A Cop Shot a 10-Year-Old and Got Qualified Immunity. Tom Brady and 1,400 Other Pro Athletes

[tulipsandroses]

A Cop Shot a 10-Year-Old and Got Qualified Immunity. Tom Brady and 1,400 Other Pro Athletes Want To Fix That.
Citing work from Reason, players and coaches from the NFL, NBA, and MLB are urging Congress to end qualified immunity.

Qualified immunity has gone from a little-known issue to problem du jour—and for good reason. The legal doctrine allows public officials, including police officers, to violate your rights without fear of recourse, if those rights have not been spelled out somewhere by a preexisting court precedent.

Now this doctrine has drawn the ire of the Players Coalition, a group made up of current and former athletes and coaches from the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball. Members of the group have sent a letter to Congress this week urging lawmakers to support the Ending Qualified Immunity Act, a bill introduced by Rep. Justin Amash (L–Mich.).

"The Supreme Court has caused irreparable harm to public trust by creating and then expanding the doctrine of qualified immunity, which often exempts police officers and others from liability, even for shocking abuse," the letter reads. The 1,400 figures signing the letter include Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Steve Kerr, Odell Beckham Jr., and Greg Popovich.

The letter details several cases they find particularly egregious, and it cites a couple of my Reason stories in the process. "The 9th Circuit applied the doctrine to two officers who allegedly stole $225,000 while executing a search warrant," the authors write. "The Eleventh Circuit applied the doctrine to protect an officer who unintentionally shot a ten-year old while firing at the family dog (who, much like the child, posed no threat). The list of officers who suffered no consequences because of this doctrine could fill a law book."

[link:https://reason.com/2020/06/12/tom-brady-qualified-immunity-police-drew-brees-steve-kerr-justin-amash/|

[Calculating]

1. The supreme court really screwed us all on this

I get they were trying to allow cops to do their job, but it's like they gave them a sickening level of immunity from any consequences for their actions.

"The unanimous panel wrote that "the City Officers ought to have recognized that the alleged theft was morally wrong" but concluded that they "did not have clear notice that it violated the Fourth Amendment." Put more plainly, because no court precedent had yet established that stealing infringes on someone's rights, the officers were off the hook."

Like, who the hell are the people making these rulings? Are they even human beings or some kind of lizard people?

[uponit7771]

3. Yep, really bad call

[RockRaven]

2. Oh, FFS, spare us headlining Trump-supporter Tom Brady and FotF-guy Drew Brees

being the top line celebs on this.

Even if your shitty dude-bro "rational" website audience requires that you cherry-pick some middle-aged white guys from the 1400 signatories, at least lead with a couple of non-assholes like Kerr and Pop.

[GoneOffShore]

4. This about a thousand times.

[obamanut2012]

7. 100% this

[csziggy]

5. RadioLab on NPR had a good show about how this happened

Graham
If former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s case for the death of George Floyd goes to trial, there will be this one, controversial legal principle looming over the proceedings: The reasonable officer.

In this episode, we explore the origin of the reasonable officer standard, with the case that sent two Charlotte lawyers on a quest for true objectivity, and changed the face of policing in the US.

This episode was produced by Matt Kielty with help from Kelly Prime and Annie McEwen.

Audio of the show at the link: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/graham

The show explores a case in which a black man in the middle of a diabetic crisis was abused by cops. The case went to the Supreme Court (maybe twice, I missed part of the show) and lost. His appeal created the method by which cops justify their actions - using the "reasonable officer" defense. The idea is that whatever the cops decide that they need to do in the heat of the moment is reasonable and cannot be second guessed afterwards. The two attorneys who represented the man are interviewed during the show.

It is well worth listening to.

[tulipsandroses]

8. Thanks for posting. Its such a tragedy that so many lives lost/or forever changed due to bad or

incompetent cops. And there is nothing you can do about it. I kept thinking about that poor 10 yr old boy. Who pays for his injuries? Hospital care? Psychiatric and psychological care? I don't doubt after this ordeal that he will suffer from PTSD.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. With "qualified immunity," every shot is the equivalent of military "friendly fire".

Just expected as part of the job. Collateral damage.

No more.

No more.

No more.