Black Westchester Magazine and End QI NY recently sat down for a virtual discussion on the need to repeal qualified immunity in New York. The conversation featured End QI NY co-founders Katerina Siira and Darlene McDay, along with retired NYPD officer and public safety advocate Corey Pegues.
Following President Biden’s State of the Union speech, congresswomen Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley held a rally March 3 in front of the Department of Justice, reigniting the call to end qualified immunity at the federal level.
On March 2, a group of Vermont lawmakers and activists—including Sen. Kesha Ram-Hinsdale and Ben and Jerry—held a press conference in Burlington to draw attention to the necessity of abolishing qualified immunity in the Green Mountain State.
Georgina Yeomans and Kevin Jason from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund highlight the Pamela Moses case as an example of the “deepest failures” of our legal system, looking at how qualified immunity “protects officials and punishes citizens.”
Newsday takes a look at S 1991, the bill to end qualified immunity in New York, and speaks to End QI NY’s Katerina Siira about how this measure will transform public safety in the Empire State.
Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, explains why we have a “moral duty” to end qualified immunity. “For our justice system to have any legitimacy,” he writes, “wrongdoers must be punished fairly and equally, whether they are holding a badge or not.”
Vermont State President Pro Tem Becca Balint, Ben and Jerry, and other public safety advocates hosted a virtual event showing support for Senate bill S.254. The event, Justice for All, focused on creating justice and safety for all Vermonters with the passage of the bill.
Legal experts Alexander A. Reinert, Joanna C. Schwartz, and James E. Pfander discuss how states can protect public safety by abolishing qualified immunity. As they write, “Today’s crisis in the criminal legal system…provides an opportunity for a new kind of civil rights federalism—one that begins with state legislative action.”
In recent years, business leaders, pro athletes, and creative artists have all spoken out against qualified immunity. Now, we can add another group to the list: faith leaders. Jim Wallis, founding director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice, examines the unjust doctrine through an ethical lens.
