Entry · catalog no. 8502
hands up, don't shoot
/ /hændz ʌp doʊnt ʃut/ /HANZ UP DOHNT SHOOT
phrase · Ferguson, Missouri; national · 2010s
✓ Verified
1.
A chant, with raised open hands, used at protests to say that unarmed Black people should not be shot by police.
“Thousands marched with their hands up, chanting hands up, don't shoot.”
2.
A shorthand for the 2014 Ferguson uprising and the wider movement against police violence.
“The hands-up, don't-shoot era changed how a generation protested.”
Origin & Attribution
It comes out of Ferguson, Missouri, after Michael Brown, an unarmed eighteen-year-old, was killed by police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. Protesters in the following days raised their hands and chanted the phrase, and it spread across the country, including to athletes and legislators. The record has a dispute that this entry keeps in view: a Justice Department review released in March 2015 said it could not credit accounts that Brown had his hands raised in surrender. The phrase has since functioned as a general protest cry about police killings of unarmed Black people, separate from the facts of that one case.
2014
Michael Brown killed in Ferguson; protesters adopt the chant
2015
Justice Department review released; the phrase's factual basis is disputed
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Ferguson, Missouri; national · 2010s
Spoken by
Protesters, organizers, and communities responding to police violence
$HANDSUThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady12 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
70/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2014
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
NPR, 'Whether History Or Hype, Hands Up, Don't Shoot Endures,' Aug. 8, 2015
article
■
+ Cite a sourceSt. Louis Public Radio, 'Why did the Justice Department conclude that Hands Up, Don't Shoot was a myth,' Mar. 24, 2015
article
See also