Milwaukee City Wire

State Rep. Jonathan Brostoff (D-Milwaukee) disagreed with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that granted "qualified immunity" to police officers in California and Oklahoma. 

"Police should not have qualified immunity," the lawmaker tweeted. "It encourages police brutality, attracts corrupt cops and prevents accountability for a profession sorely in need of it.” 

Brostoff introduced legislation earlier this year that would eliminate qualified immunity for officers in Wisconsin.

Qualified immunity shields government officials from personal financial liability for constitutional violations — "like the right to be free from excessive police force," under federal law if they did not violate “clearly established” law, LawFare reported.

"While some may try to claim that repealing qualified immunity is a partisan issue, the facts are not on their side," Brostoff said in a news release. "Over the past few years, we’ve seen an exceptionally ideologically broad coalition of nonprofit organizations, politicians, legal scholars and even sitting jurists come out against qualified immunity and argue that it is time to make this legally shaky, harmful doctrine a thing of the past."

The push for an end to qualified immunity for police officers gained momentum following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha last year, UpNorth News reported. Protestors said ending qualified immunity would give victims of police violence an avenue for justice in cases where no criminal charges are filed, the story said.