Make Nassau police accountable

On Jan. 7, Memphis police offcers stopped Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old father for alleged “reckless driving” – although the police chief would later acknowledge they were “unable to substantiate” probable cause for the stop.

Body camera footage shows the offcers pulled the 140-pound Nichols out of the car, pushed him to the ground, threatened him, yelled obscenities and conficting commands, and used pepper spray and a taser on him.

Nichols managed to escape, but fve ofcers caught up with him a few minutes later. They then proceeded to beat him, striking him at least nine times with batons, kicks and punches delivered to the head and torso at points while Nichols was held down.

The ofcers fst-bumped each other after the beating.

It then took more than 20 minutes after Nichols was beaten before medical attention was provided, even though two fre department ofcers arrived on the scene with medical equipment within 10 minutes.

Nichols was hospitalized in critical condition. He died three days later.

The fve ofcers who conducted the beating were fred by Memphis police and charged with second-degree murder and other crimes.

How could this happen? Start with training, department policies and accountability.

In Memphis, there appears to have been little. The special unit that pummeled Nichols had apparently been using the same tactics on people in high-crime, low-income areas since its formation. But no one had died yet.

The second form of accountability is legal. The fve ofcers now face murder charges and were fred.

But the Nichols family does not have the right to sue the ofcers for fnancial damages in civil court.

Nor would a family in Nassau County or almost any other place in the United States.

The reason? A legal doctrine called qualifed immunity that shields public ofcials, including police, from civil li- ability — even for the most egregious misconduct.

While doctors, lawyers, journalists and even homeowners are held accountable when they are negligent, police offcers are not. So they have nothing to fear from their actions in all but the most extreme instances.

The use of qualifed immunity would have been restricted under the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was approved by the House in 2021 after the Minneapolis man was murdered by a police ofcer.

The legislation would also have limited the transfer of military-grade equipment to police departments, required ofcers to complete training to avoid excessive force, increased the use of body cameras, created a national database for ofcer misconduct allegations and banned no-knock warrants and chokeholds, in some cases.

But the policing act died in the Senate where Republicans objected to restricting qualifed immunity.

President Biden and other congressional Democrats have called for Congress to reconsider the legislation in the wake of Nichols’ shocking murder.

If Congress fails to act a second time, the state Legislature should restrict qualifed immunity on its own. And if the state Legislature fails to do so, Nassau County should act.

New York City did that in 2021.

After the legislation was approved, the city’s Police Benevolent Association, Sergeants Benevolent Association, and Captains Endowment Association sent out a legal guidance that said members were “strongly cautioned” against searching homes, cars or people or performing any stop-and-frisk, “unless you are certain that you are clearly and unequivocally within the bounds of the law.”

That is what the standard ought to be. We would like to believe that the vast majority of police, the good cops, already do this. Good policing requires them to build trust and work with the community. Not to terrorize them.

Some critics will be quick to point out that New York City saw a spike in

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This would be someway disingenuous since most of these critics have repeatedly cited bail reform as the reason for the spike in crime in New York, not changes to qualifed immunity.

It also is not supported by the facts. In 2022, major crimes rose much higher in Nassau County (41%) than New York City (22%).

Is there a problem with policing in Nassau County? It’s hard to tell, but there is reason for concern.

Nassau County leaves reviews of possible misconduct to the police themselves and from 2016 to 2021, reported zero “founded” cases of false arrest and excessive force.

But during that time 30 people won court judgments against county police for 41 allegations.

For 38 of the allegations, the Nassau County Attorney’s ofce paid money to settle the case while also barring the accuser from speaking publicly about the allegations.

What were the names of the police involved in those instances and were any involved in more than one case? We don’t know. How serious were the accusations and how much was paid to settle the claims? We don’t know that either.

And how many many of the accusers were white and how many were black? We don’t know that as well.

The county Legislature’s three mi- nority members, all Democrats, asked state Attorney General Letitia James to establish an independent ofce to monitor misconduct in the Nassau County Police Department after the county Legislature approved a reform policing plan put forward by then County Executive Laura Curran that they believed was inadequate.

James, in a letter sent to the legislators, acknowledged the benefts of establishing a remote ofce and criticized the county for not including “meaningful checks on law enforcement.”

But James said she lacked the necessary funding to establish a remote oversight ofce in Nassau.

She added that “it is our frm intention that the ofce give special scrutiny to those jurisdictions where local accountability and formal oversight is lacking, and that certainly includes Nassau County.”

Nassau County Republicans responded earlier in the year to the Black Lives Matter movement’s calls for police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis by joining a “Back the Blue” campaign.

County Democrats weren’t much better.

Nassau County Legislator Josh Lafazan, joined by three fellows Democrats, introduced a bill that would allow frst responders to sue any person who harasses, attacks or injures them while they are in uniform under the Nassau County

Human Rights Law. It carried civil penalties of $25,000 to the “aggrieved” frst responders and up to $50,000 if the violations occurred during a “riot.”

Critics said the law would chill free speech and peaceful protests.

They also noted that supporters of the bill ofered no examples of violence against frst responders in Nassau County. Or examples of similar legislation anywhere else in America.

The law was approved by the Legislature with the support of all 12 Republicans but vetoed by Curran, citing concerns that it was not constitutional.

Nassau has had one of the lower crime rates of any like-sized county in the United States. And its police have been among the best paid with the cost of police almost double the national average per capita.

We entrust the police to protect our safety, which they often do at great risk. For which we are grateful.

But the public has both a need and a right to know if there are police who have gone over the line and that they are being held accountable if they did.

Following the death, of Tyre Nichols, Nassau Democrats and Republicans should establish an independent police review board and eliminate qualifed immunity.

There is nothing contradictory about having a low crime rate while maintaining the highest standards in policing.

Yvonne Farley