Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards called for a federal civil rights investigation on Tuesday into what was, at that point, the latest fatal police shooting of a black man in the United States.
But in May, Edwards signed a bill into law that makes targeting a police officer a hate crime. Passage of such bills at the state level is a top priority for a national organization called Blue Lives Matter, which was formed in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Alton Sterling, 37, was shot in the chest at point-blank range by Baton Rouge police early Tuesday morning; witnesses captured the event on video. Philando Castile, 32, was shot after police stopped his car outside St. Paul, Minnesota; his girlfriend livestreamed his death on Facebook.
But it was the civil rights of police officers that Edwards was concerned about in May, as if theirs were being routinely violated.
“I’m not aware of any evidence that police officers have been victimized that would justify giving them special protection,” Marjorie R. Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, told The Intercept.
Under the law, a defendant convicted of a misdemeanor could face an extra six months in prison and a $500 fine. A defendant convicted of a felony could get an extra five years in prison with hard labor and a $5,000 fine.
The new law places police officers, firefighters, and EMTs under protection from hate crimes — an umbrella term that goes beyond direct assault. Aviva Shen writes at ThinkProgress:
Now that police are a protected class, this language [meant to enhance penalties for attacks against houses of worship] could be used to target any damage done to squad cars or protests on police property, like the sit-in at the Minneapolis Police Department over the death of Jamar Clark, or the Black Lives Matter blockade of the Oakland Police headquarters in California.
Lamar Advertising, based in Baton Rouge, donated more than 300 billboards that appeared across the country bearing the slogans #BlueLivesMatter and #thankublu.
“We wanted to recognize the local police departments and men and women that put their lives on the line every day,” Stephen Hebert of Lamar Advertising told WVIT-TV.
Laws similar to the one in Louisiana have been proposed in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Chicago. Last year in Coon Rapids, Minnesota — just north of Minneapolis, where Castile was killed Wednesday — hundreds of supporters held a Police Lives Matter rally.
In Washington, lawmakers in the House and Senate have both introduced a “Thin Blue Line Act,” which would strengthen penalties for attacks on law enforcement.
The ACLU’s Esman said police are not the group of people who need attention: “Right now, here in Louisiana, we are dealing with the fact that the police have killed a black man who was minding his own business.”
When you have a country where people are not considered equal, you need a big and bad police force. The bigger the badder the better. Because equality is a matter of POWER. And having a nation of people with equal power is not good for creating a wealthy class.
The rest of the 6.7 billion people of the planet are starting a #Our Lives Matter: End American Imperialism & Spying.
Civil War in America might just be the saving of us all. What a horrible horrible thought.
There’s another problem here that no one is discussing: cops act as if their lives have priority. In fact, their lives should have the LEAST priority. Their job is to protect us (supposedly, but let’s assume this is true), not themselves. Therefore, killing a civilian because a cop thought they were in danger is not excusable. I’m not talking about someone, say, pointing a loaded gun at a cop, that would be standard self-defense of which anyone could avail themselves. But when a Black person is using, say, a cell phone and cops kill him saying they thought it was a gun, this should not be allowed as a valid excuse.
In other words, unless it is absolutely clear that a cop’s life is directly and immediately being threatened, “I thought it was a gun” or any other such BS should not be a defense. Cops should have to risk their lives, that’s their job. As a former New York city cop once said, if you’re scared you shouldn’t be a cop.
In other words, police should have the same right to self defense as all other citizens.
As things are today, a lawfully armed poor black man could reasonably believe he is about to be murdered if he sees a policeman with their weapon drawn so much as looking at them, and this situation is not conducive to amicable resolution even if everyone follows the law.
“Blue Lives Matter, which was formed in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Black Lives Matter is a message/movement directed at law enforcement for the videos we’re all aware of but also for relationship that black people have with law enforcement.
Here in America the majority already worships law enforcement, so how does responding with Blue Lives Matter group productively respond?
What are those f-ing annoying hashtags trying to accomplish beyond mocking attempt to steal momentum for change?
