only by a robust court system committed to civil rights"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.