Justin Amash announces introducing the “Ending Qualified Immunity Act” | Hacker News Reader

Justin Amash announces introducing the “Ending Qualified Immunity Act”

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435 pointsrayiner21 comments

Since there were two threads about qualified immunity on the front page, we merged them. The other article has more substance, so we moved (most) comments thither: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23379910.

The remaining comments are the ones that only make sense in this context.

Small typo in the title: it's the "Ending Qualified Immunity Act", not the "End Qualified Immunity Act".

Thank goodness for common sense.

It’s unfortunate that in the current political climate this legislation will likely go nowhere. It would be better to see leadership introduce this.

Leadership isn't the source for all bills that are passed, though. Maybe as a 3rd party member, the bill would garner bipartisan support?

I do agree with you that the leadership should be offering some sort of legislative solutions. All we have seen so far is deflection.

My conspiracy theory is that something else is brewing on the international level that is bigger than these riots. There's been reports of actions by various international adversary militaries. Everyone is extremely busy.

Could you be more specific? Which adversaries? What are they doing? What do you expect them to do next? And how do you think that relates to the riots, or to this bill?

The low hanging fruit is China taking Hong Kong and making threats of violence against Taiwan. Also: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/world/asia/india-china-bo...

It doesn't relate to the riots at all. My point is these things reasonably distract leadership from the riots if we're on the razor's edge away from global nuclear war.

China has been interested in forceful reunification with Taiwan for ages. Their military has drafted up plans to retake the island numerous times over the years.

Hong Kong has largely served its purpose as a liaison to the West. So it isn't surprising that China wants to reunify with them as well.

Well, if it's what China wants then I guess it's fine.

Possibly Russia?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-documents-reveal-...

They are not the source, per se, but they are the deciding entity as to what moves in the process. Legislation cannot move without leadership, which includes committee chairs, majority leader, floor leader, whip, etc. Under a very technical way a discharge petition could be brought to force it out of committee, but ..that's extremely rare[0].

[0.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discharge_petition#Uses_since_...

I agree. This will go nowhere, because established interests don't want to end qualified immunity for cops. I have mentioned in other comments [0] how police do not serve "the public," but, rather, property interests. Until that changes, we won't see any movement in this area. The incentives simply do not align.

Edit: added citation to one of my previous comments.

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[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23373890

If this is true, then people smashing property is actually the effective way forward. Pressure on property owners should cause them to push elected officials to rein in police forces. I'm not convinced it's true, but it does make me think about the property damage being done in a different light.

Sadly, I believe this is the case. Someone else said it more succinctly than I can:

> a government that can’t mobilize to house and feed us during a pandemic but can mobilize to beat us whenever we rise up tells you exactly where their priorities are [0]

They're right. Look at our reaction to a deadly virus that could easily kill a million people in this country versus what happens when a few windows get smashed, buildings set on fire, and some TVs get stolen from stores.

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[0]: https://twitter.com/uncrushedvelvet/status/12670040021154242...

Property owners will build more walls. Looting is not protesting.

@dang the article does nothing but link to the tweet, I think it would be more useful to link to the tweet instead: https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/1267267244029083648?s...

Some context (the law; its history) would be useful, too.

Here’s a post that provides more context:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23360295

That use of @dang doesn't trigger anything — there's no notification email or highlight that'll get his attention. Still, if dang happens to see it, you might get a reply. For certainty, email the mods using the footer Contact link.

Ok, we've changed to that from https://ordinary-times.com/2020/05/31/justin-amash-announces....

Reply on news.ycombinator.com