The United States Supreme Court continues to be the bane of society. Still, the court is a source of great distress and annoyance; it is an incredible source of existential danger to the minority community.
As the monsters wearing police uniforms continue to maim and kill members of the public, the court’s right-wing reactionaries continue to give the green light to them to continue to visit pain and death on the public while shielding them under the cloak it created called qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity is not a law; it is not in the US constitution; it is a doctrine created by the United States Supreme court that shields Government workers from being held accountable in the courts when they act unlawfully.
The idea that the court, which is the Judicial branch, would take it onto itself to (a) create this onerous and wrong-headed affront to the United States Constitution, and (b) continue to maintain it despite data and evidence that it is doing great harm, demonstrates that the court stands in direct contrast, and in opposition to the United States Constitution and the American people.
https://mikebeckles.com/supreme-courts-qualified-immunity-a-death-warrant-on-black-americans/
When you decide not to vote, this is the result. When you say politics is white people’s business, they make it their business to put these reactionaries in the red that makes life a living hell.
Think it’s going to get better with these right-wing clowns calling the shots?
Think again.
In every instance in which the court hears cases about police misconduct, the court sides with the officers’ misconduct. This action puts the court on a collision court with the American people, most of whom now feel that the court does [not] represent their interest, and correctly so.
In its now customary way of issuing decisions, the court again sided with police on Monday, October 18th, each time striking down the appellate circuit’s decision. In a pair of unsigned summary rulings issued without noted dissent, the justices reversed two federal appeals courts that had permitted excessive force lawsuits to proceed against officers in separate cases arising from California and Oklahoma.
Both lawsuits dealt with police responses to an emergency 911 call. The California case involved a man wielding a chainsaw who had threatened his girlfriend and her two minor children, forcing them to barricade themselves inside a room, according to the 911 call. When Union City police confronted the suspect, they noticed a knife in his pocket. Officer Daniel Rivas-Villegas put his knee on the suspect’s back, near the pocket that contained the knife, for a period of eight seconds, as another officer placed the suspect under arrest.
The suspect sued Rivas-Villegas for excessive force. A federal district judge ruled for the officer, prompting an appeal by the suspect, Ramon Cortesluna. The San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling, finding that the officer was not entitled to qualified immunity because “existing precedent put him on notice that his conduct constituted excessive force.” In overturning the 9th Circuit, the justices held that the precedent cited by the lower court was too different from the facts at hand for Rivas-Villegas to have received “fair notice” that his conduct amounted to excessive force.
In the Oklahoma case, officers with the Tahlequah police responded to a 911 call from a woman who said her ex-husband was intoxicated and refused to leave her garage.
When officers arrived and approached the suspect inside the garage, he grabbed a hammer and lifted it overhead as if preparing to throw it or charge at the officers. When he refused to drop the hammer, two officers shot and killed him.
The deceased’s estate filed a lawsuit against the officers, alleging their use of deadly force violated the Fourth Amendment. The district court sided with law enforcement, but a Denver-based federal appeals court overturned the ruling, finding that the officers had recklessly created the deadly situation by “cornering” the suspect in the garage.
In reversing the appeals court, the justices found the officers were entitled to qualified immunity because the court had not pointed to “a single precedent finding a Fourth Amendment violation under similar circumstances.”
By continuing down this dangerous road of summarily granting police reprieve for the most dangerous acts of criminality, the court risks losing whatever little credibility it may still have left. Still, most importantly, it puts the lives of innocent Americans at risk and places the lives of good officers in danger as people become more determined not to be victimized by rogue cops, knowing that there is no recourse in the supposed halls of justice.
The court has no army to enforce its legitimacy; it gains legitimacy from doing the right thing. It is at a pivotal point now where that legitimacy is in serious question.
It is time for president Joe Biden to appoint at least four justices to the highest court and end this right-wing débâcle once and for all.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.