Police in the US are becoming lawless gangs. Abolish qualified immunity. Stop having taxpayers' foot the bill, start using their pension fund and watch police make a 180 degree turn in terms of behavior and professionalism.
So much for "ignorance of the law excuses not", it does if you are a cop.
And for someone who invented “clearly established right"...
And if prosecutor doesn't want to prosecute cops, judge, jury, etc. isn't even involved.
https://supreme.findlaw.com/supreme-court-insights/pros-vs-c...
Well qualified immunity doesn't apply to criminal cases, but civil suits are generally the only way survivors and their families can get compensation for violations of their rights.
Reading about egregious conduct where the government was somehow able to be granted qualified immunity will make anyone wonder how we could allow this to happen.
I don't know what the solution is.
Chicago has an agency specifically to report police misconduct, but it seems to get shut down every couple of years due to rampant misconduct inside the agency.
Something needs to change with Internal Affairs, also. Local police departments are often investigating themselves, with predictable results.
I'm pretty sure the evidence points to the contrary -- police are less corrupt than ever before.
That doesn't mean there isn't still corruption (such as is claimed in this case), but you're claiming this is something getting worse.
I really don't think you want to go back to policing in the 1960's and 70's.
You can always cherry-pick examples of individual things getting worse, but I ask again: do you really want to go back to the 60's and 70's? Because yikes.
When elites splinter into two groups, that's when you see some progress. Otherwise, two-tier justice is a common, hidden, feature of any system out there (be it Western democracy, communist, dictatorship, etc).
It's almost like a police force trampling on first amendment rights is appalling like a candidate trying to subvert the results of an election, incite a riot, pressure election officials, put up a knowingly fraudulent, illegal fake voter scheme, or pay off a porn star.
Whatever, you know this, you don't care.
Also, you’re probably barking up the wrong tree. Instead of pissing off the police unions and dealing with the eternal backlash from that, you could instead push for something like Florida’s Sunshine Laws which would provide needed transparency into universities, the police, and the government.
This is a confusing statement. Isn't it good if police aren't used to confronting armed criminals?
If the police aren't used to confronting armed threats, then clearly in the vast majority of cases they shouldn't need to be armed themselves.
Are you saying these officers' performance would've improved if they hadn't been armed? Why?
It wouldn't have helped in Uvalde if police weren't armed by default, but I'm not sure anything would have helped, because they already had all the tools they needed for that situation.
This couldn't be more wrong. Despite the existence of qualified immunity, the Texas police still cowered like cowards, and are using qualified immunity to shield themselves from the lawsuits of the families whose children they failed to protect.
They were afraid of getting shot, total cowardice with a lot of incompetence and nothing more.