Do the people that are supposed to be representing Americans see reform as a reward for individuals and/or movements that got uppity with their authority, therefore threatening it?
Are demands for change only to be dealt with by the public relations department? Is the only concern crowd control?
Because that it looks like to me. Whether its domestic or foreign policy concerns and outrage we can’t get through
The only criticism you hear about the use of force by people working in law enforcement and those involved in wars in the Middle East is that they didnt use enough.
Personally I think that due to what I already mentioned plus our collective inability to care about the lives of people in the Middle East living under the wars we have started, every self righteous criticism made about life in Iraq (and any other Middle Eastern country – how they treat women, minorities religious or ethnic, daily life) used to justify that invasion (and others) is going to be what this country becomes.
The media is not showing the video from this angle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCnNOAxk8HQ Watch the right hand go down around 0:34, the cop yells he’s going for the gun, then it goes down again at 0:38. He was going for the gun. The media and the shooter in Dallas are playing at lynch law here. You can say we shouldn’t have cops or that they shouldn’t defend themselves and that’s an opinion, but nobody should be duped into saying they just “murdered” him for “no reason”.
As for police “hate crime”, I thought the police already had all kinds of special laws about “assault on a police officer”, so I have no idea why they need this extra legal wrinkle to throw into a trial. The concept of hate crime was always flawed, with a political picking and choosing of who is protected and who isn’t, and this doesn’t make it better or worse than it was … just different.
the police department needs a strong revision in their police. the privatization of prison also need to be considered a non constitutional issue. if I am the owner of a prison I need to get as much resident as I can get, each one is profitable. Corruption is obviously available. The whole system needs to be seriously revised.
A Black man minding his own business? How about an armed convicted felon, who reportedly threatened another man with a gun was shot while resisting arrest even after being tazed for non-compliance. At the same time, I DO take great issue with the Louisiana law that prevents authorities from interrogating the officers involved in any shooting for thirty days. That’s a Police Union farce of a gift to bad cops.
I would agree – and all they have to do – is give up their immunity – and stand for justice…
Torture by the Chicago Police Department – beating confessions out of innocent people……
Their captain arrested and locked up for five years and being allowed to keep his pension BUT there are still people in prison beaten into confessing…OH – WHOSE THE GOOD GUY?? today??
The first thing to do is clean your house – TRUTH….. JUSTICE….. THE AMERICAN WAY????
JUSTICE & TRUTH IS NOT LAW ENFORCEMENT
The majority of the comments on this thread express deep distrust, disrespect and even hatred for the police. This did not happen in a vacuum. Stop murdering unarmed citizens and start prosecuting those that do. How simple is that? End ofstory!
I agree 100%. I also say if you’ve got a problem with law enforcement personnel, then suit-up.
I gaze in awe at the fathomless depths of stupidity revealed by your comment, Len. Let’s act as if your comment actually deserved serious consideration:
Your position is that: Citizens need to become police officers. Otherwise, they can’t criticize police officers.
Some results of following this happy formula: Only police officers can legitimately criticize other police officers. Something they seem a bit disinclined to do (hey, ever heard of violent retaliation against police officers who expose bad behavior by other police officers? why OF COURSE nothing like this has ever happened you know).
Hence, happy result for Len Saunders: no legitimate criticism of police officers is ever likely to occur. Just the way Len likes it.
Don’t try to pull a gun on a cop, or anyone. That should be the lesson here. Blue lives matter.
NO KILLING can ever be justified…. whether of black young men by the police or of police officers by snipers…
Two wrongs do not make a RIGHT……
If it is accepted that two wrongs make a right, society’s humanity is lost and its moral fabric is in tatters…
Blue lives matter when those people in blue start learning that black, brown, white, red, or for that matter purple lives matter as well.
I have NO respect for the men or women in blue until they are held accountable for their murders. Make it a law that if a cop murders a person like they did in Baton Rouge, as well as MN, they are put on trial and made to do prison time like NORMAL people.
