Page 4 - My FlipBook

CHAPTER 1

When Police Offi cers

Use Force

On October 3, 1974, fi fteen-year-old Edward Garner crouched
by a chain-link fence, caught in the beam of a fl ashlight. Mem-
phis, Tennessee, police offi cer Elton Hymon had spotted the
Black teen running through the backyard of a house where
a burglary had been reported. Hymon ordered the teenager,
who Hymon later admitted was clearly unarmed, to stop.
Garner instead turned and began to clamber over the high
fence.
At the time, a Tennessee law permitted police offi cers to
use deadly force to prevent suspected criminals from run-
ning away. Hymon drew his revolver and fi red, hitting Garner
in the back of the head. A search found ten dollars and a
purse that Garner had taken from the house. The teen was
taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead.
Garner’s family believed that the Memphis police vio-
lated Edward’s civil rights by shooting him when he was
unarmed. They fi led a lawsuit against the city and its police
department. Initially, a judge ruled against the family, deter-
mining that the state law justifi ed Hymon’s action. However,
an appeals court reversed this ruling, fi nding the Tennessee
law unconstitutional. After a decade of legal wrangling, the

US Supreme Court reviewed the case.

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