A Wisconsin legislator is introducing a “Blue Lives Matter” bill to make targeting law enforcement officers a hate crime in the wake of the Dallas shooting that killed five officers last week.
Rep. David Steffen, a Green Bay Republican, announced his proposal Monday, adding Wisconsin to a growing list of states discussing similar bills.
Louisiana became the first state to enact such legislation in May, allowing prosecutors to seek stronger penalties when police, firefighters and emergency medical crews are intentionally targeted because of their professions. Lawmakers in at least nine other states and at the federal level have floated similar proposals.
I don’t like hate crime laws because they single out certain classifications of citizens for special protection under the law. That is a direct contradiction to the notion that all people are equal under the law.
Furthermore, I doubt that such a law would have any impact on reducing crimes against officers. Does anyone think that the killer in Dallas would have changed his mind for fear of a potential sentencing enhancement?
These are the kinds of laws that get passed when people passionately feel a need to “do something” but don’t really have a solution. It is motivated by good intentions, but we know where that road leads…
Why I agree with your argument, it would be nice to include a mostly conservative group to go with mostly liberal protected groups.
The bill would also make liberals to make a choice between cops and the protected groups that favor them.
The problem comes in: racist liberals have made special protected classes of people under the law.
About time we make some conservative groups as equal as the special liberal racist protected classes under the law.
This would be just another feel good law that would have no effect of the safety of police. This type of law would have had no bearing on the shooter in Dallas. Adding another 50 years sentence to a 500 year sentence will do nothing. It’s a waste of legislative time, and tax payer money,that could be put to better use by actually doing something about the underlying issues.