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20 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 133 (2022-2023)
Citizen's Arrest and Race

handle is hein.journals/osjcl20 and id is 137 raw text is: Citizen's Arrest and Race Ira P. Robbins* INTRODUCTION I begin with a mea culpa. In 2016, I published an article about citizen's arrest.' The idea for the article arose in 2014, when a disgruntled Virginia citizen attempted to arrest a law school professor while class was in progress.2 I set out to research and write a traditional law review article. In it, I traced the origins of the doctrine of citizen's arrest to medieval England,3 imposing a positive duty on citizens to assist the King in seeking out suspected offenders and detaining them.4 I observed that the need for citizen's arrest lessened with the development of organized and widespread law-enforcement entities.5 I surveyed developments across the United States and highlighted numerous problems with the doctrine that led to confusion and abuse.6 I concluded by recommending abolition of the doctrine in most instances and proposed a model statute to address appropriate applications of citizen's arrest.7 But I did not discuss race. Indeed, I did not even use that word in the entire forty-three-page article.8 It's not that I had intentionally ignored the issue. Rather, I Barnard T. Welsh Scholar and Professor of Law and Justice, American University Washington College of Law. A.B., University of Pennsylvania; J.D., Harvard University. I am more than ordinarily grateful to my superb and indispensable research assistants, Sarah Haddon and Cannon Jurrens, whom I consider to be my colleagues and my friends. Copyright © 2022 by Ira P. Robbins. All rights reserved. ' See Ira P. Robbins, Vilifying the Vigilante: A Narrowed Scope of Citizen's Arrest, 25 CORNELL J.L. & PuB. POL'Y 557 (2016). 2 See id at 559. The perpetrator claimed, among other things, that the professor had engaged in mind control by computer technology at a distance. Rachel Weiner, Tyler Cowen's Attacker Thought the Professor Was Controlling His Mind, Cowen Testifies, WASH. POsT (Apr. 29, 2014), https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/tyler-cowens-attacker-thought-the-professor-was- controlling-his-mind-cowen-testifies/2014/04/29/a4c5b9f4-ctb9-11 e3-b812- 0c92213941f4_story.html [https-/perma.c/5QIX-AW5R]. 3 See Robbins, supra note 1, at 562. 4 Id 5 See id at 565. 6 See id at 572-80. These problems include, inter alia, the level of suspicion required, the ability to know the difference between misdemeanors and felonies, the temporal reasonableness of detention, and the appropriate use of force on the part of the arrestor. ' See id at 584-98. These applications include a shopkeeper's privilege, police outside oftheir jurisdiction, and properly trained private police forces. 8 In a section on neighborhood watch groups, I devoted three sentences to the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida. See id at 582. 133