Civil rights bill about lawyer paydays
State should increase requirements, not run officers off
The New Mexico Civil Rights Act, House Bill 4, which should be more appropriately titled the “Personal Injury Attorney Enrichment Act,” is one of those tricks politicians play by naming a damaging piece of legislation something righteous when it’s anything but.
The bill ends qualified immunity for police, paving another mile on the road to making policing the most undesirable job in America. In a few years policing will be so unattractive as a career choice that we are going to have to reinstitute the draft to fill police positions. When you consider three of the four sponsors of the bill are attorneys, two of them personal injury attorneys, it’s easy to see through this bill’s benevolent-sounding name. Scott Eaton, an Albuquerque attorney, in his excellent op-ed Feb. 17 agrees HB4 just bolsters our state’s reputation as an attorney’s financial paradise.
This bill very explicitly emphasizes that attorney fees are mandatory in successful cases. This is not about accountability; it’s about more money in the pockets of lawyers. Even in moral victories where juries occasionally grant a paltry sum, like a dollar because the prevailing plaintiff is deemed to be undeserving for some reason, the attorneys are going to rake it in. And it’ll be your money they’re enriching themselves with.
All the damage to the police profession aside, am I the only one who has a problem with personal injury attorneys pushing through legislation that they will use to make money? Isn’t that a violation of something? Anything? I’d feel a lot better if Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, and Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, vowed to exclude themselves and their firms from ever benefitting from the bill. Publicly say you’ll never sue a police officer, a jurisdiction, a provider of police training or products, and I’ll shut up.
No one disagrees that as Americans and New Mexicans we are vested at birth with certain unalienable rights that cannot be denied except through due process. The U.S. Constitution and the New Mexico Bill of Rights takes care of that.
This bill and others like it only serve to destroy the quality of policing in New Mexico and make our communities more dangerous than they already are. Excuse my sweeping characterization, but those who make and will benefit from this law can already afford to be safely tucked away in their gated communities with private security and won’t have to live with the consequences they create.
I agree with the sponsors of this bill that we need police reform in this country. We need to make the relationship between police and communities better. We need to get rid of overly aggressive, insensitive, foolish and racist cops. Improving the quality of those who want a policing career will go a long way toward meaningful reform. That means funding, not defunding, municipal policing.
Hopefully, by now we’ve gotten past this idea of eliminating sworn police officers. No matter how much we pour into curing social problems and eliminating the underlying causes of crime, someone must be there to deal with the greedy, wicked and violent.
If these New Mexico legislators are truly serious about reform, how about something meaningful with long-term benefits? These Band-Aid reform ideas that don’t fundamentally change policing for the better are a waste of time. How about legislation requiring a fouryear degree as a minimum requirement? How about increasing the tangible and intangible rewards of policing to attract the best? Yes, I know that some colleges have become intolerant First Amendment wastelands, but that can be overcome, and it’s better than the alternative we’re living with now.
This bill needs to die. If you want quality policing, contact your state senators and tell them to vote HB4 down and turn their attention to meaningful reform instead of self-serving legislation.