海角大神

When Kalfani Tur猫聽was learning how to be a cop in Georgia nearly 20 years ago, the question of whether an officer could shoot a suspect in the back often sparked animated conversations in the police academy, he says, both within the classroom and without.

He and fellow cadets sat in lecture halls learning about the department鈥檚 liability issues, the particulars of Georgia鈥檚 use-of-force laws, and the 1985 Supreme Court decision limiting the use of lethal force on fleeing suspects only to those who 鈥減ose a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.鈥澛�

鈥淚n the police academy聽鈥� and I鈥檝e attended three聽鈥� all of that could become a bit dense for most to take in, so we just simplified it and said, 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 shoot a perp in his back,鈥欌�� says Dr. Tur猫, now a professor of criminal justice at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.

Before becoming a scholar, he took five years to serve as a police officer in stints at state, municipal, and county sheriff police departments. 鈥淚 wanted to have just a more informed and local insight into policing, as opposed to textbook knowledge,鈥� says Dr. Tur茅, also a researcher at Yale University鈥檚 Urban Ethnography Project. And for him, 鈥渢he ongoing tensions between police and the African American community聽鈥� my community聽鈥� continue to take place at the local level.鈥�

But in the discussions at the police academies he attended, he also felt the weight of a more generalized code among those who carry firearms. 鈥淭he second part of those discussions we had about shooting perps in the back was, it鈥檚 just cowardly. You just don鈥檛 do it.鈥�

There has long been a certain stigma associated with shooting someone in the back in the United States, following a general code of honor or ethical principle of engagement that has hovered over the use of lethal force in a variety of contexts, experts say.

A red flag

It鈥檚 also become one of the most wrenching focal points in the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last Sunday. In the partial moments of the shooting captured by bystander videos, Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey, who has worked on the force for seven years, can be seen grabbing Mr. Blake鈥檚 shirt and shooting him in the back seven times, even as Mr. Blake鈥檚 three young children sat inside the car.

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation announced agents had recovered a knife from the driver鈥檚 side floorboards of the car Mr. Blake was trying to enter as he tried to walk away, and observers such as Dr. Tur猫聽and others emphasize that these videos leave many questions unanswered.

And as a legal matter, there are in fact a number of contexts in which police officers are permitted to use lethal force against suspects who are trying to flee, especially when they believe the person poses a threat.

鈥淎s a matter of state law or as a matter of constitutional law, the location where someone is shot is not legally relevant,鈥� says Seth W. Stoughton, law professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. 鈥淏ut it is factually relevant. When someone is shot in the back, it is a red flag.鈥�

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 mean for sure that officers did something wrong,鈥� continues Professor Stoughton, who recently co-wrote a book that evaluates the complicated legal landscape surrounding an array of use-of-force rules throughout various states. 鈥淏ut it does mean we should look especially hard at the facts and whether that suspect really did present the type of threat that would justify the use of deadly force.鈥�

Some states, including Florida and Mississippi, maintain a more permissive 鈥渇leeing felon鈥� principle long enshrined in common law, which allows officers to use lethal force to prevent the escape of any kind of felon. Other states, however, limit the use of lethal force to specific felonies with threats of violence.

In Kenosha, it鈥檚 a 鈥渓ast resort鈥�

In a civil case in 1985, the Supreme Court ruled that a Tennessee police officer violated the Constitution when he shot a 15-year-old in the back as he tried to escape arrest for stealing $10 from a wallet during a burglary. Setting the bar high, the 6-3 decision in Garner v. Tennessee held that a police officer must have 鈥減robable cause鈥� to believe that a fleeing suspect poses 鈥渁 significant threat of death or serious injury鈥� before deciding to use deadly force.

The Kenosha Police Department鈥檚 Policy and Procedure manual echoes the high bar set in the Garner decision, stating that deadly force can only be used as 鈥渁 last resort鈥� when an officer has probable cause to believe the suspect fleeing 鈥渉as used deadly force in the commission of a felony and the officer reasonably believes there is no other way to make the arrest.鈥� Officers can also use deadly force when they reasonably believe the fleeing suspect is 鈥渋ntent on endangering human life鈥� or 鈥渋nflicting serious bodily harm.鈥�

In 2016, the Massachusetts Supreme Court held that because of 鈥渢he recurring indignity of being racially profiled,鈥� Black men who run from police shouldn鈥檛 necessarily be considered suspicious. Simply avoiding contact with or fleeing from police officers 鈥渟hould be given little, if any, weight鈥� when it comes to reasonable suspicion, the court said.

鈥淚t gets murky when you start talking about what a 鈥榬easonable officer鈥� would do in these circumstances,鈥� says Ayesha Bell Hardaway, a former prosecutor in Ohio who now teaches law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. As part of the 鈥渜ualified immunity鈥� also provided to police officers by federal courts, 鈥渨e鈥檙e not allowed to second guess them or use hindsight to judge their behavior, but only base the determination of whether what they did was right or wrong within the bounds of their authority under the law.鈥�

鈥淚 think, number one, that there鈥檚 obviously some merit to that position,鈥� Professor Hardaway says of this Massachusetts decision. 鈥淏ut number two, when we get to this place where any sort of use of lethal force by an officer gets a pass, or is deemed to be acceptable, there鈥檚 really nothing that a Black person can do to find shelter or safety under the law. And I wonder whether mere Blackness in and of itself seems to justify any sort of fear or perceived threat.鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 pursue ... I don鈥檛 have to鈥�

When he teaches civilians his noted self-defense techniques, victim鈥檚 rights activist Tim Larkin,聽a former military intelligence officer who helped redesign how special operations personnel trained for close combat, says the general ethical principle against shooting someone in the back is quite clear.

鈥淭o me, if somebody disengages or runs away, then that鈥檚 it聽鈥� I鈥檓 done,鈥� says Mr. Larkin, who has taught his self-defense techniques in a number of civilian, military, and law enforcement contexts. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 pursue, I don鈥檛 keep shooting at their back, because I don鈥檛 have to.鈥�

The job of police officers, however, is indeed to maintain order and ensure the safety of law-abiding citizens. In his view, more and more police departments are failing to train their officers how to physically control suspects with non-lethal methods, emphasizing instead tools such as Tasers. Officials said police attempted to subdue Mr. Blake with such means before he was subsequently shot.

鈥淵ou have to learn how to effectively use the tool of non-lethal violence, because if not, the only option for these cops is to just shoot people,鈥� says Mr. Larkin, who calls firearms 鈥渢he remote control鈥� for self-protection.

Like many who saw the bystander videos, Dr. Tur猫聽says he found himself a bit emotionally unsteady after seeing Mr. Blake shot in the back.

鈥淚 can tell you something that I know, and something that Black folk know,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 always an officer on your six, behind you, tapping at your sense of humanity, stoking the flames, if you will.鈥�

鈥淎nd so we exchange stories about negative contacts with police in passing and in stride because part of it is a release valve, to say, OK, this is an experience in community,鈥� Dr. Tur猫聽continues. 鈥淏ut sometimes that release valve doesn鈥檛 work. Sometimes communities see these incidents, see a Black man being shot in the back, and they explode. And I think the subsequent civil unrest in the issue is just that kind of explosion.鈥