What is qualified immunity?

[Amishman]

2. A symptom of the overall mess of our legal system

Our legal system is far too permissive of frivolous / nuisance lawsuits. We're excessively litigious as a society.

Qualified immunity kinda makes sense buffer to keep every Karen who gets a DUI from suing the arresting officer.

In practice it is also an unacceptable shield that rogue LEOs can use to avoid accountability for their misconduct. Yes, there are supposedly exceptions to it for misconduct, but given the pro-police bias of our prosecutors and judges, these are almost never allowed to be used.

The current status quo is unacceptable; and I see two possible routes to something better.

Option 1: end qualified immunity but also reform the legal system to reduce bogus lawsuits (not just for police, but for everyone).

Option 2: keep qualified immunity, but reform the exceptions and make it harder for the system to shield rogue cops when they should not.

I'd prefer option 1, but option 2 is still better than what we have.