Do you ever think: Why?

Why are these officers killing innocent human beings yet not facing any charges whatsoever?

This is because of a doctrine known as “qualified immunity” which protects police and other government officials from lawsuits against actions undertaken in the course of their duties.

This law has shielded police accused of using excessive force in thousands of lawsuits (a few examples are set out below).

This petition is to urge the parliament that the public want fairness by way of abolishing or amending the current law on “qualified immunity”. The law shall no longer protect police officers nor government officials from their wrongful actions and when in doubt, the defendant in question shall face just and reasonable consequences.

This doctrine shall no longer be a blanket immunity for those accused of misconduct.

THIS LAW MUST CHANGE.

Examples are set out below by way of caselaw where qualified immunity was used as a form of protection:

• Amadou Diallo - 4 officers fired 41 bullets on the mistaken notion that he was carrying a gun. In February, 2000, all four officers were acquitted by a jury after a trial in state court.

• Bettie Jones and neighbour Quintonio LeGrier - shot “accidentally” by Officer Rialmo on 26 December 2016. Courts dismissed case as Officer Rialmo who had a weapon in his hand ‘feared for his life’.

• Ernest Sayon - 22 year old died after a drug raid in 1994. The police said he struck his head on a cobblestone street, but his death was ruled a homicide by asphyxiation. He was handcuffed at the time. A state grand jury declined to indict three officers.

• De’Von Bailey - shot in the back in August 2019 by 2 officers whilst his hands were in the air. The Jury justified the officers wrongdoing and they were not charged not dismissed from duty.

• Stephon Clark - March 2018, Sacramento police responded to a call that a “thin, 6-foot-1 Black man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark pants was hiding in a residential backyard after breaking car windows.” Just eight minutes later, officers fired over 20 times at the 22-year-old... in his own backyard. Reportedly, they “feared” for their lives because they saw a gun in his hand. It turned out he was only carrying a cellphone.

• Julius Johnson - In 2009, the unarmed 23-year-old was killed by Officer Charles Anderson who claimed he was attacked and “feared for his life.” Johnson’s sister told detectives that she heard her brother plead for his life before being killed but she was charged with lying to police and was sentenced to three months in jail. Ten years later, a KKK application was found framed in Anderson’s home.

These are only a few names out of the thousands of innocent people inhumanely murdered just like George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

WE MUST SPEAK.

THE MORE WE SPEAK, THE MORE CHANGE AND EQUALITY WE WILL SEE.