By Elizabeth Crisp
The Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisiana Legislature is weighing a bill that would make it a hate crime to target police officers and firefighters -- mimicking a national movement to carve out protections for law enforcement.
The House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee unanimously agreed on Wednesday to send the hate crime extension to the full House for consideration. House Bill 953would also have to be vetted by the Senate.
State Rep. Lance Harris, an Alexandria Republican who is pushing the bill, said a recent spike in attacks on first responders has created the need for additional protection.
A suburban Houston sheriff’s deputy was shot 15 times at a gas station last fall. Police have alleged that the ambush took place because the victim was a law enforcement officer, Harris noted.
In Florida in 2014, firefighters were targeted in a high-profile drive-by shooting, and similar cases have popped up across the country.
“For no reason, shots were fired at these firefighters because they were public servants,” Harris said.
No one spoke against Harris’ bill, which resembles a push on the national level to expand the federal hate crime law to cover cops.
That effort is backed by the nation’s largest police union. Chuck Canterbury, national president for the Fraternal Order of Police, said the extension’s needed because of anti-police sentiment that has been fueled by controversial deaths by law enforcement in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere.
“The level of violence aimed at law enforcement officers has escalated in every region of our county and it is being fanned by the seething hatred of a small, but vocal few who are adept at manipulating the media,” Canterbury said in a statement last fall.
The movement -- at least one bill has been proposed at the Congressional level -- has been dubbed the “Blue Lives Matter” effort, in contrast to the “Black Lives Matter” advocacy campaign that highlights violence against African Americans, particularly at the hands of law enforcement.
Louisiana saw a sharp uptick in officer deaths last year that some ascribed, a least in part, to tension among law enforcement and the public.
Under current state law, hate crime charges can be brought in some criminal cases in which the victim is targeted based on race, age, gender, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, creed, sexual orientation or organizational affiliation.
HB 953 would add those same protections for any victim selected based upon his or her actual or perceived employment as a law enforcement officer or firefighter.
People convicted of felonies with the additional hate crime penalties face an additional five years in prison and up to $5,000 fine. In misdemeanor cases, the hate crime statute increases penalties by $500 or up to six months in prison.
Two other bills at the Capitol seek to include gender identity to the state hate crimes statute to protect transgender people. Neither House Bill 501 nor Senate Bill 332 has had a committee hearing this session.
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