Campaign To End Qualified Immunity Co-Chairs Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield recently appeared on MSNBC to discuss the importance of ending the qualified immunity doctrine and holding police officers accountable to the law.
“We need cops that want to be held accountable – that are willing to be held accountable. And when you have bad cops that are not held accountable, that destroys the community trust in the police department, and you can’t police if the community doesn’t trust you,” said Cohen.
During the course of the discussion, host Joshua Johnson raised the question of whether police officers need flexibility in the law due to the nature of their profession. Co-Chair Jerry Greenfield responded by speaking to the broad reach of the qualified immunity loophole and why it only protects bad police officers.
“Police do have protection. They have protection if they make decisions that are reasonable and in good faith. What qualified immunity does is is it gives pretty much blanket protection for incompetent police and police that are knowingly breaking the law. And that is the real problem,” said Greenfield.
Watch the full video here.