[Peace-discuss] Terry Stops

[Karen Medina]

I finally looked up Terry Stops and found that "police may briefly detain a person if they have a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime."

This week, several of us attended the court case where the Champaign Police said they were attempting to stop a young man for trespassing after dusk in Douglass Park as he and 2 others were leaving Douglass Center's open gym last March. The open gym  goes till 11pm, the building is in the park, and there were other people hanging out in front of the Douglas Branch Library. The all-white jury found the 17-year-old guilty for resisting arrest and a second charge of obstructing a peace officer.

Wikipedia is helpful about Terry Stops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_v._Ohio

-karen medina