These are people who are supposed to protect and serve. Anyone that trusts a cop is the biggest fool that ever lived. Only trust a cop if you don’t want to live after the sun goes down. I am very sorry if some good cops got killed in Dallas last night, but cops need to realize they have brought this on themselves by their own corruption. No respect on this front for military, cops, or government. They all belong in their private prisons. It is embarrassing to be an American, and live under all these MURDERERS we call protectors. What a joke. I would feel safer calling a gang banger than a cop.
If you have problem with law enforcement personnel, suit-up. It’s as simple as that. If you are disabled, get your friends and relatives to suit-up. Become part of the solution, not a side-line critic. And as a note it’s the gang-bangers, drug and street gangs that are the problem everywhere but especially in minority neighbor hoods, and I use the term minority loosely as I don’t believe blacks and Latinos fall under minority classification by numbers anymore. Put your life on the line for your neighbors and fellow citizens every day. Get off the side-lines be something worthwhile to solve the issues, suit-up.
Lee Saunders does not believe in capitalism. No, paying taxes is theft enough, for these corrupt thugs and highwaymen.
The idea of a Bill of Rights for police officers is ridiculous – rights belong to the people, not to the government or its agents – and the police are state agents. The state protects its agents in many ways – it is practically impossible to convict a police officer of murder or any other crime, no matter what the evidence is. The prosecutors and the police work hand in hand every day of the week to convict people and send them off to prison – they are on the same team. No prosecutor wants to take on the police. It would be political suicide in most counties. But until the police are held accountable for their crimes in the law courts, they will continue to do exactly what have been doing for years.
Black and Blue lives matter- I’ve got your six DPD- heart goes out to the families of the brave men and women in blue who were murdered in cold blood.
Its long overdue people (emphasis on blacks in the south) wake-up to oppose, aggressively if necessary, state supported oppression and exploitation.
The Martin Luther King (respectfully) approach of non-violence and “we shall overcome”, unfortunately, has not overcome much when applied to police, police departments and the state.
Further, as to add insult to injury. When applied to exploitation. Its widely known, Police Departments throughout the country subsidize their operations through targeting blacks.
That, sad as it is to say. Until governments throughout the South fear civil upheaval from it people (like California for example) nothing will change.
(in reference to California, its fair to say the majority of blacks (their parents) that relocated to California after WWII, do so as to not live under Jim Crow. Subsequently, a patten of free expression and resistance exists in the mind and behavior of blacks in California)
I dont dupport Blur Lives Mattrr because i dont support rapists and mutderers. Im originally from Lousy-ana. If two cops are seen talking, then they are conspiring against someone, period.
As my neighbor from Russia said to me once. “If you see 3 people in a group talking, rest assured one is KGB” In the USA if you see 3 cops talking, they are trying to cover up the crime they just committed.
I know what it feels like to be from a family with cops. Let’s see, an ex brother in law that was fired for trading drugs for sex, a brother that protected a pig and her kidnapper of a sister, and left me hanging to dry. I guess since I am from that type of family it shows why I have NO RESPECT for law enforcement. I have seen the corruption FIRST HAND! Anyone with half a brain knows better than to trust a cop.
They are preparing for the response they know is going to come.
What is considered an attack on police? How does the bill phrase it? Could video taping police in public be considered an attack or hate crime?
The picture above of police, complete with a military salute, is reminiscent of Nazi power displays in pre-war Germany.
But even more chilling is the police response generally to to the violence and killing that has become endemic to policing in America. Rather than explore solutions, they have mounted a campaign on numerous fronts to protect and continue the present reality.
Louisiana still pines for a time when Blacks and women were property, not people.
Wow, it’s almost like outlawing thought crime might be a a bad idea.
Hopefully Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards made provisions for all people of color to be named honorary fireman, policemen or emt’s. Or, at the very least made it easier for people of color to be hired for those jobs.
BLUE LIVES WILL MATTER WHEN FIRST AND FOREMOST, EVERYONE’S LIVES MATTER. ENOUGH OF MURDERERS WITH A BADGE ACTING WITH IMPUNITY!!!