Abstract
From before the birth of the republic to the present day, police brutality has represented a signature injustice of state authority, especially against African Americans. Defining that injustice is the lack of accountability for official misconduct. The rule of law has systematically failed to deter lawbreaking by its law enforcement departments. This Article explores the various legal and institutional means by which accountability should be imposed and demonstrates the design elements of structured immunity. Using Critical Race Theory and traditional civil rights law notions of how structural racism operates, this Article argues that transformative change can only come about through recognition that the current system achieves the objectives for which it was designed. These objectives must change.
Recommended Citation
David Dante Troutt, Taking the Knee No More: Police Accountability and the Structure of Racism, 79 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1765 (2023).Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol79/iss5/5
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Law and Race Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons