It took about eight years; but, I'm finally changing my tune in qualified immunity (at least while we still have to deal with governments.)
On its face, especially in the age of heightened sensitivity to what people paint as police brutality, it doesn't make sense to shield police officers from lawsuits.
But, think about it for a moment.
Suppose you're shopping at Wal-Mart one day and you suddenly slip on a wet floor and hurt your back. There was no sign saying that the floor was wet. There's footage of other people nearly slipping before you did. So, an employee dropped the ball.
Do you sue the employee as an individual, or Wal-Mart? What are you going to get from a lawsuit out of an employee who's already making beans?
I will address one exception wherein I do see a problem with qualified immunity later; but, for now, I'm gonna focus on the solid logic.
Qualified immunity isn't useful in the most egregious actions by police. If an officer shoots somebody dead while he's cuffed and prone, we don't care about suing the cop. The cop should be in prison. If the cop is in prison, the cop has no income to pay the lawsuit. No, the cop goes to prison, and the police department gets sued.
The reality is that anybody can go down to a courthouse and at least file a lawsuit against almost anybody. A lot of them are frivolous.
Especially right now, I can see a disaster in overturning qualified immunity. We're not talking about suing Derek Chauvin. We're talking about the likelihood that activists will get pulled over for reckless driving and just start filing lawsuits against the officers who pulled them over. Even if the officers are never found responsible, at least until the unions figure something out, the individual officers would have to spend a year's salary on legal fees.
The plaintiffs get the lawyers who offer to not get paid unless they win, not the defendants.
Being a cop is already a dangerous job that pays shit and gets you hated by half the country. Who's gonna do it if they might get sued for issuing a traffic violation?
By the way, none of you "abolish the police" people actually want that. I want that, because I want government gone. You guys wanna throw rich people in prison, take my guns away, and you wanted Rittenhouse hanged. Who's gonna do all that?
Finally, yes, there's nuance.
Say a cop is basically in the OJ situation -- where, we all think he committed a murder although he was found guilty in criminal court; but, he was found responsible under the lower burden of proof in civil courts?
Well, under qualified immunity, there isn't that backup.
Still, you can sue the police department and show that the individual officer was responsible more likely than not. Again, if you're suing for millions of dollars, you might as well sue the person or entity who might be able to pay it.