How new Supreme Court decision makes it easier for police to get away with killing Black people
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The Supreme Court weighed in on a Tucson, Arizona, case and ruled in favor of a police officer who shot a knife-wielding woman with a history of mental illness, four times outside of her home.
According to The New York Times, Amy Hughes and her roommate Sharon Chadwick were outside of their home when two police officers responding to a call about an erratic woman with a knife, rolled up in their patrol cars. Officer Andrew Kisela saw Hughes advancing toward Chadwick with a knife and claimed she failed to respond to commands to drop her weapon. Hughes was shot multiple times but survived and sued for excessive force.
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The court ruled that Officer Kisela was entitled to “qualified immunity” in the shooting of Amy Hughes. That means the Supreme Court found that there was no precedent that would have alerted Officer Kisela that opening fire—in what he said was an effort to protect Chadwick—amounted to unconstitutionally excessive force since the officer gave “clear and fair” warnings.
That majority rule did not sit well with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, saying in her dissent that it gives police officers a false sense that they can get away with wrongdoings.
“Its decision is not just wrong with the law; it also sends an alarming signal law enforcement officers and the public,” she wrote. “It tells officers that they can shoot first and think later and it tells the public that palpably unreasonable conduct will go unpunished.”
“Hughes was nowhere near the officers, had committed no illegal act, was suspected of no crime, and did not raise the knife in the direction of Chadwick or anyone else,” Sotomayor wrote.
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To further the point, Sotomayor said the other two officers on the scene did not fire their weapons because they wanted to continue the verbal commands to see what would work.”
“But not Kisela,” she wrote. “He thought it necessary to use deadly force, and so, without giving a warning that he would open fire, he shot Hughes four times, leaving her seriously injured.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shared Sotomayor’s sentiments.
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