For the case Tennessee v Garner, it involved 2 Memphis police officers, Elton Hymon and Leslie Wright. The incident actually occurred in 1974 and these two police officers were called to a burglary call. The neighbor next door to the house of the possibly burglary notifies Officers Hymon and Wright that she heard glass breaking and someone was breaking in next door (Brody and Acker, 2010). Officer Wright lets dispatch know himself and Officer Hymon are on the scene; however, Officer Hymon proceeds around the back of the house. As Officer Hymon approaches the rear, he hears a door shut and sees someone running from the area. This individual later identified as Edward Eugene Garner approaches a fence, starts to proceed over it and Officer Hymon …show more content…
In deciding such a suit, the Court has to announce what the constitutional rule is—and so in Gamer’s lawsuit, the Court had to say what amount of force counted as “reasonable” under the Fourth Amendment.* However, deciding the constitutional standard for Garner's civil rights suit did not disturb what the standard had to be for state criminal law prosecutions. States still have the authority to dictate under what circumstances police could justifiably use deadly force, and so avoid punishment under state law (Flanders and Welling, …show more content…
The case of Tennessee v Garner was clearly a case of do not shoot. Even if Officer Hymon felt the suspect would not be apprehended if he did not shoot him, does not justify his actions. Yes, technology was not advanced as it is now but by using any means necessary to apprehend a suspect was extreme for that era.
Similar arguments have persisted to the present day as the public has consistently denounced civilian homicides by police officers. People have accused officers of shooting arbitrarily, or unjustifiably, and most frequently of exhibiting racism in such situations. These accusations have been supported by numerous empirical studies showing that police officers kill African-Americans at a disproportionately higher rate than whites (Tennenbaum,
Hymon was “reasonably sure” that he did not see a weapon in Garner’s hands. To Hymon Garner appeared to be 17 or 18 years old and about 5’5 to 5’7 feet tall. Hymon began to give verbal commands of “Police,” “halt” as he walked towards Garner because it appeared that he about climbed the fence. Garner disregarded the command and started to rise to elude police. With the belief that Garner would get away if he made it to the other side of the fence, Hymon shot him.
The case of Tennessee v Garner The case of Tennessee v Garner is about use of deadly force, officer shot and killed and unarmed suspect in an ongoing robbery. Facts of the case Memphis officers Leslie Wright and Elton Hymon were called about a robbery taking place. Once they arrived on the scene the neighbor who called the robbery told the officers she heard glass breaking and someone was trying to break in.
Officer Hymon used his flashlight and could tell that Garner was unarmed. Officer Hymon then told Garner to stop but Garner started to climb the chain link fence. That 's when Officer Hymon shot and killed Garner. A purse and ten dollars were found in Garner 's possession from the house. Hymon admitted in court that Garner appeared to be unarmed.
One primary legislative cause of the difficulties in prosecuting police is the 1986 the United States supreme courts case, Tennessee v. Garner, which did not allows usages of deadly force by an officer unless "the officer has a good-faith belief that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others" but the rhetorically vague term "good-faith belief" allowed an objective reason to kill and created a barrier in proving an officer is guilty in court system. While this old legislative piece accounts the difficulties in prosecuting police, the traditional unspoken rule of police officers not to report against colleagues cause corruption in the process of prosecution which is another source of
Desma Hamilton Mr. Swartzendruber American History 21 August 2015 We’ve heard many stories about police shooting people… and this is another one of those cases. In St. Louis this week, Mansur Ball-Bey, an 18 year old, was shot in the back after getting into a disagreement with local officers. It’s said that officers were carrying out a search warrant in the north part of the city when two men ran out the back of a house. According to Dotson, the chief of police, Ball-Bey had turned and pointed at a gun, therefore causing the officers to fire.
