"Blue Lives Matter" Bill Making Attacks on Police Officers a Hate Crime Set to Pass in Louisiana

[SpankMe]

Source: gawker.com

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards is set to sign a bill into law that would classify any violent attack on police officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel a hate crime. According to The Root, the so-called Blue Lives Matter bill is the first of its kind.

Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Allison Padilla-Goodman pointed out that crimes against police officers are already aggressively prosecuted under Louisiana law: “The bill confuses the purpose of the Hate Crimes Act and weakens its impact by adding more categories of people, who are already better protected under other laws.”

Read more: http://gawker.com/blue-lives-matter-bill-making-attacks-on-police-offic-1778165084

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The right wing nut fuckers rebel against hate crime charges for crimes against blacks and gays. Suddenly, they find some merit in hate crime classification.

[JimDandy]

1. That makes a mockery of real hate crimes.

[moonbabygo]

22. Not if you kill a cop just because you hate cops

isn't that a real hate crime

[LanternWaste]

25. And already fits well within preexisting hate-crime laws.

And already fits well within preexisting hate-crime laws.

[braddy]

2. Isn't it already against the law to kill a cop, or any other government worker?

[MosheFeingold]

11. Yes

And everyone else, for that matter.

[braddy]

12. I thought so, I wonder why they feel they need to make it a double law.

[MosheFeingold]

17. Everyone gets a ribbon. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. because they have re-defined "attack" behavior.

Now you will be charged with a hate crime if you hit a cop, even if you accidentally touch one.
It is designed to charge every one they arrest at a protest, where they wade in and start bashing people, then claim the person hit them.

Just like the videos you see of 6 cops on a guy who is unconscious and all the cops are yelling "stop resisting" over and over.

[moonbabygo]

18. It's against the law to kill anyone

and your point

[braddy]

19. My point?.......... What is your point?

[moonbabygo]

20. It's against the law to kill anyone

[braddy]

21. That's what I thought, thanks for clearing it up.

[arcane1]

3. And I bet the biggest "anti-government" types will be its biggest supporters.

[jmowreader]

4. What's the point?

http://law.justia.com/codes/louisiana/2006/146/78397.html

§30. First degree murder

A. First degree murder is the killing of a human being:

...

(2) When the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon a fireman, peace officer, or civilian employee of the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory or any other forensic laboratory engaged in the performance of his lawful duties, or when the specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm is directly related to the victim's status as a fireman, peace officer, or civilian employee.

...

C. Whoever commits the crime of first degree murder shall be punished by death or life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence in accordance with the determination of the jury.

[askeptic]

7. Hate crime laws are of questionable legality

Ascribing the reason (if it can be ascertained) as the crime itself. What nonsense. Max sentencing should occur when there was no good reason. Everything else should be mitigating. Oh well, Louisiana is just the state to have this happen in.

I see there were a total of 5 hate crimes prosecuted in 2011 - 3 for race and 2 for sexual orientation.

Meanwhile, in a more mainstream state like New Jersey we get this:

2015:

In a decision handed down in State v. Pomianek, the N.J. Supreme Court ruled that the part of the state's "bias intimidation" law allowing enhanced punishment if the victim of a crime believes the defendant acted with racial bias is unconstitutional because a defendant cannot know what a victim might believe or feel.

"The problem with hate crime laws, which this ruling makes clear, is that in order to crack down on hateful behavior, hateful thoughts and expression must also be targeted, which runs diametrically counter to the First Amendment's protections for free speech and expression," said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead...

Brought by the Rutherford Institute, which was a surprise, since I don't often agree with their positions
2004

Georgia Court Strikes Down Law on Hate

ATLANTA, Oct. 25 - The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state's four-year-old hate-crimes law on Monday, saying it was "unconstitutionally vague."

1992

Hate Crime Law Is Struck Down : Supreme Court: Justices rule that a Minnesota statute infringes on free speech by punishing those who burn crosses, paint swastikas or otherwise display bigotry.
June 23, 1992

[philosslayer]

14. So you oppose Hate Crime laws?

[jmowreader]

15. This isn't the place for one

Cop killing is always treated as a crime of the highest order, and if you do it you're almost guaranteed to find a gurney with your name on it, if you're in a death penalty state.

This is the FBI's definition of "hate crime."

A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.

