The Deadliness of American Exceptionalism

By Claudia Flores, Brian Citro and Nino Guruli

The murder of George Floyd by a police officer and the weeks that have followed make clear what many already knew — Black and brown men and women in the United States are subject to state-sanctioned violence and systemic racism with impunity. The killing of Rayshard Brooks by police in Atlanta, while he was running away with an officer’s Taser, demonstrates that these killings are facilitated by current laws and policies that legitimate disproportionate and unnecessary uses of deadly force. The policing reform fight before Congress, and countless other reforms undertaken by state legislatures and municipalities across the country present a unique opportunity to change our broken legal system.

The United States is not alone in the challenge to protect the rights to life, security, and equal treatment in the context of law enforcement. The international community, through the United Nations, has long debated this issue. Over time, our global community, including the U.S., developed a set of principles and standards on policing to make concrete the protections provided to all in international human rights law. These standards — often referred to as legality, necessity, proportionality and accountability — require, in short, that police use of force be grounded in law; that it be necessary and…