‘A Badge Does Not Give You the Right’: Court Sends Message to Alabama Cops Who Thought They Could Get Away with Arresting Black Pastor for Watering His Neighbor’s Plants

Michael Jennings, a Black pastor from Childersburg, Alabama, was watering his neighbor’s flowers when he was confronted by police officers who demanded his identification, accusing him of acting “suspicious.” But Jennings, who is also a former police officer, knew his constitutional rights and refused to hand over his identification, telling the officers that he was “Pastor Jennings,” who lives across the street and that he was watering his neighbor’s plants while they were out of town. He even dared the cops to arrest him. “Lock me up and see what happens,” he said, the body camera footage depicts. The lawsuit filed by Alabama Pastor Michael Jennings against the Childersburg Police Department will proceed after an appellate court denied the cops qualified immunity. (Photo: Body camera screenshot) The three Childersburg cops, Christopher Smith, Justin Gable and Jeremy Brooks, arrested him on a charge of obstruction — which was dismissed just over a week later. However, when Jennings filed a lawsuit, an Alabama judge dismissed it on the basis of qualified immunity — a controversial legal doctrine that protects law enforcement officers from lawsuits, even when making unlawful arrests — unless that constitutional right has been “clearly established” by prior court decisions....