Justice Sonia Sotomayor Shows Anti-Police Bias
By Cowgirl, Blue Lives Matter:
Washington, DC – In a scathing dissent to the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to take a certain case, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor not only attacked police officers and their credibility but accused the nation’s highest court of developing a “disturbing trend” of siding with police officers.
One of the Supreme Court’s two most liberal Justices, she continued in her rant and said that this trend involved “siding” with police officers who have been accused of excessive force, at the expense of who she referred to as victims, according to The Washington Post. I would refer to them as defendants, suspects, or criminals.
Justice Sotomayor was joined in her dissent by the Supreme Court’s second most liberal Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Neither is known for being supportive of law enforcement, but attacking the court’s prior judgments is new territory.
The case in question, Salazar-Limon v. City of Houston, occurred during a 2010 traffic stop. Houston Police Officer Chris Thompson stopped Salazar-Limon’s vehicle for speeding and suspected drunk driving. Officer Thompson told Salazar-Limon he was under arrest and began to handcuff him.
He said that Salazar-Limon tried to push him into traffic, and then moved his hand toward his waistband. Officer Thompson said that he told him to stop, and that he feared for his life. He said he shot Salazar-Limon, who later sued him for ‘unconstitutional excessive force’, according to Reuters.
Justice Sotomayor said that there has been no hesitation to reverse court decisions in cases involving the use of force, but that the Court rarely accepts cases where police officers are offered qualified immunity.
