Targeting police officers could soon become a hate crime in Louisiana.
Once Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards signs HB 953 into law, the state’s hate-crime law will cover the state’s police force. Uniformed employees and emergency volunteers, such as firefighters, would also be part of a protected class under the so-called “Blue Lives Matter” bill.
“Police officers and firefighters often perform life-saving acts of heroism, oftentimes under very dangerous circumstances, and are integral in maintaining order and civility in our society,” the governor said in a statement. “The members of the law enforcement community deserve these protections, and I look forward to signing this bill into law.”
Louisiana state Rep. Lance Harris, a Republican, authored the bill, which passed both legislative houses by a wide margin.
In Louisiana, committing a felony against a protected class can add up to five years to a sentence. A misdemeanor hate crime can add on an additional six months. Under the state’s current law, hate crime charges can be added to a sentence if a crime targeted a victim because of their race, color, ethnicity national origin, gender, disability or religion.
Once HB 953 becomes law, the definition of a hate crime would include targeting a victim because of the person’s “actual or perceived employment as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical services personnel.”
According to the National Conference of Legislatures, no other state includes law enforcement as a protected class, though five other states have tried. Louisiana is one of at least 37 states that tacks on sentence enhancements for assaulting police officers.
The nickname for the bill plays off the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which began as a hashtag response on Twitter to the 2013 shooting death of a Trayvon Martin, a black Florida teenager. It gained national attention as an activist group campaigning against violence toward black people following the 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York City.
The New Orleans chapter of Black Youth Project 100 has called on Edwards to veto the bill.
“By treating the police as specialized citizens held above criticism and the laws they are charged to enforce, we lose our ability to exercise our First Amendment right,” the activist group said in a statement. “Including ‘police’ as a protected class in hate crime legislation would serve to provide more protection to an institution that is statistically proven to be racist in action, policy, and impact.”
The regional director of the Anti-Defamation League also criticized the bill, saying it is too “focused on immutable characteristics.”
“Proving the bias intent for a hate crime for law enforcement or first responders is very different than proving it for someone who is Jewish or gay or black,” Allison Goodman told the Advocate.
Harris said he proposed the bill because of a number of high-profile attacks on police in recent years, including the drive-by shooting of Florida firefighters in 2014 and the ambush of suburban Houston sheriff’s deputy in 2015.
“We have a pretty extensive hate-crime law right now, but I believe we should add firefighters and policemen,” Harris said.
