Dude goes walking. While open carrying. With his dog and wife.
A Pants Shitting Hysterical person calls the police.
Cop arrives.
Overreacts. Threatens, Handcuffs
Arrests (for "Inducing a Panic" .... (then Detains) Mr. Open Carry.
Finally cites him for "failing to disclose personal information" and lets him go after a few hours.
Dude sues. Illegal arrest and detainment.
Courts agree to hear argument that the police, at least in this case, have no "Qualified Immunity".
In this case, they are likely right.
I do believe that a police officer should have a partial shield of immunity if he is doing his job in a reasonable manner and simply makes a mistake. But there has to be limits, which, up until very recently, there have not been.
Good to see the courts are willing to reexamine the concept of blanket "'Cause I'm a cop and I can get away with it" shield that some police officers use to hide behind for their bad or stupid (or often vindictive) behavior.
Cue Murph in 3...2...
2 comments:
Relax...I'm not necessarily going to jump in every time you rejoice about a police officer getting in trouble for trying to do his or her job. If I did, I'd have to spend more time here than I do on my own site.
I'll let you have this one though, and we'll see where the case goes. However, a reading of the actual case (and not some inflammatory pro-open-carry screed) suggests that while the officer was out of line, Northrup himself was acting like a total dick and doing his best to escalate things, behavior that is sadly typical of open-carry "activists" and which ultimately harms our cause much more than it helps. The judge should simply suggest some legal retraining for the officer and order the bailiff to kick Northrup in the balls and dismiss the whole thing.
I agree with you except for the being held without cause and such.
I am glad that the shield of "Immunity" is wearing thin even in the courts though. Blanket immunity is not a terribly good thing....officers need some leeway, but not the amount that has historically (in the past 40+ years) been given.
Thing is, this was Forbes, not Alex Jones....and while Northrup may have been a dick, he has the right to be a dick. The cop was wrong, and should be punished for ALSO being a dick in the course of his duties as a police ossifer and for abusing his power and authority, which was the real point of my post.
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