To “avoid the recurring indignity of being racially profiled.” it is perfectly reasonably for black men to run from police, that is according to The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

A gun conviction was thrown out for a Boston man on Tuesday after the court reviewed studies presented to them by the American Civil Liberties Union and the city’s police department which proved that black men were much more likely to be stopped and frisked between 2007 and 2010.

Jimmy Warren was targeted by Police on Dec 18 2011 when police were investigating a burglary in the area, officers had been given a vague description of three black suspects in hoodies.

Warren and a man he was with both fled the police when they tried to approach the, Later Warren was found, searched and arrested.

Although nothing illegal was found on Warren he was still charged for possession of an unregistered .22 caliber firearm that was found in a nearby yard!

He was convicted on the weapons charge, however the Supreme Court has overturned that because there was no right to stop Warren based on the “vague” and “ubiquitous” descriptions.

The court found:

“Lacking any information about facial features, hairstyles, skin tone, height, weight, or other physical characteristics, the victim’s description ‘contribute[d] nothing to the officers’ ability to distinguish the defendant from any other black male’ wearing dark clothes and a ‘hoodie’ in Roxbury,”

The court also said:

“We do not eliminate flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion analysis whenever a black male is the subject of an investigatory stop,”

“However, in such circumstances, flight is not necessarily probative of a suspect’s state of mind or consciousness of guilt.”

“Rather, the finding that black males in Boston are disproportionately and repeatedly targeted for FIO [Field Interrogation and Observation] encounters suggests a reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt,”

“Such an individual, when approached by the police, might just as easily be motivated by the desire to avoid the recurring indignity of being racially profiled as by the desire to hide criminal activity.”

“Given this reality for black males in the city of Boston, a judge should, in appropriate cases, consider the report’s findings in weighing flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion calculus,”

Woah!