WELCOME TO AMERICA
By Nick Sibilla…
Two Texas police officers who ignited a man by tasing him, even after they saw him douse himself with gasoline and were warned, “If we tase him, he’s going to light on fire,” were granted legal immunity last week when a federal court tossed the surviving family’s civil rights lawsuit against the officers involved.
On July 10, 2017, Gabriel Eduardo Olivas threatened to kill himself. Panicked, his son dialed 911. Three officers from the Arlington Police Department — Jeremias Guadarrama, Ebony Jefferson, and Caleb Elliott — responded and quickly found Olivas in his bedroom, holding a red gas can. Elliott warned the other officers: “If we tase him, he’s going to light on fire.” To try and immobilize Olivas, Elliott pepper-sprayed him. It blinded but didn’t stop, Olivas. Instead, Olivas doused himself in gasoline and yelled that he’s going to burn the place to the ground.
Thinking he saw a lighter in Olivas’ hands, first Guadarrama, then Jefferson, fired their Tasers at the suicidal man now drenched in gasoline. Olivas burst into flames, just as their fellow officer had warned.
Several days later, Olivas died in the hospital, with more than 85% of his body covered in burns. Outraged, his family filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court, asserting that Guadarrama and Jefferson violated Olivas’ rights when they tasered him amid considerable explosive hazards.
The two officers responded that they were shielded by “qualified immunity,” which protects government employees from any legal liability, unless they violate “clearly established” rights. Last year, a federal judge denied qualified immunity to Guadarrama and Jefferson, ruling that “more factual evidence is needed.” It set the case for trial that spring, but those plans were quickly derailed by the officers’ appeal to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. As the Fifth Circuit explained, “qualified immunity is an immunity from suit, not merely a defense to liability,” and so “it is effectively lost if a case is erroneously permitted to go to trial.
Unanimously siding with the officers, the Fifth Circuit declared that “neither officer’s conduct was unreasonable, nor was the force they employed clearly excessive,” and so, “there was no constitutional violation.” In overturning the denial of qualified immunity, the court emphasized that Olivas was threatening felony arson and “posed a substantial and immediate risk of death or serious bodily injury to himself and everyone in the house.” Tasing Olivas was to “prevent Olivas from lighting himself on fire,” the court added.
Read full story @https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicksibilla/2021/02/19/court-grants-qualified-immunity-to-cops-who-set-a-man-on-fire-by-tasing-him/?sh=2dbcbacfcff7