Quote Originally Posted by VDW View Post
Without Qualified Immunity, police officers across the country will be just like the average joe citizen (and therefore completely unnecessary), who is repeatedly told by any good self defense instructor that unless their life is in serious jeopardy, just be a good witness. I realize that is precisely what many pushing “police reform” really want.

Qualified Immunity does not indemnify police from criminal acts (either civilly or criminally). It gives them some protection from personal civil liability while acting under the color of law only. It also doesn’t mean citizen’s can’t sue. It merely means the department or government entity takes on the financial liability for their actions and civil defense.

I was sued personally and while acting officially for $17M about 20 years ago by a kid who claimed I hit him. He was drunk, I arrested him, he was mad and whacked his head on the security screen and put a 3cm cut on his forehead. Depending on which version of the complaint he filed I hit him with 1) my hand 2) my nightstick (I didn't carry one) 3) a flashlight and finally 4) the butt of my gun. Completely fabricated story but he needed to tell mom and dad something. Mom and dad, both being convicted felons, saw $$ once they saw their baby boy with a bloody face and a cut on his forehead. They hired an expert witness that was able to say with absolute certainty in his report that I hit him with the butt of Glock 17 pistol and the edge of the magazine caused the cut. But, I carried a S&W 4006 TSW. No problem...we'll just revise the expert witness report to reflect that little error. It was complete bullshit and everyone knew it. However, I had to endure about 18 months of listening to what a horrible person I was, what a bad, heavy-handed cop I was, how I liked to brutalize people, etc. Of course I couldn't say anything because of the pending trial. Trial in US District court lasted 7 days. It took the jury minutes to come back with a "Not Liable" decision (same as not guilty). It was so fast we left the courtroom to go get lunch, left the bldg, walked across the street and got the call to go back to the courtroom because the jury was back.

The point of all this is...several things.

1. Cops can still be sued with QI. It's easy. Just allege a civil rights violation...because that's illegal and you're not protected from that. Just about any lawyer can get a case into court. Even an ambulance chaser like the asshole that represented this kid. Don't have a real case? No problem...just make one up.
2. I was covered by dept insurance so I didn't have to pay atty fees. But their liability insurance only covered $1M. Any judgement over that and I was on my own.
3. So don't tell me cops can't be sued due to QI. Because I will politely tell you you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
4. Just like the good cops vastly outnumber the bad cops, the bad lawsuits against cops already vastly outnumber the good, legitimate lawsuits against cops. And without QI it would be far worse.