Presumed Guilty

Adult nonfiction 

     "Today in the United States, much attention is focused on the enormous problems of police violence and racism in law enforcement, but too often that attention fails to place the blame where much of it belongs: on the Supreme Court.  The Framers of the Constitution intended many of its provisions to constrain police, to limit what police can do and to protect the rights of us all, including those who are suspected and accused of crimes.  Yet throughout American history, the court has done an ineffective and indeed a poor job of enforcing those provisions.  On the contrary, it has consistently empowered police and legitimized the racialized policing that especially harms people of color."

     That's the thesis statement of Erwin Chemerinsky's Presumed Guilty: How The Supreme Court Empowered The Police And Subverted Civil Rights.  The man cuts right to the heart  of the matter.  And, in addition to being an excellent no nonsense writer, he's the dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.  

      Basically Chemerinsky is saying the ways we count on remedying police violence and racist behaviors are not enough.  Public outrage doesn't work because it's counterbalanced by all the people pushing for tougher law enforcement.  Even when commissions are formed following especially egregious incidents few of their recommendations  are followed.  The political process is ineffective because police violence is usually directed against people of color whose needs aren't prioritized.  So trying to stop police violence and racist behaviors without taking the Supreme Court's complicity into account is like trying to cure a cancer with bandages and salves.

     Chemerinsky illustrates this dynamic with a chapter on the repugnant police practice of chokeholds.  Recall Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd begged for his life.  Floyd is far from the only unarmed person who died in agony and terror from this procedure.  But we can't outlaw it because of City of Los Angeles v. Lyons.  Adolph Lyons was seriously injured when police officers put him in a chokehold.  The Supreme Court ruled that Lyons couldn't sue, despite suffering harm, because he couldn't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was likely to be put in a chokehold in the future.

     Most of the text is devoted to historical analysis of the Supreme Court's role in aiding and abetting police misconduct.  It's divided into five periods: the decades before 1953 during which the Supreme Court played a minimal role; the Warren years (1953-69) during which the Supreme Court actually favored constitutional protections; the Burger years during which the Supreme Court limited them, and the Rehnquist and Roberts times when the Supreme Court was and is all about empowering police officers.  Themes are illustrated through relevant cases.  But you don't need a law degree to comprehend the material and be totally outraged.

     The last chapter Presumed Guilty contains a ray of hope.  Chemerinsky describes some ways that policing can be really reformed with entities such as Congress overriding the nation's Supreme Court.

     If, like me, you're angered by police violence and convinced that Black lives really need to matter on the streets and in the courts of America you'll find Presumed Guilty to be a must read.

On a purrrsonal note, the heirloom tomatoes that were given to the garden are so good!!! I had BLTs for lunch and supper today.  Since Eugene won't eat tomatoes I gave him eggs to go with his bacon. (Jules)

Those are some strange looking tomatoes.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to the people who grew and donated the tomatoes.  Seed biodiversity is so important, especially under the dramatically evolving growing conditions brought about by climate change.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

    

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