Louisiana cops, firefighters and EMS officers will soon be given the same legal protections as minority groups under a divisive new bill, lawmakers say.
Gov. John Bel Edwards intends to sign the first-of-its-kind legislation, which will weigh crimes against law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel the same as attacks motivated by race, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.
“There is a concerted effort in some areas to terrorize and attack police and I think this will go forward and stop that,” State Rep. Lance Harris, the author of Louisiana’s HB 953, told ABC News 10.
“In the news, you see a lot of people terrorizing and threatening police officers on social media just due to the fact that they are policemen. Now, this (new law) protects police and first responders under the hate-crime law,” Harris said.
The so-called “Blue Lives Matter” bill, which has already passed both houses of the Louisiana legislature, quickly received blowback from those who say that a chosen profession is fundamentally different from one’s status as a minority group.
“We are not happy that it is being signed into law.” Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Allison Padilla-Goodman said in a release, adding that police officers already receive protections by other means.
“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,” writes Padilla-Goodman.
“Hate Crimes are designed to protect people’s most precious identity categories … like race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, and gender identity. Proving the bias intent is very different for these categories than it is for the bias intent of a crime against a law enforcement officer.”
If Edwards signs the bill, currently on his desk, Louisiana’s hate-crime law would be amended to read:
“It shall be unlawful for any person to select the victim of the following offenses against person and property because of actual or perceived race, age, gender, religion, color, creed, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, or ancestry of that person or the owner or occupant of that property or because of actual or perceived membership or service in, or employment with, an organization, or because of actual or perceived employment as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical services personnel.”
