Campaign To End Qualified Immunity Co-Chairs Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield recently appeared on the Cato Daily Podcast to discuss the qualified immunity doctrine, which shields public officials from accountability.
“This is a matter of accountability…In this case you have what is a fundamentally unfair and unjust doctrine that [lets] cops have no accountability. And without that accountability you are not going to be building trust with people of color and communities of color,” said Greenfield.
During the course of the discussion, Campaign Co-Chair Ben Cohen stressed the importance of holding police officers to a higher standard due to the nature of their jobs and their ability to use lethal force.
“The police are the one element of our society that we authorize to use lethal force in our name and that element of society should be held to a higher standard of accountability because they have the right to use lethal force. Instead what qualified immunity does is say they’re held to a much lower level of accountability – much lower level than you or me,” said Cohen.
Listen to the full discussion here.