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Law and Race Commons

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Law Enforcement and Corrections

Washington and Lee University School of Law

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

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How To Get Away With Murder: When A White Male Police Officer Kills A Young Black Person, Mitchell F. Crusto Jan 2022

How To Get Away With Murder: When A White Male Police Officer Kills A Young Black Person, Mitchell F. Crusto

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Systemic racism in policing allows police officers, in particular white men, to continue to perpetuate the violent killings of Black people. This violence is not accidental. Rather it is intentional and allowed to continue due to a failure by the Supreme Court to hold police officers accountable. This Article explains how the doctrines of qualified immunity, willful intent, and objective reasonableness, as condoned by the Court, allow police officers to “get away with murder.”