From a note by Juan Cofield, NAACP New England Area Conference, to area Branch Presidents
The [Massachusetts] House leadership is most concerned about is the Qualified Immunity issue. This issue is the one that the police interests are most opposed to. Accordingly, I have attached a fact sheet, prepared by NEAC’s Legal Redress Chair, Stephanie Soriano, to explain Qualified Immunity (QI). The Senate adopted bill, which NEAC is now strongly supporting, along with several bills proposed by the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus is the message we want to send.
NEAC’s adopted Policing Reform Package seeks the outright elimination of the Qualified Immunity doctrine. The bill proposed by the Congressional Black and Latino Caucus also calls for the elimination of QI. However, reform of QI was the best that we could get in the Senate bill. It was a huge battle. There were many who did not want it touched. We know that the battle to keep QI in tack will be a tougher battle in the House.
It is all about accountability, or lack thereof. With QI in place, citizens have much less ability to hold police accountable for misconduct. With these reforms, citizens will have a better chance of holding police accountable for misconduct. Because QI is currently the accepted legal doctrine, it is very unlikely that George Floyd or Breonna Taylor’s families will prevail if they were to file civil complaints against the police.
The attachment contains a brief explanation of what Qualified Immunity is and 6 reasons why it should be eliminated or reformed.
