This is a very American system solution and it won’t work. People go on and on about getting rid qualified immunity but it’s only a partial immunity and cases are still fairly frequently lost. Look at what happens in those cases—-the city pays a lot of money. The cops suffer no consequences at all. They pay nothing. They even often get overtime for participating in the trial.

Lawsuits are a failed means of regulation when it comes to state actors (they are a failure in regulating other things as well but that’s a different conversation). It’s time we admit that instead of insisting we just need this one more tweak.

Let’s put in place real political accountability and then empower politicians to make genuine reforms—-even over the objections of civil service unions.