Welcome to the weekly update from the Campaign to End Qualified Immunity! Here, we give you a wrap-up of the latest developments and notable news as we continue our state-focused fight to abolish the unjust rule.
This week, Tyre Nichols’ death renews push to pass the Justice in Policing Act; a retired police captain condemns the lack of police accountability; Maryland sets its sights on ending qualified immunity; and more!
FEATURED STORY
CNN: Why Police Reform Utterly Failed to Protect Tyre Nichols
“I know from experience that crime prevention is achieved through trusting relationships between the police and the community it serves, rather than feeding a broken system more police officers. There can be no trust when there is over-policing of disadvantaged communities with suppression units such as the SCORPION unit, which were formed to protect communities— not terrorize them.”
Read more here.
NEW YORK
Along with ending qualified immunity, a growing number of New York lawmakers are rallying around another civil rights measure, the Youth Interrogation Bill, which “would protect teenage crime suspects from being bullied by police into falsely confessing or incriminating themselves.”
Read more here.
MARYLAND
Last month, a Maryland House committee held a hearing on HB 115. Modeled after Colorado’s groundbreaking police accountability bill, HB 115, sponsored by Del. Gabriel Acevero, would end qualified immunity for cops statewide. States like Maryland have taken up this cause because “Congress does not have a good track record on reining in government power.”
Read more here.
ILLINOIS
Nearly four years after police wrongfully shot Amir Worship during a raid, the Village of Richton Park has settled the case for $12 million. Worship, who was 12 at the time, survived but was left permanently disabled and struggling with PTSD. “A police officer should not be able to shoot at [a] 12-year-old with an assault weapon for literally no reason,” said Attorney Al Hofeld, Jr.
Read more here.
ADDITIONAL NEWS
The New York Times: 71 Commands in 13 Minutes: Officers Gave Tyre Nichols Impossible Orders
“Police officers unleashed a barrage of commands that were confusing, conflicting and sometimes even impossible to obey, a Times analysis of footage from Tyre Nichols’s fatal traffic stop found. When Mr. Nichols could not comply—and even when he managed to—the officers responded with escalating force.”
Read more here.
The New York Times: The Police Cannot Be a Law Unto Themselves
“The police have no obligation to either protect or assist you, even in the face of a credible threat to your life, and they are virtually immune to legal consequences for their actions under the doctrine of ‘qualified immunity,’ with so few exceptions—like the almost immediate arrest of the offending officers accused in the killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis—that it essentially proves the rule.”
Read more here.
MSNBC: Rep. Ayanna Pressley: ‘I’m So Tired of Black Men Being Killed Unjustly at the Hands of Police’
“We have to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act…right now, there’s no accountability, no repercussions. We need policies that condemn police brutality, racial profiling, and excessive use of force…and we need to end qualified immunity.”
Watch here.
The Hill: Graham Floats Potential Compromise on Qualified Immunity
“The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in June 2020, but negotiations for a package that could clear the evenly divided Senate collapsed later. The brutality of the beating taken by Nichols, seen in police videos released last week, has renewed the ambition of legislators to get a reform package passed.”
Read more here.
NBC News: 3 Memphis EMTs Fired for Their Response to the Fatal Police Beating of Tyre Nichols
“Robert Long, JaMichael Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker were found to have violated multiple department policies and protocols in their patient response to Nichols on Jan. 7, the fire department said in a statement. ‘Their actions or inactions on the scene that night do not meet the expectations of the Memphis Fire Department…,’ it said.”
Read more here.
The Hollywood Reporter: Deadly Police Corruption in California Town Takes Center Stage in Trailer for Colin Kaepernick’s ‘Killing County’
“[Killing Country is] described by Kaepernick as ‘one of the most powerful projects I’ve been involved with,’ and seeks to unpack how [Jorge] Ramirez—an informant for the Bakersfield Police Department, according to his family—and his death speaks to a larger culture of corruption and violence within the town and its police force.”
Read more here.
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