A federal jury in Louisiana on Wednesday acquitted a white state trooper charged with violating the civil rights of a Black motorist despite body-camera footage that showed the officer pummeling the man 18 times with a flashlight.
A federal jury in Louisiana on Wednesday acquitted a white state trooper charged with violating the civil rights of a Black motorist despite body-camera footage that showed the officer pummeling the man 18 times with a flashlight.
Winning a case like this in civil court is extremely difficult. Police always claim qualified immunity, and then the case is nearly always thrown out.
And appeals courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court, tend to side with police whenever they claim qualified immunity.