Julius
Caesar
sided
with
CATO
more
often
than
I
do,
but
the
organization
deserves
proper
recognition
when
it
absolutely
nails
an
issue.
Tyre
Nichols
joined
a
growing
list
of
innocent
Black
people
killed
by
police
that
shows
no
sign
of
slowing
down.
Every
time
another
brutal
killing
comes
to
light,
there’s
a
cycle
of
deep
concern,
followed
by
political
waffling,
and
then
moving
forward
unchanged
until
the
next
death.
Nestled
in
the
middle
of
this
cycle
is
the
juncture
where
the
court
system
issues
a
long,
beautiful
jeremiad
about
the
dangers
of
qualified
immunity
followed
by
exonerating
the
cop
anyway…
citing
qualified
immunity.
There’s
not
much
“qualified”
about
qualified
immunity
these
days.
The
Supreme
Court
not
only
upholds
the
doctrine
that
government
actors
can’t
be
held
accountable
for
actions
committed
within
the
scope
of
their
duties,
it’s
actively
stretched
the
scope
of
police
duties
to
infinity.
What
exists
today
is
absolute
immunity
in
all
but
name,
even
though
the
whole
doctrine
rests
upon
a
copying
error.
Qualified
immunity
springs
from
a
certain
logic:
government
actors
reasonably
and
faithfully
executing
their
duties
shouldn’t
be
constantly
hailed
into
court.
But
“reasonably”
has
departed
the
building
when
police
are
setting
people
on
fire
and
getting
the
benefit
of
qualified
immunity.
It’s
also
a
terrible
mechanism
for,
well,
policing
misconduct.
If
actors
believe
they’re
shielded
from
responsibility
in
most
instances,
it
incentivizes
bad
behavior.
A
crude
analogy
would
be
like
declaring
drivers
free
from
liability
for
traffic
laws
as
long
as
they
aren’t
driving
under
the
influence.
People
are
going
to
hammer
that
gas
pedal
and
to
hell
with
turn
signals.
And
while
the
CATO
Institute
spends
most
of
its
resources
demanding
that
the
federal
government
allow
toxic
dumping
directly
onto
orphanages,
the
anti-government
bur
in
its
saddle
sometimes
gets
it
exactly
right.
Thus,
while
employer
liability
is
an
important
part
of
policing
reform,
it
must
be
a supplement
to
qualified
immunity
reform,
not
an
alternative
to
it.
Shared
liability—not
employer-only
liability—is
the
system
that
ensures
a
full
remedy
for
victims
of
misconduct,
creates
deterrent
incentives
for
both
individuals
and
public
employers,
and
encourages
states
and
localities
to
experiment
with
different
methods
of
apportioning
liability
between
officers
and
police
departments
(including,
for
example, funding
insurance
policies for
individual
officers).
End
qualified
immunity
and
make
officers
carry
employer-employee-funded
professional
liability
insurance.
Funds
a
pool
of
resources
to
compensate
victims,
places
carriers
in
the
position
of
evaluating
risk
and
charging
premiums
accordingly,
creates
an
incentive
for
departments
to
separate
from
problem
officers…
it
checks
off
every
box.
This
is
the
not
only
the
best
mechanism
on
the
table
to
spur
genuine
reform,
it’s
also
politically
feasible
in
a
way
that
threatening
budget
cuts
isn’t.
Most
folks
think
that
cutting
police
budgets
would
increase
crime
—
which
is
wrong,
by
the
way
—
but
“maybe
cops
should
be
held
to
at
least
the
standard
of
teenagers
with
their
first
car”
is
not
a
hard
sell.
At
least
it
shouldn’t
be
a
hard
sell.
The
Killing
of
Tyre
Nichols
Reaffirms
the
Urgent
Need
for
Police
Accountability
[CATO]
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
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