"Police officer" is not a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity. Louisiana already classifies the killing of police officers and firefighters as first-degree murder. A lot of states call it "enhanced murder." The laws we have are more than sufficient to punish it.

[24601]

23. No disrespect intended to the FBI, but it's not their place to define a hate crime. Nor is that an

Executive Branch power. Defining the elements of criminal statutes is the role of Congress and state legislatures. Then it is the role of the courts to determine if the law is constitutional or not.

The role of the FBI is to investigate based on the laws on the books, not to determine what the laws should be, or not.

[jmowreader]

29. They define them for the purpose of collecting statistics

Hate crime laws are made by legislatures, and here is a list of them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime_laws_in_the_United_States

For instance, here's Idaho's:

18-7902. MALICIOUS HARASSMENT DEFINED -- PROHIBITED. It shall be unlawful for any person, maliciously and with the specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person's race, color, religion, ancestry, or national origin, to:
(a) Cause physical injury to another person; or
(b) Damage, destroy, or deface any real or personal property of another person; or
(c) Threaten, by word or act, to do the acts prohibited if there is reasonable cause to believe that any of the acts described in subsections (a) and (b) of this section will occur.
For purposes of this section, "deface" shall include, but not be limited to, cross-burnings or the placing of any word or symbol commonly associated with racial, religious or ethnic terrorism on the property of another person without his or her permission.

Idaho doesn't have gender, gender identity or sexual preference in its law. If Idahoan A attacks Idahoan B because Idahoan B is a woman or gay, they won't be charged under 18-7902 (18-901, Assault, or 18-918, Domestic Violence, would apply in those cases.) but they WILL show up in the FBI's statistics.

[LanternWaste]

26. I pretend asking what is a point is the same as opposing the un-defined point as well.

I pretend asking what is a point is the same as opposing the un-defined point as well. It prevents us from having to think rationally...

[UnFettered]

5. I am pretty worried

about the potential abuse of this law. There are already stick laws on the books pertaining to police officers.

I suspect the governor will sign since he had a lot of support from the different sheriffs associations and police agencies during the past election.

[Chakab]

9. You should be. People who are charged with resisting arrest, which in many cases is a bogus charge

used to justify a false arrest, will also find themselves charged with a hate crime.

This is totally absurd. People charged with crimes against uniformed public servants already receive harsher sentences than they otherwise would for the same offenses.

The entire purpose of this nonsensical bill is to stick it to people who protest police misconduct.

It's disgraceful that there are so many childish idiots holding elected office in the US.

Hopefully, it will be struck down by the federal courts sooner rather than later.

[raging moderate]

6. The real point is to give vicious white supremacists an excuse to further victimize their prey.

And cackle more with each other about their triumph over the rest of us.

[cstanleytech]

8. I would remove the police from the bill because they are doing a job where some people

do resist arrest and thus it would be easy for this law to be abused and misused by prosecutors.

[Chakab]

10. I'd remove the bill completely because uniformed government workers are not a protected class.

[cstanleytech]

13. I didnt say they were just that at the very least the police shouldnt be on that bill as its ripe

for potential abuse.

[the_sly_pig]

16. I don't have a problem with hate crime laws...

The laws probably have little to do with prosecution and more with punishment. If it can be proven that a crime was committed where hate was a contributing factor, why not lengthen a sentence?

It doesn't matter if the class is blue, brown or rainbow. Harming someone for simply being who they are or what they do should probably be punished at a higher level. And with social media it would probably be pretty easy to confirm.

2 cent.

TSP

[dembotoz]

24. so the definition of violent attack will be open for debate as if the men in blue were not far enuf

above the law.

another state not to visit

[Agnosticsherbet]

27. I think Jerad and Amanda Miller committed a hate crime in 2014 when they killed two police officers

and a bystander in a shooting spree.

I would go so far as to say that anyone who attacks a police officer only because of the uniform he or she wears is committing a hate crime.

I disagree with a blanket law that could make resisting arrest, being drunk and disorderly, or just being stupid a hate crime.

[Runningdawg]

28. After reading

the story of the little boy who was wrongfully arrested for his carton of milk in the school cafeteria - of course the officer added "resisting arrest" it the cherry on top. Now, if this law was in effect, this child would be charged with a hate crime. That gets him what 5-10 in the adult prison system? Americas for-profit prison shareholders are slobbering all over themselves.

[Odin2005]

30. The piggies in blue are such fucking crybabies.