Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about the very important topic of police reform and qualified immunity. Last week, I joined my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in voting in favor of the Justice in Policing Act, a bill that the National Fraternal Order of Police said, ``we believe, after good-faith discussions, will create a law that will have a positive impact on law enforcement and policing in our country.'' My Republican colleagues who voted in favor of this bill did so because we must move the legislative process and negotiations forward so we can begin to repair the social contract again between our police officers around the nation and the communities that they serve. That being said, we believe that the qualified immunity provision in the bill, as it is currently drafted, must be fixed so that we can ensure that we protect our hero police officers both from physical harm and potentially frivolous lawsuits. Qualified immunity is a judicially created doctrine that grants government officials who are performing discretionary functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated clearly established statutory or constitutional rights that a reasonable person would have been aware of. Madam Speaker, to put it simply, qualified immunity states that if an officer acts in good faith and is doing what he or she believes is in line with their responsibilities of being a police officer, then they are protected from personal liability.…”