Ben and Jerry, Becca Balint, others urge end to qualified immunity in Vermont

Vermont Business Magazine The co-founders of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and co-chairs of the Campaign to End Qualified Immunity, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, with Vermont State President Pro Tem Becca Balint, hosted a virtual rally Thursday evening showing support for Senate bill S.254. Along with a coalition of statewide public safety advocates, the event focused on creating justice and safety for all Vermonters with the passage of the bill.

As it stands, S.254 would end qualified immunity—the unconstitutional legal doctrine that shields rogue cops from accountability and blocks victims of police abuse from receiving justice—in the state. In a recent poll, three out of four Vermonters supported ending qualified immunity. The bill would require greater police accountability and protect the civil rights of all Vermonters.

“No one should be above the law. Everybody is entitled to their day in court. Everybody deserves equal justice under the law,” Ben Cohen, co-chair of the Campaign to End Qualified Immunity & co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s said. “Protecting and serving some people while abusing others is not the kind of policing Vermonters want.”

“The only way we’re going to improve public safety is by building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. And in order to do that, we need to strengthen accountability and transparency,” Jerry Greenfield, co-chair of the Campaign to End Qualified Immunity & co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s said. “We all know police have a difficult job. We need to love the good ones and we also need to hold the bad ones accountable because that benefits everyone–including the police.”

Ben and Jerry are co-chairs of the Campaign to End Qualified Immunity, which includes over 700 business leaders, 1,400 professional athletes, and hundreds of creative artists, lawyers and advocates. The campaign aims to lift up the stories of people who have been harmed by the police and have been denied justice due to qualified immunity.

“[S.254] would remove this legal barrier that results in absurd and unjust outcomes in our legal system,” James Lyall, Executive Director of ACLU Vermont said. “This is not about attacking law enforcement or individual police officers. Americans support law enforcement and at the same time, they expect more to be done, build trust...increase accountability.”

Since we’ve ended qualified immunity in Colorado we’ve now seen law enforcement held accountable to harm done in our communities,” Rep. Leslie Herod, champion of the Colorado police reform bill that ended qualified immunity said. “We need to make sure that we have good law enforcement officers in our ranks and get rid of the bad ones. We want to make sure that those who are in our communities to serve and protect are fit to do so.”

“With this bill, any Vermonter who is mistreated [by law enforcement] will be able to have their day in court,” Senate Pres. Pro Tem Becca Balint, Windham County, co-lead sponsor of S.254 said. “Broad qualified immunity prevents citizens from seeking accountability when their civil rights have been violated, but it also breaches the trust between law enforcement and their communities. This bill would help Vermonters have access to justice when they’re mistreated by law enforcement.”

“We got here because the current policing system lacks the basic tenets that our democracy was based on–checks and balances. We are now living in a society where one group feels invincible and the other feels a massive amount of resentment due to qualified immunity,” Steffen Gillom, NAACP Vermont Windham County said. “Ending qualified immunity is the only way to unlocking the door that’s keeping people from the halls of justice. We must fight to push this bill through.”

“Eliminating qualified immunity would make it possible to hold police who engage in excessive force accountable. We must do better at supporting and protecting Vermonters,” Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun said. “S.254 is a step towards moving our communities towards more justice for all.”

Everyone is vulnerable when no accountability is ever really required. We cannot let this continue.We must engage in a level of personal responsibility for our actions,” Kiah Morris, Movement Politics Director, Rights and Democracy Vermont said. “What we’ll see in removing qualified immunity is that there’s going to be a better promotion of a culture of shared accountability.”

“Police officers who are acting lawfully and acting within the scope of authority do not need to fear the end of qualified immunity,” Ret. Lt. Diane Goldstein, Exec Dir. of LEAP said. “The vast majority of good officers know that when courts do not hold bad officers accountable…it impacts our profession. It impacts that professional police officer who holds them to the highest standards commensurate with their job.”

“If we want to build trust and public safety then we need to bring the criminal justice system into the 21st century,” Sarah George, State Attorney Chittenden County said. “This is not an anti-police bill. Eliminating qualified immunity is not anti-police and instead it’s pro-good police.”

“Qualified immunity prevents victims from accessing justice, even in extremely clear instances where their rights were unlawfully violated,” Sebbi Wu, VPIRG said. “Passing S.254 would represent…a step toward social and racial justice. S.254 is one step towards justice for all in Vermont.”