“Speed” Does “Kill” . . .

Qualified immunity shields police and other public officials from the consequences of their (illegal) actions. If a police officer or public official happens to misbehave and get “caught”, the municipality pays the aggrieved citizen, not the individual police officer. Most of the time this is done to avoid adverse publicity.
Qualified immunity is so skewed in favor of the officer or other public official, that any citizen who wishes to sue for police misconduct has to determine the officer’s “state of mind”, something that is almost impossible to ascertain.
The only way a police officer can be personally sued is for “deprivation of civil-rights under color of authority” (USC 1983), another avenue for redress with an extremely high bar which is difficult to attain.
Qualified immunity for all public officials, not just police officers should be abolished and replaced with a “bond system”. The municipality would pay the basic cost of the bond. Any surcharges for misconduct would come out of the individual’s own pocket. Any public official who could not procure a bond would be out of a job.
No bond=no job.
Any awards for misconduct would be taken from the public official’s pension fund, not from the taxpayers.

Not surprising with the NYPD.

New York City is the epitome of citizen disarmament whose residents have been taking it for a very long time…and apparently liking it.

Since the Sullivan Laws were enacted, enabling the most extreme and restrictive limits on the acquisition and uses of firearms, the Constitutional right to defend one’s self and others has been almost totally obliterated.

Once restricted to handguns, the laws have been extended to rifles and shotguns, all of (what were supposed to be “registered”) demanding that they either be confiscated or taken out of NYC.

I’ll bet that those people who voluntarily turned in their weapons added to NYC police officers’ nice gun collections.

NYC prosecutors relish the thought of prosecuting those who legally defend themselves, even a “rolled up newspaper” is considered to be an illegal “weapon”.

The honest citizen is the easiest person to charge and convict.

If you defend yourself successfully against a criminal without NYC police being involved, you WILL be prosecuted.

Witness Daniel Penny who was being viciously prosecuted for saving fellow subway passengers from mentally ill Jordan Neely who had been harassing and threatening subway passengers for decades. Thankfully he was acquitted of all charges.

The case of the bodega owner, Jose Alba who successfully thwarted a knife attack, his attacker succumbing to his injuries, was under indictment and prosecution for murder until a groundswell of opposition forced the prosecutor to back off on prosecuting him.

The case of Bernie Goetz, the subway rider who thwarted being robbed by dispatching three of his attackers to the “great hereafter”. Subway crimes dropped dramatically after that act. If Goetz had kept his mouth shut, no one would have been the wiser.

What kind of society prosecutes the victim of a crime?

It happens in NYC all the time.

You see, the approximately 36,000 NYC police officers constitute a powerful lobby and do not want to give up their monopoly on the use of force.
They cannot have their monopoly on the use of force jeopardized by allowing honest citizens to provide for their own self-defense by “taking the law into their own hands”.

Despite having relatives who live in NYC, I will not visit or enter NYC. This also applies to New Jersey.

Speaking of firefighters…

Here are two stories of firefighter arrogance, and is a good reason why “qualified immunity” must be abolished for ALL public workers and officials:

A firefighter from a certain southeastern Michigan community claimed to have a “arson dog”–one that could detect accelerants. This “firefighter” and his dog were instrumental in ruining many peoples’ lives by his testimony alone. Insurance companies LOVED this guy as he was able to get them out of paying (valid) claims. People were denied valid insurance claims and prosecuted for arson on the testimony of this “arson dog’s” handler. His words were taken as “gospel” while those on the receiving end of these miscarriages of justice had no recourse.

Those who were “burned” (no pun intended) by this supposed arson dog’s “handler” had no recourse, because of “qualified immunity”. The firefighter (and fire department) could not be sued.

Finally one citizen who had been accused of arson fought back by suing to prove the “arson dog’s” ability. The dog was found to have NO special ability. The “arson dog” and his human master’s career was finally over. The firefighter retired without incident with no responsibility for the lives that he ruined.

How many innocent people were wrongly convicted of arson and lost everything they owned??

Another case was that of a plating plant that caught fire. The owners had a fire department “approved” fire plan in place which involved shutting off utilities and shutting down processes in an orderly fashion. The firefighters that responded to the fire pushed the owner out of the way, and told him that they were going to do things “their way”. The building burned to the ground.

A firefighter’s job (for at least 98% of the time) is not inherently dangerous. This does not take away from the seriousness of their job, which is to be commended. but, firefighter arrogance can be just as dangerous as police arrogance. THIS is why firefighters must be included in the abolition of immunity for public officials.

Exactly RS, they ‘Protect and Serve’ …..themselves.

The courts have ruled on numerous occasions that the cops actually have no obligation to protect you and cannot be held liable if they don’t.

In Castle Rock v. Gonzalez, the cops had ample time to enforce a restraining order that had been violated but failed to do so. The subject in question then shot three of his own kids to death before entering a police station where he was shot:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_of_Castle_Rock_v._Gonzales

An equally sickening case was Warren v. District of Columbia, where some women called police to report an attempted break-in. The cops did nothing, and the women were then gang-raped for several hours:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia

In both instances the courts ruled that the cops could not be held liable. These precedents are a reminder that it is a total lie when the cops claim they have the ability to do almost anything to “protect the public” or to “keep you safe.”

It is particularly offensive that in many jurisdictions the cops can deny you the right to protect yourself (i.e. by carrying a firearm, owning body armor, etc.) but they are under no obligation to protect you.

In point of fact the only thing the cops protect are themselves, their dental plans, and their pensions.

