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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 7/3/20

Protesters Attacked by Police Are Suing to Vindicate Their Constitutional Rights

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"If we want to change the culture of police violence against Black and Brown Americans," Markey said, "then we need to start holding accountable the officers who abuse their positions of trust and responsibility in our communities. That means once-and-for-all abolishing the dangerous judicial doctrine known as qualified immunity."

"At a time when unprecedented numbers of people are demanding an end to police murder, brutality, and impunity, we have got to finally abolish 'qualified immunity,'" Sanders declared. "This is not a radical idea: Police officers must be held fully accountable for abuses they commitno one is above the law. If we are serious about real police reform, the Senate has got to pass our Ending Qualified Immunity Act."

"For too long," Warren stated, "qualified immunity has shielded police officers who have engaged in unconstitutional and appalling conduct from being held accountable in courtit's past time to end this doctrine. I'm proud to join my colleagues in cosponsoring this bill and putting forward reforms to help end the systemic racism that plagues policing in America."

On June 24, Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana introduced the Reforming Qualified Immunity Act, which would allow the qualified immunity defense only when the officer's conduct had previously been "specifically authorized or required by... federal or state statute or regulation, or if a court had found it to be consistent "with the Constitution or Federal laws."

It is unlikely that Republicans will agree to reform, no less abolish, the qualified immunity defense. It falls to the people to demand its abolition.

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Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and a member of the National Advisory Board of Veterans for Peace. Her most recent book is Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. See  (more...)
 

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