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Supreme Court finds officers covered by 'qualified immunity' in two cases

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Supreme Court finds officers covered by 'qualified immunity' in two cases - UPI.com

Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of police in a pair of cases challenging officers' right to "qualified legal immunity" from civil damages resulting from their actions.

In one case, Daniel Rivas-Villegas vs. Ramon Cortesluna, the Court ruled that qualified immunity protected an officer accused of using excessive force and violating the civil rights of a man who was held down with a knee to his back during an arrest.

In the other case, City of Tahleduah, Okla., et al. v. The Estate of Dominic F. Rollice, the Court found in favor of two officers who shot and killed a man they believe had intended to attack them with a hammer.

The plaintiffs in each case sought to collect monetary damages resulting from the incidents, citing excessive use of force and violation of civil rights.

The defendants, however, claimed their actions were protected by the doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields government officials performing discretionary functions from lawsuits unless a plaintiff shows that their conduct violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known."

Eliminating or modifying the doctrine has been the subject of ongoing political debates over police reform in the wake of the widespread protests following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.

Bipartisan Senate negotiations on a police reform bill broke down last month after the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021, which included provisions to eliminate qualified immunity for officers.

In the two unsigned opinions, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled officers deserved qualified immunity, reversing lower court decisions in each case.

In Daniel Rivas-Villegas vs. Ramon Cortesluna, they agreed that Rivas-Villegas, a police officer in Union City, Calif., did not use excessive force in restraining Cortesluna in order to take a knife away from him. The ruling overturned a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In the Oklahoma case, the high court sided with three officers who claimed they were justified in killing Dominic Rollice in 2016 after he grabbed a hammer and refused to drop it despite their orders.

The high court's decision reversed a ruling by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had determined the officers did not qualify for immunity because their actions to corner Rollice in the back of the garage led to the unjustified use of deadly force.

Supreme-Court-finds-officers-covered-by-qualified-immunity-in-two-cases.jpg


Qualified immunity has been brought up before as one of the major flaws in the system which seems to enable a culture of police brutality. If the cops think they can do whatever they want and get away with it, then they have no reason to stop.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.

Bodie

Member
Recently released internal police documents states witnesses said Ashli Babbitt had no firearm and there was " no good reason" to shoot her.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
An unarmed female attempts to enter an area with numerous highly trained capitol police officers who could have easily surrounded and subdued her, she was shot instead and later died..
Incorrect. An unarmed female that was part of an armed mob attempts to enter and area with numerous highly trained Capitol police officers They had not choice but to shoot her.

You forgot about the rest of the armed mob. That was your error. The police have to treat it as one entity in such situations. They do not have the time to arrest and take away the unarmed.
 

tytlyf

Not Religious
An unarmed female attempts to enter an area with numerous highly trained capitol police officers who could have easily surrounded and subdued her, she was shot instead and later died..
Exactly. I've seen a lot of other people get shot by cops for doing less. Unarmed too.
 

Bodie

Member
An unarmed female that was part of an armed mob attempts to enter and area with numerous highly trained Capitol police officers They had not choice but to shoot her.

They had no choice? She was unarmed and she attempted to enter through a window, a very small opening which meant every person in the group attempting to.enter would have had to enter through this single small opening singly. Even if one was armed it would be very difficult to enter through the small opening and get the firearm at the ready before being shot themselves. The capitol police were in no danger whatsoever but chose to shoot anyway, I find it disturbing that anyone would be ok with this.
 

Stonetree

Model Member
Premium Member
They had no choice? She was unarmed and she attempted to enter through a window, a very small opening which meant every person in the group attempting to.enter would have had to enter through this single small opening singly. Even if one was armed it would be very difficult to enter through the small opening and get the firearm at the ready before being shot themselves. The capitol police were in no danger whatsoever but chose to shoot anyway, I find it disturbinng that anyone would be ok with this.
If this was the incident I saw on TV she was the first of what would have been many trying to enter a hall way where one officer was continuously warning he would shoot. As I saw it the capitol police officer was within his rIghts....I am sorry the rioter died..
 

Jose Fly

Fisker of men
They had no choice? She was unarmed and she attempted to enter through a window, a very small opening which meant every person in the group attempting to.enter would have had to enter through this single small opening singly. Even if one was armed it would be very difficult to enter through the small opening and get the firearm at the ready before being shot themselves. The capitol police were in no danger whatsoever but chose to shoot anyway, I find it disturbing that anyone would be ok with this.
Did you watch the video of when she was shot? While she was trying to climb through the broken window, other insurrectionists were trying to break down adjacent doors. Further, those doors were among the last ones that led to where members of Congress were hiding from the insurrectionists, some of whom explicitly said they were there to kill them.

Also, before she started climbing through the broken window, someone shouted very clearly that the police on the other side had guns. She chose to try and force her way through anyways.

Do you appreciate the entirety of the situation? She was part of a violent mob that had already severely beaten several police officers, were chanting that they wanted to hang the VP, and were telling police that they were there to kill members of Congress. As part of that mob began trying to break down the last doors protecting members of Congress, some Capitol Police made a stand and drew their weapons. People in the mob saw that and shouted "They've got guns!" Babbit chose to try and force her way through regardless, and so they shot her.

Don't try and make this out like they just picked some random person to shoot or something. She was part of a violent mob, was warned, and elected to roll the dice.

Given we live in a country were people are regularly shot for fleeing from the police, her being shot when she was deliberately trying to charge at the police shouldn't come as shocking.
 

Bodie

Member
Did you watch the video of when she was shot? While she was trying to climb through the broken window, other insurrectionists were trying to break down adjacent doors. Further, those doors were among the last ones that led to where members of Congress were hiding from the insurrectionists, some of whom explicitly said they were there to kill them.

