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Senate committees debate qualified immunity, expanding job opportunities

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Illinois

* Capitol News Illinois…

State legislators are considering eliminating or limiting aspects of qualified immunity for law enforcement.

Qualified immunity isn’t an explicit federal statute or law but a legal doctrine established in its current form by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1982 case Harlow v. Fitzgerald which grants government officials immunity from civil suits in the course of their duties. It is most often used in cases of alleged police misconduct or brutality.

At a joint hearing of the Senate Criminal Law and Public Safety committees on Thursday, lawmakers heard testimony from legal experts, law enforcement and municipal officials on the impact of qualified immunity and its potential removal. The committee also discussed officer liability and amendments to the Uniform Peace Officers’ Disciplinary Act.

State Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, co-chaired the hearing.

“Qualified immunity is often used as justification for excessive force and other forms of police misconduct,” Peters said in a release after the hearing. “If officers had to worry about facing consequences from their actions, maybe they would think twice before brutalizing our communities. We cannot and will not win real safety and justice until police officers are able to be held accountable for their actions.”

In order to lose qualified immunity, officers must violate “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”

The Illinois Municipal League testified in opposition. Read the whole thing for its take.

* Also from Capitol News Illinois…

State education officials and youth employment advocates are proposing expanding job skills programs in areas with large minority student populations and high unemployment, while also removing barriers to employment that disproportionately affect minorities. […]

[Mari Castaldi, director of policy and advocacy at the Chicago Jobs Council] suggested lawmakers invest state funding in projects such as a Barrier Reduction Fund, to help job seekers and career training program participants address barriers to employment.

She also urged that they implement policy changes at the state level to remove unnecessary barriers that disproportionately impact young people, minorities and women.

For example, she said, Illinois still suspends driver’s licenses of people who can’t afford to pay ticket debt from automated camera tickets and low-level traffic tickets.

Current estimates indicate that as many as 500,000 Illinoisans had suspended licenses for failure to pay, she said, despite the implementation of the Illinois License to Work Act this year, which no longer allows for non-moving violations to result in a suspended Illinois driver’s license.

Lots more, so go check it out.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Nov 10, 20 @ 2:26 am

Comments

If the system is truly contains ” systemic racism” then you must remove immunity from all involved..that includes judges and states attorneys

Comment by Jump Tuesday, Nov 10, 20 @ 6:58 am
Re “ Senate committees discuss inequity in education, employment”
Let’s talk about Castaldi’s “unnecessary barriers that disproportionately impact young people, minorities and women.”
As a construction worker I’ve noticed many articles about the aging construction workforce and a lot of hand wringing about how young people don’t want to work construction.
Well the problem is obvious.
Construction jobs start at 5 or 6 in the morning. No daycare or school is open at that time. How do they expect parents to go work if they can’t find a safe place for their young children? That’s why so many old people work construction. Their kids are grown. That’s why so many young people don’t work construction. They can’t work those hours.
It wasn’t that long ago that construction sites started at 8 in the morning. There was no construction worker shortage then.
If they want to (wo)man the jobs they need to move the time back to at least 8 am.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Tuesday, Nov 10, 20 @ 8:30 am
I wonder what I would do…if I knew I could not be prosecuted… honestly.

Humans need laws…enforced…particularly LEO’s…who are also Human…like you and me.

Comment by Dotnonymous Tuesday, Nov 10, 20 @ 11:23 am
People with the authority to administer state violence should be held to a substantially *higher* standard than the rest of us. That it’s a lower standard should be a cause for moral outrage, regardless of one’s politics.

Comment by Suburban Mom Tuesday, Nov 10, 20 @ 2:43 pm