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Comment by ghastmaster | Hacker News Reader

Qualified immunity does not protect government employees who break the law. There are laws/rulings that specifically disqualify them from using qualified immunity as a defense. The problem is prosecutors, judges, and juries who allow government employees to commit illegal actions with no consequences. This is furthered by citizens who pay no attention and let these people stay in power.

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It's near impossible to even charge a cop or a prosecutor with a crime. I had cops and prosecutors commit crimes against me, but I ran into dead ends every which way I tried to even file police reports etc. Not a single police agency will take a report against an officer or a prosecutor. And in theory you can report crimes directly to a prosecutor's office, but again, they won't take reports against police officers (who are the ones that keep them in business) nor other prosecutors.

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.

Of course it does, especially when they don't know that they are breaking it.

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...

It does protect them from civil suits, which have a lower bar for the burden of proof. When a citizen does manage to win damages in a civil case, it is paid by the city (aka the taxpayers). It should be paid from the police pension or an individual insurance similar to malpractice insurance.

>Qualified immunity does not protect government employees who break the law.

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 think prosecutors, judges, and juries do that, do they? That's the court system in a criminal trial deciding guilt, not deciding whether the guilty should get away with something.

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