Also, before she started climbing through the broken window, someone shouted very clearly that the police on the other side had guns. She chose to try and force her way through anyways.

Do you appreciate the entirety of the situation? She was part of a violent mob that had already severely beaten several police officers, were chanting that they wanted to hang the VP, and were telling police that they were there to kill members of Congress. As part of that mob began trying to break down the last doors protecting members of Congress, some Capitol Police made a stand and drew their weapons. People in the mob saw that and shouted "They've got guns!" Babbit chose to try and force her way through regardless, and so they shot her.

Don't try and make this out like they just picked some random person to shoot or something. She was part of a violent mob, was warned, and elected to roll the dice.

Given we live in a country were people are regularly shot for fleeing from the police, her being shot when she was deliberately trying to charge at the police shouldn't come as shocking.

Please provide proof of every single one of your claims.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
An unarmed female attempts to enter an area with numerous highly trained capitol police officers who could have easily surrounded and subdued her, she was shot instead and later died..
Whether she was armed or not, it is not always possibnle for police to distinguish one from the other when under seige. She put herself in that position, and she had to know what she was doing and the risks that would likely be involved. I hate seeing people die for making errors as I've made many myself, but I'm afraid that's the way it is some of the time.

BTW, what about the 140 officers that were injured with one dying and several others later committing suicide? Don't they count?
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Did you watch the video of when she was shot? While she was trying to climb through the broken window, other insurrectionists were trying to break down adjacent doors. Further, those doors were among the last ones that led to where members of Congress were hiding from the insurrectionists, some of whom explicitly said they were there to kill them.

Also, before she started climbing through the broken window, someone shouted very clearly that the police on the other side had guns. She chose to try and force her way through anyways.

Do you appreciate the entirety of the situation? She was part of a violent mob that had already severely beaten several police officers, were chanting that they wanted to hang the VP, and were telling police that they were there to kill members of Congress. As part of that mob began trying to break down the last doors protecting members of Congress, some Capitol Police made a stand and drew their weapons. People in the mob saw that and shouted "They've got guns!" Babbit chose to try and force her way through regardless, and so they shot her.

Don't try and make this out like they just picked some random person to shoot or something. She was part of a violent mob, was warned, and elected to roll the dice.

Given we live in a country were people are regularly shot for fleeing from the police, her being shot when she was deliberately trying to charge at the police shouldn't come as shocking.
Yup. This was not at all a normal or routine or even rare police encounter. A violent mob who storms the Capitol hasn't happened before. It was very clear many were armed. They were breaking through amd wanted more blood than they'd already spilled. They gave warnings. Was she armed or not? It has to be assumed at that point yes. Was she violent or not? She was part of a violent mob and crawled through a window to lead the charge. Despite the warnings she proceeded.
This is one case where I do believe the police shooting was just.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
They had no choice? She was unarmed and she attempted to enter through a window, a very small opening which meant every person in the group attempting to.enter would have had to enter through this single small opening singly. Even if one was armed it would be very difficult to enter through the small opening and get the firearm at the ready before being shot themselves. The capitol police were in no danger whatsoever but chose to shoot anyway, I find it disturbing that anyone would be ok with this.
Yes, they had no choice. You appear to be ignoring the fact that she was part of an armed mob. Even when police encounter one sole violent person it takes more than one to handle them. How many police were there and how many people were in that armed mob? You do the math. They had no choice.

I suppose that you could call the cause of her death "suicide via stupidity".
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Yes, they had no choice. You appear to be ignoring the fact that she was part of an armed mob. Even when police encounter one sole violent person it takes more than one to handle them. How many police were there and how many people were in that armed mob? You do the math. They had no choice.

I suppose that you could call the cause of her death "suicide via stupidity".
I don't believe they "had no choice".
Only that the choice made was reasonable
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Did you watch the video of when she was shot? While she was trying to climb through the broken window, other insurrectionists were trying to break down adjacent doors. Further, those doors were among the last ones that led to where members of Congress were hiding from the insurrectionists, some of whom explicitly said they were there to kill them.

Also, before she started climbing through the broken window, someone shouted very clearly that the police on the other side had guns. She chose to try and force her way through anyways.

Do you appreciate the entirety of the situation? She was part of a violent mob that had already severely beaten several police officers, were chanting that they wanted to hang the VP, and were telling police that they were there to kill members of Congress. As part of that mob began trying to break down the last doors protecting members of Congress, some Capitol Police made a stand and drew their weapons. People in the mob saw that and shouted "They've got guns!" Babbit chose to try and force her way through regardless, and so they shot her.

Don't try and make this out like they just picked some random person to shoot or something. She was part of a violent mob, was warned, and elected to roll the dice.

Given we live in a country were people are regularly shot for fleeing from the police, her being shot when she was deliberately trying to charge at the police shouldn't come as shocking.
The standard for shooting someone that is fleeing from police is much higher. Which is why some cops have been prosecuted when people get shot that way. The person has to be a definite risk to others. For example an armed person fleeing a murder scene would qualify.

But it is hard to believe that anyone that supposedly supports law and order, and just about every Trumpista will claim to do that, can not see how this shooting was 100% justified. There really is no question about it.
 

Aštra’el

Aštara, Blade of Aštoreth
Incorrect. An unarmed female that was part of an armed mob attempts to enter and area with numerous highly trained Capitol police officers They had not choice but to shoot her.

You forgot about the rest of the armed mob. That was your error. The police have to treat it as one entity in such situations. They do not have the time to arrest and take away the unarmed.

I wonder if you would have the same response if it was an unarmed antifa or blmer getting shot down among a rioting “armed mob”.
 
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