The Supreme Court on Monday gave police officers protection from lawsuits that result from high-speed car chases, ruling against a Georgia teenager who was paralyzed after his car was run off the road.I live in Southern California which is the home of the high speed pursuit. Rarely a day goes by without one or more, and they often tie up the local channels for however long they last. Just last week we had an idiot driving around L.A. for over 90 minutes while the media choppers hovered overhead carrying the whole thing live on several L.A. channels. The car was driving with no front tires at all, the the cops looked absolutely inept as they tried, feebly at times, to stop him.
In a case that turned on a video of the chase in suburban Atlanta, Justice Antonin Scalia said law enforcement officers do not have to call off pursuit of a fleeing motorist when they reasonably expect that other people could be hurt.
Rather, officers can take measures to stop the car without putting themselves at risk of civil rights lawsuits.
"A police officer's attempt to terminate a dangerous high-speed car chase that threatens the lives of innocent bystanders does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even when it places the fleeing motorist at risk of serious injury or death," Scalia said.
The court sided 8-1 with former Coweta County sheriff's deputy Timothy Scott, who rammed a fleeing black Cadillac on a two-lane, rain-slicked road in March 2001.
Victor Harris, the 19-year-old driver of the Cadillac, lost control and his car ended up at the bottom of an embankment. The nighttime chase took place at roughly 90 miles an hour.
If suspects in these cases were allowed to sue the cops everytime one of them got hurt in a pursuit, we've have nothing but chaos as the cops would never be able to chase anyone, regardless of what they had done and the bad guys would get a free pass with every attempted car stop. I'm glad they got this one right.
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