RUN-INS

Police Must Re-Earn Trust, Citizens Must Help Fight Crime

To the list of activities that sometimes put African-Americans under
undeserved suspicion, including driving while black and shopping while
black, the Supreme Court has added running while black. At least that is
how some residents of high-crime, minority communities are interpreting the
justices' ruling that fleeing at the sight of a law enforcement officer
can, in conjunction with other circumstances, justify police in conducting
a stop-and-frisk search.

To much of America, running away upon spotting a police officer does on its
face appear suspicious, and many people will have trouble conjuring up
circumstances in which such behavior is anything less than an admission of,
at the least, a guilty conscience.

However, in some neighborhoods, police have earned a well-merited
reputation for harassing citizens, especially young black and Hispanic
males. When police tend to stop, question and even frisk a community's
inhabitants for simply engaging in conversation with peers on a sidewalk or
sitting in groups on park benches, running away from police can be no more
than a means of avoiding a demoralizing hassle.

Highly publicized instances of police brutality (such as in the case of
Abner Louima, who was tortured by New York City police officers), of
questionable police shootings of innocents (such as in the case of
Houstonian Pedro Oregon) and of racially motivated police stops of
motorists and international travelers - all give rise to fears that any
interaction with police can be unhealthy.

Police in communities hard hit by crime would be more effective if they
worked with area residents to battle unlawfulness. In many communities,
including in Houston, police are working hard to regain the trust of the
hardworking, law-abiding people who do not deserve to be treated like
criminals just because they live in high-crime areas. Likewise, those
citizens must be willing to work with police to report crimes and to stand
with police against those who would make their neighborhoods unsafe.