2 of 2 copies available
In recent years, the high-profile murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others have brought much-needed attention to the pervasiveness of police misconduct. Yet it remains nearly impossible to hold police accountable for abuses of power—the decisions of the Supreme Court, state and local governments, and policy makers have, over decades, made the police all but untouchable.
In Shielded, University of California, Los Angeles, law professor Joanna Schwartz exposes the myriad ways in which our legal system protects police at all costs, with insightful analyses about subjects ranging from qualified immunity to no-knock warrants. The product of more than two decades of advocacy and research, Shielded is a timely and necessary investigation into why civil rights litigation so rarely leads to justice or prevents future police misconduct. Weaving powerful true stories of people seeking restitution for violated rights, cutting across race, gender, criminal history, tax bracket, and zip code, Schwartz paints a compelling picture of the human cost of our failing criminal justice system, bringing clarity to a problem that is widely known but little understood. Shielded is a masterful work of immediate and enduring consequence, revealing what tragically familiar calls for “justice” truly entail.
© 2023 Robert Longo / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
February 14, 2023 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593628898
- File size: 263168 KB
- Duration: 09:08:15
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
Starred review from December 5, 2022
An intricate web of laws, policies, and customs protects U.S. police officers even when they abuse their power, according to this searing indictment. UCLA law professor Schwartz (coauthor, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) casts a harsh light on nearly every aspect of the justice system, from Supreme Court decisions to federal juries that “disproportionately exclude people of color, poor people, people with criminal records, and people who have had negative experiences with the police.” According to Schwartz, the strongest police protection is qualified immunity, which shields officers from being sued for monetary damages even if they’ve violated the Constitution. Debunking the claim that if officers faced threats of litigation and bankruptcy for split-second mistakes, no one would serve in law enforcement, Schwartz notes that in 44 of America’s largest police jurisdictions, taxpayers carried the financial burden for 99.98% of settlements and judgments awarded to victims of police misconduct. (The city of Chicago paid almost half a billion dollars in such lawsuits between 2010 and 2020.) The author’s solutions include requiring officers to pay a portion of settlements entered against them, and better educating the public about the failures of the criminal justice system. Rigorous research, in-depth analysis, and poignant case studies make this a must-read study of an urgent social issue.
-