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Qualified immunity strikes again: the 6th Circuit ruled that police may approach a man standing on his own porch who committed no crime, tackle him, punch him in the neck, and arrest him without violating "clearly established law."
Mr. Howse was standing on his own porch, talking to his mother on the phone, and about to unlock his front door when an unmarked police car stopped on the street and demanded to know whether he lived there. He said that he did. But that wasn't enough for the police.
They asked him--again--whether he lived in his own house. He said yes again and cursed. The officer decided this was too much. He told Mr. Howse that he had a smart mouth and that he was going to jail. Unsurprisingly, the officers were white; Mr. Howse is Black.
Mr. Howse was carrying ID that showed he lived in the house. But the police never asked to see it. When Mr. Howse pleaded with the officer that he lived in the house, the officer tackled him and threw him to the ground.
While Mr. Howse was lying on the ground and secured by an officer, his mother arrived, and identified him as her son, who lived in the house. The police didn't care. When Mr. Howse tried to look up at his mother, the officer punched him in the neck. Twice.
A 6th Circuit panel ruled--over a strong dissent--that the police were protected by qualified immunity because the panel couldn't find another case where the police tackled a man who was not resisting arrest, and punched him unnecessarily, all without probable cause for an arrest
According to the panel, because no case existed with the same facts, the unconstitutionality of the officers' behavior wasn't "clearly established."
Today, @NAACP_LDF filed a petition asking the entire Sixth Circuit to re-hear the case and reconsider the panel's ruling. Far too often qualified immunity allows the police to run roughshod over people's rights. It has to stop.
Many thanks to @mahoganedreed and James Hardiman for their work on the rehearing petition and appeal.
The rehearing en banc petition is available here: https://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/ldf-files-en-banc-petition-in-case-challenging-qualified-immunity/
