Former Detroit Police Lt. John F. Kennedy, who at one point headed the department's Integrity Unit, pleaded guilty this week to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Former Detroit Police Lt. John F. Kennedy, who at one point headed the department's Integrity Unit, pleaded guilty this week to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Police Officers Never Learn “Clearly Established Law” SHARE
Most people would agree that police officers shouldn’t be punished for split‐second mistakes in judgment. That’s why the
Garner tests for whether or not an officer’s use of force amounts to a constitutional violation require an analysis of whether that use of force was reasonable with regard to the
particular circumstances the officer was in.
But qualified immunity goes beyond
Graham and
Garner with its maddeningly arbitrary “clearly established law” requirement. In effect, “clearly established law” adds a separate, completely illogical burden of proof to constitutional torts cases: proving the existence of a prior case with functionally identical facts.