Louisiana’s “Blue Lives Matter” bill came into effect on Monday and soon more states are to follow.

The bill was created to make it a hate crime to intentionally harm a police officer or first responder because of his or her uniform.

Known previously as Act 184 this first of a kind bill was officially signed into law by Govenor John Bel Edwards on May 26th. This was before the attacks on Police in Dallas and Baton Rouge but of course these attacks have increased publicity and talk around the bill.

The bill also covers firefighters and EMS members.

Now, common sense says that hurting an officer because he is wearing the uniform is of course wrong. Likewise, hurting someone because they are black is also wrong, or Latino, or whatever.

The definitions of hate crime can sometimes be blurry and do affect court cases but the necessity of this bill has been questioned heavily.

Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson said of the bill earlier in the year:

“Our job is in a tumultuous time right now because you’ve got individuals out there that don’t mind hurting somebody,”

However, others were not so keen on the idea. Louisiana NAACP President Ernest Johnson said

“Laws like this to me tend to divide because now you’re going to separate, where you’ve got ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ and you got this contest going on and it’s just not helpful,”

Now, if officers feel targeted out there for wearing their uniform (which they can take off at night) imagine how life is for a black person seeing an officer. You can’t and shouldn’t have to take off your blackness!

Shouldn’t there be a bill saying that any officer that causes any additional harm to a black person because of their skin color is committing a hate crime? Yes, racism is a hate crime but HOW OFTEN IS THE TARGETING OF BLACKS BY POLICE charged as a racist hate crime? Pretty much a big fat ZERO!

What do you think of all this?

Details sourced from: http://www.wafb.com/story/32582912/blue-lives-matter-law-goes-into-effect-monday