4 ms·

Court: Permanently Injuring a Nonviolent 13-Year-Old Isn't a Rights Violation

9 points by hn_acker 2y ago

hn_acker 2y ago
The original title is: > Appeals Court: Permanently Injuring A 13-Year-Old Because He Wouldn’t Take His Hand Out Of His Pockets Isn’t A Rights Violation While unpublished decisions [1] are the norm rather than the exception [2], I was surprised that the court chose to make this particular case unpublished: > the Eleventh Circuit Appeals both (1) declined to establish this as a rights violation going forward and (2) issued this as an unpublished decision to prevent it from being used to establish similar rights violations in the future. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-publication_of_legal_opinions_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-publication_of_legal_opini... [2] https://www.cornelllawreview.org/2022/04/16/is-unpublished-unequal-an-empirical-examination-of-the-87-nonpublication-rate-in-federal-appeals/ https://www.cornelllawreview.org/2022/04/16/is-unpublished-u...
deleted 2y ago
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salawat 2y ago
I beg your pardon? This is actually a thing? Jesus, how horrifying and absurd. No wonder it seems like nothing makes sense if only 13% of decisions are publically vettable.
jfengel 2y ago
He was beaten for not taking his hands out of his pockets. If he had taken his hands out of his pockets, he would almost certainly have been shot, on the grounds that the officer feared there was a weapon. Not being in the courtroom, I didn't hear the testimony. Sometimes, with stories like this, there are factors that are left out of the headlines. Like that story last week, about a white man exonerated for killing a black man, which often left out that the black man had been behaving erratically and violently. Still... I can't help but be struck by the damned-if-you-do, damned-of-you-don't situation here. There is a saying that if you have a problem, and you call the police, you now have two problems. The cops were called out for something that absolutely did not merit police intervention, and became much, much worse because of it.

9 points by hn_acker 2y ago

The original title is: > Appeals Court: Permanently Injuring A 13-Year-Old Because He Wouldn’t Take His Hand Out Of His Pockets Isn’t A Rights Violation While unpublished decisions [1] are the norm rather than the exception [2], I was surprised that the court chose to make this particular case unpublished: > the Eleventh Circuit Appeals both (1) declined to establish this as a rights violation going forward and (2) issued this as an unpublished decision to prevent it from being used to establish similar rights violations in the future. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-publication_of_legal_opinions_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-publication_of_legal_opini... [2] https://www.cornelllawreview.org/2022/04/16/is-unpublished-unequal-an-empirical-examination-of-the-87-nonpublication-rate-in-federal-appeals/ https://www.cornelllawreview.org/2022/04/16/is-unpublished-u...

deleted 2y ago

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salawat 2y ago

I beg your pardon? This is actually a thing? Jesus, how horrifying and absurd. No wonder it seems like nothing makes sense if only 13% of decisions are publically vettable.

jfengel 2y ago

He was beaten for not taking his hands out of his pockets. If he had taken his hands out of his pockets, he would almost certainly have been shot, on the grounds that the officer feared there was a weapon. Not being in the courtroom, I didn't hear the testimony. Sometimes, with stories like this, there are factors that are left out of the headlines. Like that story last week, about a white man exonerated for killing a black man, which often left out that the black man had been behaving erratically and violently. Still... I can't help but be struck by the damned-if-you-do, damned-of-you-don't situation here. There is a saying that if you have a problem, and you call the police, you now have two problems. The cops were called out for something that absolutely did not merit police intervention, and became much, much worse because of it.