Time To Kneel On Qualified Immunity
Derek Chauvin—the ex-police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck until he died—is on trial.
He faces three charges:
Second-degree murder
Third-degree murder
Second-degree manslaughter
As obvious as his guilt seems to you and me, there’s still a chance that he isn’t convicted thanks to an ill-formed legal doctrine called qualified immunity.
An idea of an eagle on trial | Created by Jay W. Austin & DALL•E
Qualified immunity protects law enforcement from liability for their wrongdoing. As long as they didn’t violate a clearly established constitutional right, then the po-po are gucci.
Kneeling on a defenseless man’s neck until his heart stops must be an obvious violation of Floyd’s constitutional right, right? Well…you’d think so.
But history shows that it’s tremendously difficult to identify “clearly established constitutional rights.”
There’s no shortage of people who’ve been hurt or killed by police who have no route to justice, all thanks to qualified immunity. In a criminal legal system that touts the virtues of accountability, qualified immunity protects the people charged with holding us accountable.
Accountability rarely exists on that side of the thin blue line.
It’s time for qualified immunity to suffocate until there’s no oxygen left. And it looks like there’s hope for this to happen. Just last week, the New York City Council voted to end qualified immunity for law enforcement. They’re the first city in the US to do so.
I hope they won’t be the last.
Aye, I’m Jay. You’re on my personal site where I post things I make about interrupting mass incarceration, protecting migration, environmental justice & sustainability, language, communications, storytelling, creativity, and tech.
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