HUGE Victory In The ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Movement Signed Into Law

HUGE Victory In The ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Movement Signed Into Law

Our nation is embroiled in hatred. Black supremacists have formed the Black Lives Matter “movement” that is dedicated to racial supremacy and promoting the hatred and targeting of police officers. Now, a state has taken a very-needed step to show that police must be protected from those who mean them harm simply because they wear a badge. Louisiana has crafted a “Blue Lives Matter” law that makes it a hate crime to target police officers.

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From the NY Daily News:

Louisiana’s governor has signed first-of-its-kind legislation placing crimes against law enforcement on par with those against minorities.

Gov. John Bel Edwards made the bill law in the Pelican State on Thursday, with firefighters and EMS officers also given the new legal hate-crime protections.

“The men and women who put their lives on the line every day, often under very dangerous circumstances are true heroes and they deserve every protection that we can give them,” Edwards, a Democrat, said of the law in a statement.

The legislation has been called the “Blue Lives Matter” bill, adopting the slogan used in response to Black Lives Matter movement’s criticisms of police brutality.

Louisiana’s legislation is the first in the country to classify crimes against law enforcement as hate crimes, though many other states have added penalties for attacking an officer or have labeled it an aggravating factor.

Critics of the law say current penalties make it redundant, and it will only weaken the gravity of existing protections based on race, gender, religion and sexuality — rather than occupation.

“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,” said Allison Padilla-Goodman, The Anti-Defamation League’s Regional Director for Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

“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,” she previously said in a release.

In addition to the hate crime law, Edwards also signed a bill expanding veteran access to state programs.

This is a concept that is long overdue.

While I am adamantly opposed to any form of hate crime laws as they prioritize some lives over others, if we are to have hate crime laws, protecting those who put their lives on the line for the betterment of society makes tremendous sense and is a step in the right direction.

Good for Louisiana!

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