FORT WORTH, TEXAS (REUTERS) - When David Collie slipped off his shirt as he set out one sultry night to visit some friends, he didn't know he was putting himself in grave danger. But he was. He now fit the description: shirtless, Black, male.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS - When David Collie slipped off his shirt as he set out one sultry night to visit some friends, he didn't know he was putting himself in grave danger. But he was. He now fit the description: shirtless, Black, male.
Police dashboard camera video shows that Collie was walking away from the two cops as he pulled his hand out of his pocket and raised his arm. That's when Barron fired his gun. A hollow-point bullet slammed into Collie's back, punctured a lung and severed his spine, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.
Collie didn't get very far. Barron, who hadn't been disciplined or charged with any wrongdoing for the shooting, argued that he had acted reasonably on a fear that Collie was about to shoot his partner. Collie said he took his hand from his pocket to point to where he was going when Barron shot him. Collie would have stood a much better chance of getting the justice he sought if he had been able to sue elsewhere. That's because, in excessive force lawsuits, courts in some parts of the United States are more likely to deny cops immunity than others.
The regional disparities are also evident in federal district courts, where excessive force lawsuits are actually heard and which must follow precedents set by their respective appellate courts. In an analysis of 435 federal district court rulings in excessive force cases from 2014 to 2018 in California and Texas, the two most populous states, judges in Texas granted immunity to police at nearly twice the rate of California judges - 59 per cent of cases, compared to 34 per cent.
The criticism that qualified immunity denies justice to victims of police brutality is well-founded. As Reuters reported just two weeks before Floyd's death, the immunity defence has been making it easier for cops to kill or injure civilians with impunity.
As in Collie's case, a cop opened fire when he thought Herrera was about to shoot him. Like Collie, Herrera did not have a gun. Over the years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly told lower courts to use an objective analysis when weighing police claims of immunity: They must determine whether the force used was reasonable or excessive, and if the latter, whether the specific type of force used has already been defined as illegal under"clearly established" precedent.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly rebuked the 9th Circuit for its willingness to deny cops immunity, and especially for applying, as the high court wrote in a 2011 ruling,"a high level of generality" when analysing the question of clearly established precedent. In Indio, California, a cop was denied immunity after fatally shooting Ernest Foster Jr three times in the back during a foot chase at a shopping plaza, even though police recovered a gun from the scene. And in Denver, Colorado, an officer was denied immunity after shooting Michael Valdez in the back, severely injuring him, though the cop himself had been shot during the preceding car chase.
Minnesota, where George Floyd lived, is also in the 8th Circuit. The day state investigators arrested the Minneapolis officer who knelt on Floyd's neck as he died, the appellate court granted immunity to cops in Burnsville, Minnesota, who killed Map Kong, a man in a mental health crisis, when they shot him in the back as he ran away holding a knife.
This widespread practice, legal experts said, undermines the ability of lawsuits to deter excessive force, particularly since cops are rarely prosecuted or otherwise disciplined for their actions."There is no sense of justice being done," said Blum, the Suffolk University law professor."The goal should be to deter, in some way to have a price paid if you engage in this kind of behaviour.
Amid the protests in the wake of Floyd's death, expectations ran high that the Supreme Court would finally move to restrict or end qualified immunity by taking up at least one of several petitions to hear cases backed by opponents of the doctrine. But in early June, it rejected those petitions. Two months before Barron shot him, Collie had landed a full-time gig building supermarket produce displays. He liked the work, and he was cheered to be saving money before resuming college classes in cinematography in the fall."Work and school, that was always the plan," he said.
Collie said the pair were shouting commands at him and over each other. He was confused, unsure about what to do, he said. In March 2017, Collie filed his lawsuit in federal district court in Fort Worth, naming Barron, Flores, the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and several other officers as defendants.
"In using reasonable force to stop an apparent deadly threat, Officer Barron violated none of Plaintiff's constitutional or other rights and is entitled to qualified immunity," Barron's lawyers argued. As a Texas judge, McBryde supported his ruling that shooting Collie was reasonable by drawing on 5th Circuit precedents that elevate an officer's perception of a threat as the key consideration in weighing an immunity claim. He cited a 2003 precedent that force is presumed to be reasonable when police perceive a threat, even if alternative courses of action were available.
In that case, the cop claimed he shot Ricardo Salazar-Limon in the back, paralysing him, after Salazar reached for his waistband. Salazar was unarmed.Manny Ramirez, president of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association, said the courts made the right decision to throw out Collie's suit. Barron is"a good officer", Ramirez added.
On the morning of Dec 17, 2011, Herrera was visiting his former girlfriend, Hilda Ramirez. He spent time playing with her children and making them breakfast. Over the meal, Ramirez later told detectives, Herrera said he had a feeling something big was going to happen that day. Dashboard camera video from the scene shows Herrera running away and then turning around and skipping backward as he veers into the middle of the street. The officers close in, trying to hem in Herrera between the two vehicles. Each cop drew his gun.
Herrera's family filed an excessive force lawsuit in federal district court in Santa Ana against Villarreal and the City of Tustin.
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