NM governor signs law ending qualified immunity for cops. Qualified immunity is the legal principle that allows police officers to do things that would be illegal when done by others, such as beating people to death in the streets.
New Mexico has passed a law abolishing it there. In addition to eliminating qualified immunity, this historic legislation will allow New Mexicans – including the wrongfully convicted – to recover damages from the government when their constitutional rights are violated while also providing incentives for government employees to respect and uphold constitutional rights.
"Qualified immunity is a court-created doctrine that allows public officials to escape accountability after they engage in misconduct, even when their actions send an innocent person to prison. The New Mexico Civil Rights Act represents an historic culture shift in the fight for real accountability in law enforcement, and we applaud Governor Lujan Grisham for signing it into law," said Laurie Roberts, a State Policy Advocate for the Innocence Project. Fivethirtyeight/police-settlements: A FiveThirtyEight/The Marshall Project effort to collect comprehensive data on police misconduct settlements from 2010-19. Police Officials Grapple With Truth About Insurrectionists In Their Ranks. American policymakers face a real conundrum when it comes to tackling the spread of right-wing extremism and its attendant terroristic violence, a problem that became self-evident amid the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and its aftermath: How can law enforcement effectively curtail the illegal activities of right-wing extremists when so many officers are themselves participants in these movements?
The answer—which is that it cannot—suggests that effectively confronting far-right extremism must begin with police reform, and particularly the task of weeding extremists out of our police forces. The public cannot expect agencies tasked with enforcing the laws that prohibit extremist violence to do so seriously when those same extremists permeate their ranks. The issue became self-evident when it emerged that some 31 law-enforcement officers in 12 states have been linked to the Jan. 6 Capitol siege. It is already, for example, a federal crime to share bomb-making recipes on the internet. Mount Vernon Release Tapes Expose Corruption - Mount Vernon Whistleblower Murashea Bovell Interview.
Benedict Evans This article is a partnership between Esquire and the public radio station WNYC.
It has been published simultaneously by Gothamist. NYPD cop disciplined for wearing pro-Trump 'Punisher' patch to Black Lives Matter protest - Raw Story - Celebrating 16 Years of Independent Journalism. In a Politico deep dive into a day of watching hyper-conservative One America News (OAN), reporter Tina Ngyuen wrote that the network is struggling to fill time with Donald Trump off the stage and staying out of the public eye while awaiting his impeachment trial in the Senate next week.
The network, which was just slapped with having pay to $250,000 in attorney's fees stemming from a defamation lawsuit that was dismissed last year against MSNBC, has been elevated by the ex-president as his network of choice after his falling out with Fox News but now, as the report notes, won't even grace them with an interview to help boost their viewership.
As the report states, "Since the election, conservative networks have been locked in a three-way wrestling match for who gets the MAGA television audience. Fox News has been deemed traitorous by Trump's fans for reporting that Joe Biden fairly won the presidential election, and is seeing its worst ratings in decades. How the Supreme Court could change policing in an instant. If a genie of criminal justice reform, in a stingy variation on the standard package, offered a single wish for reforming policing in America, ending the doctrine of qualified immunity would be a very strong pick.
Established by the Supreme Court in 1967, qualified immunity protects police from liability for civil rights violations committed in their official capacity. The rule says prosecutable offenses must concern rights guarded by "clearly established law. " In theory, this sounds straightforward — aren't all our constitutional rights enshrined in clearly established law? — but in practice, the standard is extremely difficult to satisfy because of the specificity required. As I wrote on the subject last year, any violation deemed novel cannot be sued over, and that lack of accountability is self-perpetuating, as barring the initial suit will in turn fail to set the precedent needed for future instances of the same type of violation.
Attorney Resigns From Use of Force Committee After Being Shot, Gassed by Denver Police. Elisabeth Epps, a Colorado-based attorney and bail activist, publicly resigned from the Denver Police Department’s Use of Force Committee last night after being shot and tear gassed by the same force she was trying to regulate.
