William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice
Abstract
This Article will argue that African Americans will continue to be fatally shot and killed by police disproportionately and in many cases unjustifiably as long as police are allowed to stop motorists for minor non-violent traffic infractions. These stops do little to combat crime and are not worth the lives they upend and the continued unconstitutional racial discrimination that motivates many of these stops. Although the standards for police use of force need to be reformed and police culture has to be changed, the other reform that is imperative in order to significantly reduce the disproportionate fatal police shootings of African Americans is to minimize interaction between police and African Americans and the best way to accomplish this is by eliminating non-violent traffic stops. Police should only be able to stop civilians for violations that truly pose a danger to public safety. However, this Article is not advocating that traffic infractions be ignored. Rather, this Article will argue that there are safer and more efficient means of enforcing traffic rules without police-initiated traffic stops.
This abstract has been adapted from the author's introduction.
Repository Citation
Kenneth Williams, If Black Lives Really Matter, We Must End Traffic Stops!, 30 Wm. & Mary J. Race, Gender, & Soc. Just. 309 (2024), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/vol30/iss2/4Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Fourth Amendment Commons, Law and Race Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons