New Mexico Abolishes Qualified Immunity

[mrjurrs]

I hope the new law works as intended?

I think it will have a chilling effect on good officers who are just trying to protect society. If that happens society will suffer the unattended results. Increase in criminal activity.

I'd rather have criminals committing the crimes than the police.

 

[coyote505]

I'd rather have criminals committing the crimes than the police.

Qualified immunity started off as an improvement on the old rule of "the king can do no wrong" complete immunity. When that was done away with, it seemed unreasonable for an officer, or other public employee, to be held liable for actions in "gray" areas, or where the law had recently changed, but the officer likely had no knowledge of that change. Clearly unreasonable actions would make him liable (No Officer Chauvin, 9 minutes is NOT a reasonable length of time to kneel on someone's neck). At the same time, officers were not required to be better legal scholars than the judges who had only recently contemplated their navels and come up with some new rule of law.

The qualified immunity standard was supposed to immunize an officer if he acted in a manner, or on a matter, where there had been no clear statute or case law finding that action, or similar actions, unreasonable. Unfortunately, judges are lawyers, with all the mental and attitudinal frailties evident in that profession. Thus, they established a rule that the situation previously adjudicated had to be Exactly the same, not just so close that any person with an ounce of common sense would know it covered this instance also. That standard is what caused the New Mexico legislature to repeal the immunity.

Unfortunately, this also is a wide swing of the pendulum, which has already resulted in insurance companies quoting much higher rates to local governments for liability coverage. This may result in unintended consequences such as loss of volunteer fire departments and other public services, even the abandonment of police functions by some municipalities. All of this might have been avoided if courts had acted with a little more common sense.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Government actors are employees of the people. They must be held accountable for misconduct just like the rest of us. Good cops police their own, otherwise they're not good cops.

Yet, LEOs have been given powers by the state which differ greatly from those given to “the rest of us”. How, exactly, are LEOs going to “police their own” (act as judge, jury and executioner?) if they are not granted that special power to do so?

 

[mrjurrs]

New Mexico Abolishes Qualified Immunity

It is the third state to rein in the legal doctrine that protects state actors from accountability for misconduct.

reason.com

Awesome news! I hope all the other states follow. Cops and gubmint workers shouldnt be immune from breaking the law.

Didn't see that coming. Up New Mexico!

 

[wist43]

It will only last long enough to aide in collapsing our society, once that is accomplished every citizen will be under the terror of authoritarian rule.

We're not too far away now.

 

[ttwtt78640]

New Mexico Abolishes Qualified Immunity

It is the third state to rein in the legal doctrine that protects state actors from accountability for misconduct.

reason.com

Awesome news! I hope all the other states follow. Cops and gubmint workers shouldnt be immune from breaking the law.

OK, but why are “we the people” being forced to pay civil damages/restitution for the actions of other individuals?

requiring government agencies (i.e., insurers and taxpayers), rather than individual defendants, to pay legal costs and damages.

This nonsense has no impact on the (individual) “gubmint worker(s)”, since their personal assets (as well as the police department’s “budget”) remain untouchable as “the state” (aka we the people) continue to pay the price for their (damaging) actions.

I’m all for holding the “rogue” LEO (individually) criminally responsible, but not for transferring their civil liability to “the state” which is simply all of us.

 

[eohrnberger]

It'll be interesting to see if the predicted flood of frivolous litigation ensues.
My bet is that it will, because prisons are full of people who falsely claim innocence.

Also interesting is how policing practices are going to change. Might very well end up with simply letting criminals flee from the scene of the crime with no pursuit, so looking more like the cities where DAs have taken to refusing to charge some crimes.

 

[bomberfox]

Qualified immunity started off as an improvement on the old rule of "the king can do no wrong" complete immunity. When that was done away with, it seemed unreasonable for an officer, or other public employee, to be held liable for actions in "gray" areas, or where the law had recently changed, but the officer likely had no knowledge of that change. Clearly unreasonable actions would make him liable (No Officer Chauvin, 9 minutes is NOT a reasonable length of time to kneel on someone's neck). At the same time, officers were not required to be better legal scholars than the judges who had only recently contemplated their navels and come up with some new rule of law.

The qualified immunity standard was supposed to immunize an officer if he acted in a manner, or on a matter, where there had been no clear statute or case law finding that action, or similar actions, unreasonable. Unfortunately, judges are lawyers, with all the mental and attitudinal frailties evident in that profession. Thus, they established a rule that the situation previously adjudicated had to be Exactly the same, not just so close that any person with an ounce of common sense would know it covered this instance also. That standard is what caused the New Mexico legislature to repeal the immunity.

Unfortunately, this also is a wide swing of the pendulum, which has already resulted in insurance companies quoting much higher rates to local governments for liability coverage. This may result in unintended consequences such as loss of volunteer fire departments and other public services, even the abandonment of police functions by some municipalities. All of this might have been avoided if courts had acted with a little more common sense.

Eh i doubt it. The problem with QI with police unlike with the fire department is the police can initiate aggressive violence if you dont comply with them. It gives them more power than any other public service and the courts have been unreasonably strict on precedent which makes it nearly impossible to make reasonable changes in the standard.

 

[Court Jester]

I hope the new law works as intended?

I think it will have a chilling effect on good officers who are just trying to protect society. If that happens society will suffer the unattended results. Increase in criminal activity.

It is a tricky thing, and without qualified immunity, what generally happens is that police and other government workers just lay back and don't take action if they can be sued or lose their pensions if they are second guessed.

Removing qualified immunity only makes sense when it can be clearly determined that the government agent acted willfully outside the law, the policy, and without reasonable care. A determination which should be decided by a judge. Remove qualified immunity and in an extreme case you could have a paramedic decide to not move an injured motorist from a burning car without a back brace, because he might get sued and lose his job and his pension if by moving the patient under that extreme circumstance without a back board, he may cause further spinal injury.

If New Mexico has made this step, then it will be great news for injury lawyers and doughnut shops in that state. Lawyers will be out patrolling for lawsuits, and all the cops will just lay back and draw a salary and wait for retirement while keep doughnut shops safe, but not the public in general.