
This
hilarious image from those
fun-loving jokesters at the Euclid, OH police department was at the center of a
ruling yesterday from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that held that Euclid cops will not have qualified immunity from lawsuits after they tased and pepper-sprayed a man in his car, then arrested him on drug charges with no evidence.
Here's part of the opinion of the unanimous panel, authored by Trump appointee John K. Bush:
The police officers, in plain clothes, approached Wright’s parked SUV with weapons drawn. Thinking he was about to be robbed, Wright tried to back up the vehicle to get away. A flash of a badge made him realize that the men he thought were about to rob him were the police. Wright stopped the SUV, and the officers pulled open the driver’s side door. Wright had no weapon, and the officers holstered theirs. Nonetheless, they simultaneously deployed a taser against him and pepper-sprayed him at point-blank range, all while he remained seated in the vehicle. Wright had trouble getting out of the SUV because of a colostomy bag stapled to the right side of his abdomen. He was recovering from a medical operation for diverticulitis. The police aggravated the staples from his surgery, causing bleeding from around the bag.
The officers then arrested Wright even though there was arguably no probable cause for the arrest. The officers designated Wright’s arrest as arising from a drug investigation, even though they found no drugs on him. This designation resulted in Wright’s being detained for more than nine hours and subjected to an intrusive body scan for drugs well after the officers knew of Wright’s medical condition. The scan revealed no drugs, and no drug-related charges were ever brought against him.Is it any surprise that when you announce that officers cannot be held liable for their actions, they have depictions of police beating unarmed civilians
in their official training materials?
The police are fundamentally broken. Fortunately, these protests seem to be working: CO just signed
a bill completely eliminating qualified immunity into law.