Officers heard a door slam and saw the suspect running across the backyard. Garner stopped at a chain link fence. With the aid of a flashlight cops saw no sign of a weapon, and, were reasonably sure he was unarmed. While Garner was at the base of the fence, police called out for the suspect to stop and proceeded to take a few steps toward him. Garner began to climb over the fence and attempt to escape knowing if he didn’t he was
1. Facts: “Tennessee vs. Garner” - the decision of the Supreme Court of the USA in 1985 (471 US (1985), which deals with the application of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution . According to this decision, a police officer pursuing a suspect should not endanger life-saving escape, if the fugitive does not pose a threat to the life and health of others and / or the policeman himself. October 3, 1974 around 22:45 the officers police Memphis Lesli Rayt and Elton Haimon were on call on a burglary. Haimon walked around the house, while Wright maintained contact with the police station with the help of a walkie-talkie.
His complaint alleged that the shooting violated Garner’s Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. Officer Hymon was named a defendant, along with the Police Department, and the Mayor as well as the city of Memphis. After a bench trial the District Court dismissed the claims against the Mayor and the Director, because of a lack of evidence. The court concluded that Hymon’s actions were constitutional, because they where authorized by the Tennessee statute. The court said that Hymon had exercised his only reasonable and practicable means of preventing Garner’s
That someone was Edward Garner, him running across the backyard made him a fleeing suspect, he was an appellees respondent decent. Garner stopped at a six-foot chain link fence which was at the edge of the yard. Hymon used a flashlight to see Garner’s face but he saw no weapon and though not certain was reasonably sure and figured that Garner was unarmed. Hymon thought that Garner was seventeen or eighteen years old and 5’5-5’7. Garner was actually an eighth grader fifth teen years old 5’4 and was about 100-110 pounds.
The common denominator we see between these present day cases and the Groveland Four Case is this on-going issue of racial profiling and police brutality. The Groveland Four, with the exception of Ernest Thomas, were arrested and then subject to assault by the very police who were supposed to uphold the law. This police brutality led to their coerced confessions which convicted them in front of an all-white jury. Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin, who were on their way to the retrial, personally driven by Sheriff Willis V. McCall, the same Sheriff who had originally arrested these men and participated in their assault. Along the way, the Sheriff claimed that the defendants had tried to grab his gun, and he shot them in self-defense.
The case of Tamir Rice is a strong example of how unjust police officers can be when Tamir was shot and murdered for playing around in a park with no remorse. According to an online source “Towards the end of the call, he adds that the person pointing the gun ‘is probably a juvenile.’ Tragically, that crucial information was not relayed to the responding officers (“Tamir Rice”).” The initial incident happened in response to a police dispatch call, Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback were dispatched to the park where a caller had reported that there was a young male seen pointing a pistol at people in the park. According to the same online source “Tamir was by himself, playing in a gazebo when two police officers pulled onto the grass right alongside the gazebo.
His neighbor appears to be intoxicated and becomes violent when the officer reaches for his handcuffs. He takes a swing at the officer and then attempts his escape. Thirty years prior, the officer would have had the option to draw his weapon and fire or risk a dangerous car chase. Thankfully, he has a Taser gun on his belt. He is able to draw, fire, and apprehend the subject with little effort and no loss of life.
I say this because the police officers did not have to go to the extreme of using excessive force in order for Armstrong to cooperate with them. They used the only thing that was beneficial to them and it was to bring out the taser. Even though the officers were still granted qualified immunity, what about the fact of Armstrong being killed. It seemed as if the police officers were in the wrong, no one took the time to care about what happened to Armstrong. There are some other people who were in situations that involved police officers using excessive force.
Intro According to USA Today, on average there were 96 cases of a white police officer killing a black person each year between 2006 and 2012(citation). Some might argue that because these victims were black, police officers targeted them. Americans need to dismiss from their minds that race is a determining factor of violence or threats. The media is the main catalyst for implanting race as an issue in Americans minds. The news media is solely responsible for blacks thinking that they are targeted by white police officers.
This idea came up in a major Supreme Court case in 1985 called Tennessee v. Garner where the judges questioned the constitutionality of shooting at an unarmed suspect. In this case, a police officer from Memphis came out to a neighborhood at night to investigate a complaint of a possible burglary. Upon arrival at the house in question, the officer heard a noise and saw a person trying to escape over the fence. When the suspect did not stop after a warning from the officer, the policeman shot and killed the suspect. After a long series of trials, the previous statute of Tennessee was overturned and replaced with a new one that included a new phrase.