Sen. Mike Braun, who is unveiling a bill to scale back the Qualified Immunity Act shielding officers from facing personal liability for actions taken in the line of duty, said Tuesday he thinks the law needs to be reformed, not eliminated.
"This law was originally established in 1871 and qualified immunity was no part of it," the Indiana Republican said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "It evolved in the '60s and the '80s from just cause to established events. What it's done is made it almost impossible for any individual whose rights have been trampled upon to find remedies."
Braun said he does want accountability and transparency when it comes to applying the law, but it's important to be sure it's not applied selectively.
"This would simply say if your only defense is if there is a law on the books that says the action that you took is okay or a court ruling says it's okay, but if not, you have to have that basic accountability," said Braun. "The other thing is for law enforcement. It's got to be one of the hardest, riskiest jobs out there. When you're being stigmatized by these horrific events like George Floyd, why wouldn't you want to fix it so the best of what you do comes out?"
Braun's proposal is getting some approval from both sides of the aisle, but President Donald Trump is against touching qualified immunity and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell does not want to take extreme action on the measure, noted show co-host Willie Geist, but Braun said he doesn't want to lose a "watershed moment" where something could be done.
Meanwhile, he agreed that the issue of police unions and how they back political candidates could come into question when it comes to passing policing reform laws, but that should be a "secondary consideration." However, he added, it's "all too much a part of politics as it exists at the local, state, and national level."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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