what's she in there was she in there was she in there oh my God by now we've all seen the footage of the train in Colorado hitting the police car that was stopped on the tracks severely injuring a woman who was in police custody placed handcuffed in the rear of the police cruiser that was hit my immediate thought here was qualified immunity there can be no doubt that the police officer was directly at fault in causing the severe injuries to the woman in his custody no doubt about it but unlike a doctor who negligently injures someone a police officer gets to assert qualified immunity qualified immunity is unfair and it needs to be abolished a lawyer representing this woman if a lawsuit is filed is going to have the legal requirement to point to some past clearly established case law describing the officer's conduct here as the civil rights violation well how many cases have there been in the past in this particular jurisdiction where police officers let people in their custody get hit by trains moreover as I've explained before to establish section 1983 liability you have to allege in intentional conduct not negligence or just incompetence some intentional or purposeful conduct for this reason when one police officer accidentally shoots their partner there's generally no liability I did a video on that one already so I took a quick look at the case law in the jurisdiction with this train incident happened which is Colorado which happens to be in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals so that's where you first want to look beyond the Supreme Court for federal civil rights case law so I have a theory of liability here first take a look at some of the new footage that I hadn't seen before from another angle I think that's important here foreign because when I was behind her she was driving slow enough yeah yeah so she could have tossed something but I lit her up she could have out that window but who is that heart was she in there was she in there was she in there foreign was she in there was she in there Splash pipe I'm on 12 start medical please my cars has been hit by the train mother oh my god let's go over there there's a legal Doctrine under section 1983 called the state created danger Theory basically it allows a pathway for a plaintiff to establish section 1983 liability for a civil rights violation where the government may not have directly or in theory has in fact been adopted in the 10th circuit so here's what a plaintiff would have to prove under that theory one that this the charged State actor created the danger or increased the plaintiff's vulnerability to the danger in some way two the plaintiff was a member of a limited and specially definable group three defendants conduct put plaintiff at substantial risk of serious immediate and proximate harm four the risk was obvious or known five defendants acted recklessly and conscious disregard of that risk and six such conduct when viewed in total is conscience shocking that's from the estate of Reit versus Rodriguez 10th circuit 2016 by the way but so the defeat qualified immunity you still have to point to a prior case with a similar fact pattern again a non-exhaustive review of 10th circuit case law shows that the state created danger Doctrine has in fact been applied many times here's some of the situations where it's been applied in this jurisdiction an off-duty police officer on personal business who crashed his police vehicle an on-duty police officer who engaged in a high-speed chase firefighter who crashed his truck into a car a police officer who caused the death of a bystander by instructing him to help physically subdue a suspect who then shot the civilian a social worker Who removed the child from his mother's home and placed him with his father who killed him a school official who suspended and sent home a special education student who subsequently killed himself a state mental health administrator who eliminated a special unit for the criminally insane causing the transfer of a murderer to the General Hospital where he killed his therapist so the common theme for liability in all of these 10th circuit cases under the state created danger theory is that the victims were unable to care for themselves or they had limitations imposed on their freedom by state actors this is very much like the deliberate and different standard imposed on correctional officers who are entrusted with the care of inmates so the arrestee here is unable to act herself she can't get out of the way of the train likewise if a prison catches fire inmates locked in their cells they can't get out on their own I can think of a few other arguments and theories for liability here but this is really an often overlooked one in my opinion it sort of popped into my head first it seems to really match our facts here watching the footage establishes without much potential for dispute that the arresting officer here created the danger that he rendered this victim incapable of helping herself he put her into Harm's Way and the risk here was obvious you can see the fact that he parked on the train tracks you can hear the fact that this train is coming you can actually hear that on his body cam footage no doubt the evidence would also show that this officer working in this area was aware of the fact that there were indeed trains frequently running down that train track so if this woman is left with no justice due to qualified immunity hopefully people will start paying attention qualified immunity serves no legitimate purpose it's the very definition of judicial activism I'll be watching this one to see what happens so as always thanks for watching you'll find more information in the link below to the blog at the Civil Rights lawyer.com if you want to send me a video please use the submission link there'll be one in the description and at the blog if you want to learn more about these cases your constitutional rights Please Please Subscribe also hit the Bell notification so that you don't miss updates I'll put some of the legal citations here I've discussed in the blog post Linked In the description please also comment with your thoughts about this your give me your thoughts about qualified immunity if you support qualified immunity then you support this woman being left severely injured when with no compensation from the government who no doubt caused her injuries how do you defend that if you want to support the Channel please consider clicking the join button and becoming a channel member or sponsor remember freedom is scary deal with it see you next time