Hands Up, Don't Spray: Peterson v. Kopp

One of the key legal doctrines that makes it nearly impossible to effectively police the police is the doctrine of qualified immunity.  Last week we discussed  Plumhoff v. Rickard, a recent United States Supreme Court Case that upheld this doctrine.  There is another recent case out of the federal 8th Circuit Court of Appeals (Ferguson, along with the rest of Missouri, falls within the 8th Circuit) that deals with this same issue.  This case is called Peterson v. Kopp, and its language and facts show exactly how far qualified immunity has gone. In this case the Court recognized that, even where officers use unreasonable force, qualified immunity can shield them from responsibility for their brutality.