Hillary Clinton sued for Texas police officer’s death

The family of a Dallas police officer who died in a Feb. 22, 2008, motorcycle accident during a motorcade for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (seen above in Dallas on that day) has sued not just Secretary Clinton herself, but also her presidential campaign, the city of Dallas, and the manufacturer of the officer’s helment. How ...

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The family of a Dallas police officer who died in a Feb. 22, 2008, motorcycle accident during a motorcade for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (seen above in Dallas on that day) has sued not just Secretary Clinton herself, but also her presidential campaign, the city of Dallas, and the manufacturer of the officer's helment.

The family of a Dallas police officer who died in a Feb. 22, 2008, motorcycle accident during a motorcade for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (seen above in Dallas on that day) has sued not just Secretary Clinton herself, but also her presidential campaign, the city of Dallas, and the manufacturer of the officer’s helment.

How is Clinton personally at fault? There’s a section of the original petition (Theresa A. Lozada, et al. v. City of Dallas, et al.) called "Clinton’s Failures," and it says:

Defendant Clinton knew from her experience as First Lady and later as Senator/First Lady, that motorcade escorts require sufficient notice and advance coordination to be performed safely.… In spite of this knowledge Clinton and Clinton, Inc. [her campaign] failed to provide such advance notice and timing."

Fortunately for Clinton, the allegations against her probably won’t "get too far," according to the Business Insider Law Review, which stated:

[W]e doubt the allegations against the current Secretary of State will get too far. Though we imagine advanced notice is good for anything requiring multiple vehicles moving at increased speeds, motorcades by their nature are often used in emergencies. That Clinton’s failure to provide "adequate notice" would lead to the death of an officer would be considered "foreseeable" under a negligence standard is highly unlikely. 

I feel bad for the family of the deceased officer, but it really seems to be stretching it to hold Clinton personally responsible. The petition says the officer did not have proper training for being in the motorcade, and if that’s the case, then perhaps the entity that assigned him to a job he wasn’t ready for bears some responsibility.

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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