Gabriel Olivas was having a mental health crisis when police came to help. They knew he was doused in gas—and one warned that tasing him would set him on fire.
The other cops did it anyway. He was burned alive, & his family’s home burned along with him. reason.com/2021/06/28/qua…
Here’s where it gets rich. The 5th Circuit said the officers didn’t violate Olivas’ rights—when they set him & the home ablaze—because he posed a threat.
But the fire that endangered others was set in motion *because* of the cops…not in spite of them. reason.com/2021/06/28/qua…
The officers were given qualified immunity.
The family will thus have no *right* to sue, not only for their ravaged home, but for the father/husband they lost to what appears to be reckless negligence.
And other officers are free to come along & do the same.
The 5th Circuit has an embarrassing record when it comes to qualified immunity.
I’m 2019, they gave it to a group of prison guards that locked a naked inmate in cells covered in human feces & sewage. The Supreme Court wasn’t having that one. reason.com/2020/11/20/qua…
In February, the Supreme Court overturned *another* 5th Circuit ruling after they gave qualified immunity to a prison guard who pepper-sprayed an inmate for the fun of it.
Notably, the judge who wrote the primary opinion Friday—James Ho—is the same judge who has said cops need qualified immunity “to stop mass shoutings.”
Translation: The government should be able to violate your rights with impunity for your own good! reason.com/2019/10/25/jud…
So unless SCOTUS intervenes in *another* 5th Circuit decision—this one—the Olivas family will have to live with the idea that it is reasonable for the government to set a man on fire and destroy a home without any recourse.
An autopsy ruled it homicide by asphyxiation. The court was tasked with deciding whether or not it was "clearly established" that cops cannot apply such extreme force to a subject who isn't resisting.
Is there anything more ridiculous than qualified immunity?
What's most amazing is that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the original ruling.
This is the same court that gave qualified immunity to prison guards who locked a naked inmate in cells covered in human feces & raw sewage. reason.com/2020/06/25/qua…
Here's a doozy: A group of cops knowingly violated the First Amendment when they tried to force a man to delete a video of them beating a suspect, a federal court said this week.
That same court gave them qualified immunity anyway.
The story: A man named Levi Frasier sees a group of cops making an arrest in an alleged drug deal, & he films them punching the suspect 6 times in the face.
The cops find Frasier afterward, surround him, search his tablet without a warrant, & try to delete the video.
The kicker: The cops had *specific training* on this issue. The public has the right to film an arrest, and the cops knew it. The city had explicitly told them so.
The 10th Circuit acknowledged this & agreed it was a free speech violation.
@justinamash's bill from last June would've ended qualified immunity for all state actors. It had tripartisan support. It never received a vote. reason.com/2020/06/06/jus…
I talked with a man who came to the U.S. legally from India. His student visa was running out, so he applied for a master's at the University of Farmington.
The university's website, secretly set up by ICE, claimed to be approved by DHS's Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
So he enrolled, paid $15,000 in tuition, & got his visa. He then got a letter telling him it was all a lie & he needed to leave the country.
600 other students are in the same boat. Some left right away. About 250 were arrested & deported.
THREAD: A SWAT team decimated this innocent woman's home while chasing a fugitive. The city says it's not their problem—and has refused to pay for any damages.
Whitmer's April stay-at-home order prohibited all public and private gatherings. It banned the in-store sale of paint & outdoor goods at big retailers. It shuttered lawncare services. It made it illegal to use motorboats, but not boats without motors. reason.com/2020/04/13/mic…
Even with all the prohibitions, lottery sales were still deemed essential.