This post was originally published on Defender Network
By Aswad Walker
In May, former President Donald Trump told a Waukesha, Wisconsin crowd, “We’re going to give our police their power back, and we are going to give them immunity from prosecution.”
That same month, On May 3, 23-year-old Senior Airman Roger Fortson was shot and killed by an Okaloosa County (Florida) Sheriff seconds after opening his front door. No instructions were given. No warning. No waiting. Just one second and six shots were fired as Roger’s girlfriend listened through a Facetime call.
Houston-based civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Fortson’s family, labeled the shooting an “execution” and a violation of Fortson’s civil rights.
More Police Violence
Weeks after Trump’s promise to “protect” police so they can “do their job,” Sonya Massey, a 36-year-ole Black mother, was shot and killed by police after she called 9-1-1 because she feared someone was trying to break into her Springfield, Illinois home.
More recently, a San Francisco surveillance video from July 29 showed police assaulting a Black woman, Christiana Ponder, accused of jaywalking.
“The moment he charged at me out of his car and just seeing that look of just anger, I immediately knew he didn’t have good intentions,” said Ponder, who was followed, detained, and then thrown against a wall. For jaywalking.
Ponder suffered a concussion, separated right shoulder, and torn ligaments in her knee from her encounter with police.
“They abuse and use their power and authority to brutalize and just torment and harass civilians,” said Ponder.
Trump’s Plan for Black America
Part of Trump’s plan for Black America apparently involves stricter policing of Blacks with police given even more freedom than traditionally granted from legal accountability.
“There’s a big difference between being a bad person and making an innocent mistake,” said Trump. “Sometimes you have less than a second to make a life and death decision, and sometimes very bad decisions are made. They’re not made from an evil standpoint, but they’re made from the standpoint of ‘they’ve made a mistake.’”
But Black people know what U.S. crime statistics verify: those officer “mistakes” happen to Black people exponentially more often than whites. Nationally, unarmed Blacks are 320 times more likely to be killed by police than unarmed whites.
To end this gross racial disparity a significant criminal justice reform bill, which has been stalled in legislative limbo for years, was reintroduced ahead of the fourth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by police. This proposed law, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, was reintroduced by longtime Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in May 2024, just months before her passing.
“Far too many lives have been lost or forever changed due to unacceptable incidents of police brutality throughout our nation,” Jackson Lee stated during a press conference with family members of Blacks killed by law enforcement. “We cannot allow another American to be deprived of their humanity, dignity, and constitutional rights without taking action.”
Qualified Immunity
One of the main components of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is its call to end qualified immunity, a doctrine described by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as a “judge-created rule that protects government officials, including police officers when they are sued.”
Nationally and here in Texas, qualified immunity has been used in many cases to protect officers who have been accused of misconduct, including excessive use of force and fatal shootings.
One of Trump’s most consistent messages during the run-up to Election 2024 is his commitment to fight against any legislation that seeks to end or weaken qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that bars victims from suing state and local government employees.
Qualified immunity protected the Louisville, KY police who shot and killed award-winning EMT and first responder Breonna Taylor in March 2020 from being sued by her family. But qualified immunity wasn’t needed for Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson to protect the officers who killed Taylor.
Simpson blamed Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, for her death at the hands of police who burst into Taylor’s home serving a “no-knock” warrant on the wrong house during the wee hours of the morning. Walker, who legally owned a weapon, sought to protect himself and Taylor from unknown assailants who broke in and started firing. Those assailants happened to be Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany.
Those who defend qualified immunity argue ending it would bankrupt officers hit by lawsuits. However, a study conducted by UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz revealed that governments (i.e. taxpayers), not the cops themselves, paid 99.9% of the damages awarded to plaintiffs.
Trump intends to protect qualified immunity and offer police “federal immunity” so they can continue to “do their job.”
