WV cop loses qualified immunity after arrest for laughing

I'm familiar with two qualified immunity travesties.

Woman goes to jail. Her mother calls the jail and asks them repeatedly to give her daughter her psych meds. They refuse. Repeatedly. The woman in jail stabs both of her eyes out with a pencil. Federal court finds qualified immunity.

In another case, woman's boyfriend is at her house with his kids (not hers). Boyfriend leaves. Cops come by and ask the woman where the boyfriend was. She refuses to answer. The cops were looking for the boyfriend to return his kids back to the kids' mom (even though there was no custody order). Cops arrest girlfriend for "interference with child custody." The problem? Only a parent or legal custodian can be charged with interference with child custody, and there has to be a custody order. Neither existed in this case. After a protracted series of arguments and briefing, the Court found qualified immunity. Basically, the court held that the cops aren't responsible for knowing the elements of every crime.

ETA: I'm way more concerned about qualified immunity not being applied in circumstances like the two above (particularly the first one).

The same sheriff's office that arrested the woman for interference with child custody did have to settle another case where QI was denied. A guy have an insulting post on FB about a former deputy (whose wife still worked at the sheriff's office) and they charged the guy with criminal defamation. The Louisiana criminal defamation statute has long been held to be unconstitutional.

I can not stand cops.

The "I have the right to sass off to the cops" partisans, which get a ton of social media views, hide the real violations that often get protected by qualified immunity.

A big one is the refusal of many jails to give inmates their psych meds. It is amazingly common. In the example I posted earlier, it is pretty damn self evident that the girl needed them.

Police engagement in civil matters is another one. The child custody example I listed in my other post is one of them. In another case I'm familiar with, a couple was shacking up, with both on the lease. The woman's brother was a Shreveport cop. So, other Shreveport cops came by and basically evicted the man by telling him to go find another place to live.

My last example I know of: Older black man is stopped at a light and gets rear ended by another car. This accident was during the COVID turmoil. He didn't want to get out of the car because he was concerned about COVID exposure. Cop yanks the door open, drags him forcibly out of the car, takes him down to the pavement, and cuffs him. He gets arrested. The excuse for the action: "I was concerned he (the black driver) had a head injury."

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So I don't have to go look up "qualified immunity" on Wikipedia, would you want to tell me what this means?

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It means the cop wilfully and knowingly did something unlawful to a citizen and can face a civil suit. Lots of cops claim "oh I didn't know what I did was unlawful" and it worked for many years. But once case law starts stacking up that excuse is no longer viable.

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It means the cop wilfully and knowingly did something unlawful

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Technically, it's actually the opposite. Qualified Immunity means the cop did not willingly and knowingly do something unlawful.

Losing qualified immunity means the cop willingly and knowingly did something unlawful.

I was explaining what it means to lose qualified immunity. You can then easily infer what it would mean to have qualified immunity upheld. I even gave an example of it. Let's not be obtuse.

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Dex Morgan

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I generally laugh at your blatant anti-cop bullshite, but I remember this "arrested for laughing" video and am glad that cop doesn't get QI for this. Because that whole situation was bullshite to begin with.

I'm generally pro-cop, but that cop was an a-hole and deserved repercussion.

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My last example I know of: Older black man is stopped at a light and gets rear ended by another car. This accident was during the COVID turmoil. He didn't want to get out of the car because he was concerned about COVID exposure. Cop yanks the door open, drags him forcibly out of the car, takes him down to the pavement, and cuffs him. He gets arrested. The excuse for the action: "I was concerned he (the black driver) had a head injury.

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How does his race add to the story?

Without Qualified Immunity, our police force would fall short of maintaining law and order, which is the primary purpose of a government.

We have protections in place for weeding out the abusers of QI and as you see in this video, it worked.

Qualified Immunity is needed.

We are infested with small town cops are A-holes in my area. Anyone that has traveled US-165 from I-10 north to Alexandria understand what I'm referring to. Every town along the route is a blatant speed trap or worse.

During the last cold snap I stopped outside a business (on a side street in a very small town) that was closed so that I could go inside and check the setting on the thermostat. Did leave my truck running and the driver side door open which was on the sidewalk side, not the street. Probably 2 minutes tops inside the building.

When I came out, one of the local yokels was leaning against my truck and with his chest all puffed out and a SA smirk on his face informed me that he could write me up for "abandoning a vehicle in a business area" and "abandoning a motor vehicle while the engine was running". Then let me know he was going to do me a favor "this time".

Oh well, guess he taught me a lesson.