Will the Supreme Court Reject Police Militarization?

Pena v. City of Los Angeles began with the pursuit of an armed fugitive by law-enforcement officials in southern California in 2022. At one point, Carlos Pena heard noise outside his print shop. “He opened his door to investigate, and saw a man running towards him, pursued by United States Marshals with weapons drawn,” his lawyers told the justices in their petition for review. “The fugitive struck Pena on the shoulder, threw him out of the shop, and barricaded himself inside.”

During the ensuing standoff, the Marshals called for backup from the Los Angeles Police Department, which sent its SWAT team to take control of the scene. The SWAT team eventually used heavy amounts of tear gas and pepper spray in an attempt to force the fugitive out of the building. Thirteen hours later, after conducting a thorough search of the building and its attic, officers concluded that the fugitive had either “escaped or was ‘gone on arrival,’” according to a lower-court ruling, which appears to be a polite way to say that the LAPD may have spent half of a day g***ing an empty building.

While both the fugitive and the police soon moved on, Pena did not. The consequences for the small business he had operated for thirteen years were immense. To access the building, officers had damaged the “walls, doors, roof, and windows” at multiple points, either to gain entry or deploy gas. The chemical munitions took their own toll. “In addition, the tear gas and pepper spray permeated the entire shop, which [Pena] claims caused additional damage to his shop, his printing equipment, and his inventory, and rendered his shop uninhabitable until [he] had it cleaned by a hazardous materials team,” the lower court recounted.