How do you feel about the Garner v. Tennessee Court’s ruling? | 2022
Garner v. Tennessee
The constitutionality of using deadly force against criminals is described in Tennessee v. Garner.
How do you feel about the Court’s ruling?
Overview
On October 3, 1974, at around midnight, two Memphis police officers were sent to respond to a burglary call. When they came, one of the policemen shot the suspect who was attempting to scale the rear fence and flee the residence. The police officers were not disciplined by the police department or charged with any crimes, so the father of the deceased filed a lawsuit alleging that they had violated the constitutional rights of his son.
The city of Memphis, its police department, and various other people were also named in the lawsuit. The district court ruled that the shot was allowed under a Tennessee legislation that permits the use of deadly force to halt a fleeing suspect in any situation after the officer has given the fleeing suspect orders.
History of Tennessee v. Garner
The shooting of Edward Garner was a part of a long-standing pattern in the US of using lethal force disproportionately against individuals of color.
The 1970s saw racial tensions.
The legislative component of the civil rights movement peaked following the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, the passing of these Acts had minimal impact on the country’s economic and social landscape. Little had changed in terms of the country’s structural racism, which was evident in housing, jobs, and particularly policing.
In response to these conditions, there was a nationwide eruption of race riots in the middle to late 1960s, which sparked a backlash and raised white people’s concerns of violence. Before the Civil War, there was a widespread fear of Black violence among White people in the United States. White slaveholders lived in continual terror of slave uprisings. After the Civil War and the dissolution of Reconstruction, horrible propaganda portraying Black men as rapists and criminals served to further inflame White anxieties of Black violence.
The Criminal Justice System Has Issues
The criminal justice system reflected these illogical worries in the proportions of Black and White suspects who were arrested, the lengths of their sentences, and, most importantly, in how the police handled Black and White criminals.