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, the Justice Department investigates police misconduct in Louisiana; a rogue Chicago cop faces criminal charges; a constitutional expert takes on qualified immunity; and more!
FEATURED STORY
AP News: Justice Department Opens Probe into Louisiana State Police
“‘We find significant justification to open this investigation now. … We received information of the repeated use of excessive force, often against people suspected of minor traffic offenses, who are already handcuffed or are not resisting,’ said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the Justice Department’s civil rights division.”
Read more here.
NEW YORK
The White Plains Democratic Committee (WPDCC) is calling on the city of White Plains and its police department to acknowledge accountability in the 2011 death of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. “We view the investigation undertaken by the City and its subsequent findings following the killing of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. to be a woefully inadequate response to the officers’ unlawful entry, excessive force, and violent response to a medical call,” said the WPDCC in a written resolution.
Read more here.
An investigation by New York’s Civilian Complaint Review affirms Mercedes Pope’s allegations against the rogue officers who mercilessly pepper-sprayed her after intervening in a police dispute with teenage boys. “Their investigation confirmed what I already knew,” a vindicated Pope said. “These two officers committed…brutality against me and the young people in my neighborhood.”
Read more here.
VERMONT
The ACLU of Vermont and the Rutland Area NAACP are calling for the implementation of a police oversight board in the town of Bennington. “Only meaningful community oversight can repair the deep distrust and lack of accountability highlighted in the 2019 International Association of Chiefs of Police review of the Bennington Police Department,” they wrote in a joint statement.
Read more here.
MARYLAND
An amendment to Prince George’s County’s public safety bill has been added to allow for more community oversight in the designation of its Police Accountability Board. “In order to change the way that we do policing in this state and in this county, we must shift the power into the hands of the community,” said the ACLU of Maryland’s Yanet Amanuel.
Read more here.
ILLINOIS
Rogue ex-cop Bruce Dyker faces criminal charges for attacking Nikkita Brown last year in an incident that Brown, who is Black, says was racially motivated. Bodycam footage shows Brown acting “in compliance with Officer Dyker’s aggressive behavior and repeated threats,” her lawyer said. “Officer Dyker’s attack on her was totally unjustified and a crime, simple as that.”
Read more here.
ADDITIONAL NEWS
Reason: How to Qualify Qualified Immunity
“This week, in a series of blog posts, I will discuss my findings and their implications for qualified immunity and, more tentatively, for some other legal doctrines. In short, based on the view of fairness I present in the article, the current form of…qualified immunity overprotects officials.”
Read more here.
Institute for Justice: Lawsuit Appeal Asks Court if Deputy Should Get Immunity for Actions That Landed Him in Prison
“Mario Rosales did not give much thought to passing a pickup truck on his way home. But that simple act led him to be held at gunpoint by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy blinded by road rage. And though that deputy was convicted of assaulting Mario, Mario’s lawsuit against the officer and the county was dismissed because the deputy was granted ‘qualified immunity’ for his actions.”
Read more here
Education Week: Supreme Court Denies Appeal From 1st Grader with Disabilities Put in Chokehold by Teacher
“A coalition of disability rights groups, in a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the student, urged the court to take up the case, arguing that while corporal punishment has declined in Texas and other states that permit it, ‘the threat of excess force at school has shifted, not disappeared.’”
Read more here.
Dailymail: Horrifying Moment Black Transgender Woman Is Put in a Spit Hood During Her Arrest and Loaded into an Ambulance Before Being Declared Dead at the Hospital: Police Waited Two Weeks to Report the Incident
“Dallas police are under investigation for the death of a black, transgender woman who died after cops arrested her, put her in a spit hood and loaded her in the back of an ambulance. Shocking bodycam footage shows police approach LaDamonyon Dewayne Hall, 47, on May 26th after getting calls that she might be intoxicated in public.”
Read more here.
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