... running from the police is suspicious behavior. It is most definitely NOT a reason for being shot, or beaten, but it is a reason to be detained and questioned.
While many people may think this way, it's not exactly true, at least not in an unqualified way. As it happens, U.S. courts apply a double standard to people running away from police. At the top, the US Supreme Court has ruled that running from police in and by itself is no justification for arrest. But while running doesn’t provide
probable cause for arrest, it might provide
reasonable suspicion. Since police officers must in both cases have ‘specific facts’ (other than running) to warrant a stop, reasonable suspicion may be used when circumstances warrant. Based on decisions reached in lower courts including state SCs, these circumstances are frequently taken literally by using the
location they occur in: if the running happens in a ‘bad’ neighborhood, the combination provides reasonable suspicion without further ’specific facts’. Running in a ‘good’ neighborhood doesn’t. The socio-economics of this contribute to perceived unfairness and subsequent public reaction.
There is, however, a problem with police adhering to these ‘rules’. Yes, many of them mean well and try hard in a difficult job. But at the same time it doesn’t help that the general education level of most US police officers is low (often no GED required), the required police training short (around 18 weeks on average), and the personal history of candidates rarely matters. Add to that the short-circuited street instructions officers receive from their superiors, and I wouldn’t want to bet on any of them knowing the salient details, let alone following up on them. So what you get is arrest procedures (and the level of force used with it) developing within the constraints of jurisprudence and street experience, bouncing like a pinball against various bumpers until something goes sufficiently wrong for the general public to notice. Then, with luck, the pinball machine is adjusted, the ‘game’ resumes until the following ‘tilt’ condition occurs.
Having said this, I don’t want to appear too negative or cynical, but I also think it’s naive not to take such considerations into account. Policing is a necessary and difficult task, and requires constant public vigilance to stay within reasonable bounds. If the police is to blame for transgressions in certain circumstances, in too many cases so is the public for letting them.
