Thanks to this loophole, federal courts have upheld qualified immunity to Fresno officers accused of stealing more than $225,000 in cash and rare coins, an Idaho SWAT team that bombarded an innocent mom’s home with tear gas grenades, and a Georgia sheriff’s deputy who accidentally shot a 10-year-old boy while aiming for the family’s dog.
“We as a country have a choice: We can either choose police accountability, or choose qualified immunity, but we cannot choose both,” one of the act’s original cosponsors, Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY), said on the House floor. “The purpose of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is not to second guess officers who act in good faith, the objective is to hold liable officers who repeatedly abuse their power and who rarely, if ever, face consequences for their repeat abuses.”
A nearly identical version of the bill passed the House last summer but never got a floor vote in the Senate. Though the Justice in Policing Act still faces an uphill battle this session, prospects are brighter. Ending qualified immunity is backed by around two-thirds of Americans, including many prominent celebrities like Tom Brady and the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s.
Moreover, the bill has been endorsed by the Biden Administration, while some Senate Republicans have signaled they may be amenable to compromise. For instance, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) who last summer called eliminating qualified immunity a “poison pill,” on Tuesday said that he was “open to having conversations on civil qualified immunity as it relates to police departments, cities, and municipalities being held accountable for the actions of those they employ.”