“Plenty of Black folks will shuck & jive for ya, it just can’t be me anymore,” Epps said via Twitter, sharing pictures of the welts across her body and legs from police gunshots. She had recently been on a conference call with the committee that included the local chief. Just hours later she saw in the flesh the police violate their own policies.
“I can’t even write the words to say how disheartening it was,” she said. Referring to the incident, she added, “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a fascist, or antifa, or a kid that throws a water bottle or a rock,” she said. This site tells you if your prosecutor holds police accountable. APD releases video of officer shoving handcuffed man. The Albuquerque Police Department has released surveillance video showing an officer shoving a handcuffed suspect, head first, into the wall of a holding cell in February.
Officer John Hill, who was secretary of the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association executive board, was fired on Aug. 3 following an Internal Affairs investigation. He is also charged with petty misdemeanor battery. Shaun Willoughby, the police union president, said Hill resigned as secretary when he was fired from APD. Florida judge throws cops in prison for framing black teen — after prosecutors asked for leniency. Police camera expert says APD videos were edited. The shadow of officer Isaac Romero cast on the wall at the scene of the fatal shooting of Mary Hawkes in 2014.
The image was taken by Romero’s lapel camera. A police camera expert said in a sworn affidavit that five videos from three other officers had been edited. (Source: Albuquerque Police Department) Copyright © 2017 Albuquerque Journal. Latest report by monitor faults lack of scrutiny by APD brass. James Ginger, right, at a press conference over APD use of force earlier this year.
(Greg Sorber/Journal file) Car Chases Are Cool in Movies Not Communities - Foundation for Economic Education - Working for a free and prosperous world. On January 27, Ashley Tewell was killed in a fiery crash at the end of a high-speed police chase which left her daughter in critical condition.
Ashley was not breaking the law as she drove her eight-year-old daughter down Memorial Drive in Decatur, Georgia, nor was she staging a dramatic getaway. Police officer fired after kicking handcuffed man in face. Captured on cellphone video running towards a handcuffed man on the ground and kicking him in the face without provocation, a Georgia police officer was immediately fired on Thursday after his supervisors viewed the footage.
According to the arrest report, both officers at the scene failed to include the unnecessary use of force in their version of events. Around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Gwinnett County Police Sgt. Un-Justice Department: Jeff Sessions wants to undo police reforms made over the past eight years. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has a long history of opposing civil rights, is now ordering a review of agreements implemented by President Barack Obama to address issues of police officers abusing their power. Sessions has instructed his two main deputies to review reform agreements reached under the Obama administration between the Justice Department’s civil rights division and police forces facing allegations of abuse, according to The Washington Post.
Under Sessions, the Justice Department is arguing that it is important to make sure those agreements don’t undermine officer safety and morale. Family of Black Veteran Who Died in Jail Without Food & Water Gets $10 Million. Justice at last for the African-American Army vet who died of a broken neck in a Tulsa jail as staff taunted him by dropping food and water beyond his reach. A federal jury awarded $10.2 million to the family of an Oklahoma Army vet who died after spending days in a Tulsa jail cell with a broken neck.
On Monday afternoon, jurors sided with the estate of Elliott Williams, whose final moments were captured on surveillance video. The footage, which garnered national attention, showed a paralyzed Williams, lying naked on his back and grasping for food and water that detention officers dropped out of his reach. Jail employees believed Williams, who was African-American, was “faking” paralysis despite his pleas for help, and they placed him in a video-monitored cell to catch him moving, according to trial testimony and an internal probe by the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office. The verdict came after 10 hours of deliberations that began on Friday afternoon and ended Monday. Handout. The New, More Powerful Wave of Civilian Oversight of Police.
