redgoldsparks: Ending Qualified Immunity for Law Enforcement, info and call script What is qualified
redgoldsparks: Ending Qualified Immunity for Law Enforcement, info and call script What is qualified immunity? A legal rule known as “qualified immunity” often shields police officers and other government officials from being sued by victims and their families, even if the officers violated their civil rights. (Forbes.com) History: The Civil Rights Act of 1871 gave individuals the right to sue state and local officials for infringing on their rights. This act was made to protect Black citizens after the passing of the 14th Amendment. However, since 1967 the Supreme Court has issued several decisions gutting this act by inventing the qualified immunity doctrine. And in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that government officials were entitled to qualified immunity from civil-rights lawsuits, if their actions didn’t violate “clearly established” rights. These rights are so narrowly defined it is almost impossible to win a case. (Forbes.com and Pressley.house.gov.) In the first week of June 2020 Congress members in both the House and the Senate have begun work to abolish qualified immunity. In the House: Pressley (D-MA) and Amash (L-MI) introduced the Ending Qualified Immunity Act. They are joined by co-sponsors: Omar (D-MN), Velázquez (D-NY), DeGette (D-CO), Norton (D-DC), Espaillat (D-NY), Meeks (D-NY), Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Takano (D-CA), Blumenauer (D-OR), Lee (D-CA), McGovern (D-MA), Carson (D-IN), Pingree (D-ME), Maloney (D-NY), Kennedy III (D-MA), and García (D-IL). (Pressley.house.gov) In the Senate: Harris (D-CA), Markey (D-MA) and Booker (D-NJ) announced they will introduce a Senate Resolution that calls for the elimination of qualified immunity for law enforcement officers. Sanders (I-VT), Warren (D-MA), and Hollen (D-MD) are co-sponsors. (Harris.senate.gov) Please call your representatives to support this! If you don’t want to talk to anyone on the phone, call after business hours and leave a message. You can also text “Sign XITZCS” to 50409 (the resist bot) to send an email to your representatives. If your representative was listed on a previous slide, say: My name is___ and I am calling from (city, state). My zip code is ___. Thank you for supporting the effort to end qualified immunity for law enforcement. This issue is extremely important to me, please do everything you can to move it forward in Congress. If you representative was NOT listed, say: My name is___ and I am calling from (city, state). My zip code is ___. I am calling to ask you to support the effort to end qualified immunity for law enforcement. This issue is extremely important to me, and I urge you to do everything you can to move it forward in Congress. Final tips: Your congresspeople have multiple offices. You can call EACH OFFICE, not just one location. Your congresspeople have an email submission form on their website. You can repeat this same script in an email. The website 5calls.org has many more short scripts such as this to help you make political calls. If you don’t know your representatives, search by zip code at: house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative Full text of the bill and resolution are available online: here and here. Note: a resolution is not as powerful as a bill. It is a statement of intent, not law. -- source link