Rss@dailykos.com (thandisizwe Chimurenga) · Tuesday, June 14, 2016, 8:35 pm
Chicago is the latest city to propose a hate crime law for attacks on police, firefighters, or other emergency personnel. Proposed last week and scheduled for a hearing in late June, the Chicago ordinance would also include persons whose past employment was in law enforcement or emergency medical services. Although other personnel are included in the proposed ordinance, the move would essentially be a “Blue Lives Matter” law—legislation intended to send a message of support for cops. The state of Louisiana passed the country’s first Blue Lives Matter law in late May, and the state of Tennessee is considering one as well.
In Chicago, as in most cities and states in the U.S., hate laws currently on the books apply to individuals targeted based on their race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, religion, national origin, prior military status, ancestry or age, not on the jobs they hold or used to hold—or can quit at any time. Also in Chicago, as in most cities and states in the U.S., existing law provides sufficient penalties for assault of police officers. In other words, “blue lives matter” bills are bullshit.
Activists in Louisiana and elsewhere view these legislation attempts as both a reaction to and a distraction from grassroots demands for accountability when it comes to law enforcement violence.
“ … when a law says that cops can be victims of “hate crimes,” the implication is that cops have been the victims of a sustained campaign of intimidation. That’s bullshit, of course. ‘This bill is a direct response to the work of Black Lives Matter,’ LaToya Lewis, co-chair of the New Orleans chapter of the activist group Black Youth Project 100, told MTV News. She added that [Louisiana’s ‘Blue Lives Matter’ bill] would ‘mock and criminalize those who work to end police brutality.’”
“The misguided thinking behind the bill stems from how we’ve been taught to view police work. It is a dangerous job. That’s not now nor has it ever been in dispute. But the fact remains that officers are more often perpetrators than victims of violence, and that police brutality — especially against people of color — is a very real and very pressing problem. The Louisiana bill not only wrongly positions police officers as the true victims in the Black Lives Matter era, but also infers that calls for police reform are somehow dangerous to the officers themselves.”
Distraction is one word that’s been used. Intimidation is another, according to activists in Chicago.
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