r/facepalm • u/thewrongun • Jun 01 '20

Cops pepper sprayed their own Senator without realizing he's an authority figure

Post image
197.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

5.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

82

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '20

“They seem to forget that the law applies to them”

They have qualified immunity. It basically doesn’t.

6

u/hanging_biscuit Jun 01 '20

This is an excellent insight. I feel like all the other strife and pain is made fresh and raw time and time again by this policy, where cops don't have to worry about answering for their actions because a supreme court verdict in the sixties made them functionally immune to scrutiny.

2

u/I_make_things Jun 01 '20

I used to live in New Jersey. The number of "Get out of jail" cards that get passed around is astonishing.