Here is a guest article that deserves the light of day:

No One Cares If You Go Home Safe At The End Of Your Shift
Jan 02, 201812:50AM
Category: Politics
Posted by: Michael Z. Williamson

Here at the house, I have a couple of decades plus of military experience. I have tools to dig in or out of natural disasters. I have extinguishers and hoses. I have a field trauma kit and bandages. I have weapons both melee and firearm. I know how to use them. I know how to trench, support and revet. I understand the fire triangle and appropriate approaches. I understand breathing, bleeding and shock. I know how to detain, restrain and control. I have done all of these at least occasionally, professionally. I’ve stood on top of a collapsing levee in a flood. I’ve fought a structure fire from inside so we could get everyone out before the fire department showed up, which only took two minutes, but people can die that fast. I’ve had structures collapse while I was working on them. I’ve been in an aircraft that had a “mechanical” on approach and had to be repaired in-flight before landing. I’ve helped control a brush fire. I’ve hauled disabled vehicles out of ditches in sub-zero weather.

My ex wife has over a decade of service and some of the same training.

We have trained our young adult children.

My wife is a rancher who knows her way around a shotgun, livestock, sutures and tools, hurricanes and floods, and works in investigations professionally.

Our current house guest is another veteran.

This means if anything happens at the house, and last year we had a lightning strike, a tornado and a flood within 10 days’ we’re pretty well prepared.

Now, we’re probably better off than 95% of the households out there. The level of disaster that necessitates backup varies.

If we find it necessary to call 911, it means the party is in progress and it’s bad.

You will probably not be going home safe at the end of your shift.

And you know what? If it gets to that point, I really don’t give a shit. I don’t give a shit if you get smoked. I don’t give a shit if you fall under a tree. I don’t give a shit if you get shot at.

Because at that point, I’ve done everything I can with that same circumstance, and run out of resources.

If my concern was “you going home safe,” then I’d just fucking hunker down and die. Because I wouldn’t want that poor responder to endanger himself.

Except, that’s what I pay taxes for, and that’s what you signed up for. Just like I signed up to walk into a potential nuke war in Germany and hold off the Soviets, and did walk into the Middle East and prepare to take fire while keeping expensive equipment functioning so our shooters could keep shooting.

There’s not a single set of orders I got that said my primary job was to “Come home safe.” They said it was to “support the mission” or “complete the objective.” Coming home safe was the ideal outcome, but entirely secondary to “supporting” or “completing.” Nor, once that started, did I get a choice to quit. Once in, all in.

When that 80 year old lady smells smoke or hears a noise outside her first floor bedroom in the ghetto, she doesn’t care if you go home safe, either. She’s afraid she or the kids next door won’t wake up in the morning.

If I call, I expect your ass to show up, sober, trained, professional. I expect you to wade in with me or in place of me, and drag a child out of a hole, or out from a burning room, or actually stand up and block bullets from hitting said child, because by the time you get there, I’ll have already done all that. And there will be field dressings, chainsawed trees, buckets and empty brass scattered about.

I don’t want to hear some drunk and confused guy squirming on the ground playing “Simon Says” terrified you so much you had to blow him away. I don’t want to hear that some random guy 35 yards away who you had no actual information on , may have reached toward his waist band. Or that “the tree might fall any moment” or that “the smoke makes it hard to see.”

Near as I can tell, I don’t hear the smokejumpers, or the firefighters, or the disaster rescue people say such things.

But it’s all I ever hear from the cops. If you and your five girlfriends in body armor, with rifles, are that terrified of actually risking your life for the theoretically dangerous job you volunteered for and can quit any time, then please do quit.

You can get a job doing pest control and go home safe every night.

Until a bunch of fucking pussies with big tattoos, small dicks, body armor and guns blow you away for minding your own business.

Because what you’re telling me with that statement is, your only concern is cashing a check. That’s fine. But if that’s your concern, don’t pretend you’re serving the public. If you wanted to help people at risk of life, you would be a firefighter, running into buildings, dragging people out, getting scorched regularly.

If you’re cool with writing tickets, then there’s jobs where you can do just that.

If you want to tangle with bad guys and blow them away, fair enough. But understand: That means they get to shoot first to prove their intent, just as happens with the military these days. Our ROE these days are usually “only if fired upon and no civilians are at risk.”

If your plan is “shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, then if anyone is still alive try to ask questions,” and bleat, “But I was afeard fer mah lahf!” you’re absolutely no better than the thugs you claim to oppose. All you are is another combatant in a turf war I don’t care about.

Since I know your primary concern is “being safe,” then I’ll do you the favor of not calling. Cash your welfare check, and try not to shoot me at a “courtesy” sobriety checkpoint for “twitching my eye “in a way that suggested range estimation.

If you’re one of the vanishingly few cops who isn’t like that, then what the hell are you doing about it? If there’s going to be a lawsuit costing the city millions, isn’t it better that it be a labor suit from the union over the clown you fired, than a wrongful death suit over the poor bastard the clown shot? Both are expensive, but one has a dead victim you enabled. So how much do you actually care about that life?

How is the training so bad that it’s not clear who is the scene commander who gives the orders?

How is it that trigger happy bozos who, out of costume, look no different from the gangbangers you claim to oppose, get sent up front to fulfill their wish of hosing someone down because “I was afraid for my life!”?

Why does the rot exist in your department?

If you can’t do anything about it, why are you still in that department?

At some point, collective guilt is a thing.

You’ve probably not been a good cop for a long time.

And I still don’t care if you go home safe. I care that everyone you purport to “serve and protect” goes home safe.

Amen, Mark –

And then there is the ululation about “officer safety” – which amounts to a license to kill. Does anyone remember when “first responders” were expected to take risks for the sake of other people’s “safety”?