In Oakland, Calif., police will soon answer to civilians newly entrusted with the power to discipline officers and fire the chief. Last November, the city's residents voted to create a civilian-run commission with a level of authority over law enforcement that is rare in this country. “This was a no-brainer given Oakland’s history,” says Rashidah Grinage, coordinator of the Coalition for Police Accountability, a group that helped write the ballot measure, which faced no formal opposition and passed with 83 percent of the vote.
“Most people realized that it would be futile to try to argue against instituting a police commission of this nature.” Customs and Border Protection agents form the front lines of a 60,000-strong, pro-Trump immigration force — Quartz. The chaos unleashed by Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order on immigration was swift and widespread, upending the lives of hundreds of travelers and their families, and threatening access to the US for tens of thousands more. It also created nothing less than a constitutional crisis at airports in some of the US’s largest cities. As part of the US Department of Homeland Security’s largest law enforcement body, the 60,000 employees of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are tasked with policing the migration of goods and people in and out of the country, with two-thirds of them manning border crossings, airports, and ports.
The agency is part of the executive branch of government, which means it answers to the White House—and is subject to the same checks and balances, from the legislative and judiciary branches, as the administration. Since then, the legality of Trump’s travel ban has worked its way up the courts. However the policy lands, CBP will be its primary enforcer. Sessions May Resist Federal Oversight of Police, But There’s Another Option. With Sen. Jeff Sessions about to be the next attorney general, the likelihood that the Justice Department will continue to regularly intervene to reshape troubled local law enforcement agencies appears greatly diminished.
Cop Sues Own Dept for Firing Him for Exposing 'Policy' of 'Illegally' Targeting 'Black Males' Why It’s So Hard to Stop Bad Cops From Getting New Police Jobs. Depending on the state you live in, you may be required to obtain an occupational license to become a plumber, an insurance agent, a hair braider, a manicurist, or even a racetrack employee.
These licenses, which can take dozens or hundreds of hours of training to procure, afford privileged access to specific industries—and they can be revoked if certain standards aren't met. But in six states, the same standard isn't applied to one surprising profession: law enforcement. Complaints against police plummet in presence of body cams, says new study. Police Unions Demand Extra Pay For Accountability And Transparency. Rare conviction made in shooting by Virginia police officer. Prosecutors Drop All Remaining Charges Against Officers In Freddie Gray's Death. People walk by a mural depicting Freddie Gray in Baltimore on June 23, at the intersection where Gray was arrested in 2015. How Teenagers Got Police to Back Down and Remove Military-Grade Weaponry From Their High Schools. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Labor Community Strategy Center. The Chicago Police Department Investigation Is Part of a Larger Problem in America.
There seems to be little doubt that the city of Chicago—Rahm Emanuel, mayor—no longer can control its police department effectively. NYPD Gets Sued After Kicking Wrong Family Out of Home. 2010 NPMSRP Police Misconduct Statistical Report -Draft- *Note: This is a draft version of the report until I work out some kinks with image and table formatting. Figure 1. FL Cops Face Prison After Brutally Beating Unarmed Man. Entire Florida police department busted for laundering millions for international drug cartels. Police Union Claims Rewarding Peaceful Officers Will Kill Cops. Police Torture and the Real Militarization of Society. Police Make No Promises To Discipline Officers Who Violate Body Camera Policy.
25 ways that cops doing their jobs are turning us into a police state. Watch: Illegally parked cop gets a taste of police extortion. Homan Square revealed: How Chicago police ‘disappeared’ 7,000 people. Noknock. Here's What Happens When You Complain To Cops About Cops. Jonathan_ferrell_shooting_how_charlotte_avoided_ferguson_s_fate.single. Horrifying Police Body Camera Footage Clearly Shows Current State Of America. Judge rules APD officer accused of kneeing man in groin will face trial. How to Get a Bad Cop Fired. The Police: Our Enemies in Blue? Baltimore State's Attorney: 'We Have Probable Cause To File Criminal Charges' Over Freddie Gray's Death.