Police Qualified Immunity is a Carte Blanche to Kill at Will

Among democracies, the United States is the only country that affords its police force the concept of Qualified Immunity, which protects the police from legal action due to the  misconduct and violence of its members against mostly the helpless and the impoverished minorities. In Britain, for example, police are held accountable the same way as every citizen is. So why is it different in the U.S.? How can we call ourselves a civilized democracy when our government protects the police force from accountability in the same way the East German Government protected the Stasi when it tortured and murdered Germans? The police Qualified Immunity law is a carte blanche to kill innocent people at will, which is exactly what black Americans and Latinos experience at the hands of unfit police officers.

Time has come to hold police accountable for their violence because once the George Floyd anger subsides, some in the police force would renew their violence again knowing they are immune from civil suits. Today, until a non-white supremacist prosecutor brings criminal charges against police brutality cases, the public is at the mercy of their unabated barbaric brutality. That can’t be right. Not in any civilized nation.

As a nation, we are young if compared to European standards, so maybe in 300 years, we would become truly civilized.

COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

The Think Tank Council on Foreign Relations analyzed policing in America, and it surmised its findings in three brief conclusions:

• Other advanced democracies organize, fund, train, arm, and discipline their police officers differently than the United States does.
• Many countries, including the United States, struggle with police brutality and tense relations between law enforcement and minority communities.
• The United States far exceeds most wealthy democracies in killings by police, and officers seldom face legal consequences.

This is a nice way of saying: The police in the United States are barbaric savages who murder innocent people while their local and state governments look the other way. The study, in a way, is indicative of one fact: We are not the civilized nation we think we are.

Think about it. As a nation, we are young when compared by European standards, so maybe in 300 years, we would become truly civilized. Today, because we let the police get away with murder like any other dictatorship in the world, we are far from calling ourselves a civilized nation.

Furthermore, police violence is expensive. While civilians cannot sue the police officers, they certainly can seek monetary damages from the locality or the state for that violence. This is forcing mayors and police chiefs to remove unsuitable officers from the force. Unless these mayors and police chiefs are white supremacist racists.

So why is the Federal Government dormant on this issue? is it because the white supremacists want to unleash brutal and violent police recruits on blacks and Latinos?

AMERICANS MISUNDERSTAND CIVILITY

Most Americans don’t know, or don’t care to know about what civility means. Just put a gun in their hands, and they are as happy as 5-year olds sitting in Santa’s lap. To try and explain the concept is as good as trying to tell Trump supporters the elections were not fraudulent.

This is why most Americans want to be tough on crime not realizing that the source of the crime is often police misconduct, police heave-handed approach to community policing, and police qualified immunity, which unleashes so much violence on their part. The police in this country pull guns on anyone even if they are not dangerous. Such does not happen in other truly civilized countries. Not in Britain, not in Sweden, and not in Spain.

So why is the Federal Government dormant on this issue? is it because the white supremacists want to unleash brutal and violent police recruits on blacks and Latinos? After all, Mitch McConnell would block any bill from abolishing Qualified Immunity. Or Is it to control the masses and spread fear the way dictatorships have the habit of doing?

Or is it because we all still think we are cowboys roaming the wild?

Anyway you slice it, we must end Qualified Immunity. The police is using it as a carte blanche to torture and kill innocent people.

Police Qualified Immunity is a Carte Blanche to Kill at Will