Bill Skinner
|
Well, no, probably not.
Public officials have qualified immunity. That's to prevent them from getting sued by everyone who disagrees with how they are doing their job. That includes police.
The problem comes in when qualified immunity starts getting abused. You can use minimum force or you can dog pile the guy. If you attempt to use minimum force, you can end up in a one on one fight where the policeman can lose. And the person he's attempting to arrest now has access to his firearm(s), Taser, pepper spray, handcuffs, means of transportation, radio and phone, etc.
Easier to dog pile the guy, cuff and stuff him. Safer for the policeman, not necessarily for the person being apprehended.
I don't know about the rest of the world but the courts have supported quite a lot of force being used to apprehend someone in the name of "officer safety". Same for using lethal force in a situation. "Officer Safety" is apparently more important than citizen safety.
Note I did not say civilian safety, in the US, the police are also civilians, in spite of the uniforms and rank structure.
|