There’s a new movement percolating, a “Blue Lives Matter” push that seeks to raise penalties for violence against police and first responders but that also could serve as a controversial counter to the Black Lives Matter movement.
In Louisiana, the legislature has voted to expand its hate crime laws to include law enforcement and first-responders, in addition to victims targeted because of race, age, gender, religion or sexual orientation. The governor signed it into law last week.
Similar proposals are pending in both the U.S. House and Senate and starting to creep into the 2016 campaign, framing a debate over law enforcement and its relationship with minority communities.
Police organizations say the increased protections are needed because they are under siege on the streets.
Opponents argue that the “Blue Lives Matter” bills and other proposals are election-season messaging that ignore policing issues underscored by incidents in around the country like Ferguson, Missouri.
Americans are concerned, despite the fact that the number of police deaths in the line of duty is declining.
FBI statistics released this month showed that 41 police officers in the United States and Puerto Rico were intentionally killed in the line of duty by suspects in 2015 – 10 fewer than 2014 and the second-lowest total in 12 years.
Pennsylvania’s Sen. Pat Toomey, one of a half-dozen vulnerable Republican Senate incumbents, has a YouTube ad touting his so-called “Thin Blue Line” act, a bill that would expand death penalty consideration factors if the defendant is proved to have specifically targeted a victim for being a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or public official.
“Police lives matter,” Toomey says in the video ad. “I am sick and tired of this narrative across this country that we’re hearing from so many political figures that somehow the police are systemically a bunch of racist rogues. The fact is, the vast majority of police are honest, hard-working men and women who don’t have a racist bone in their body. And, yet, they are being targeted.”
Toomey’s bill has 23 Senate Republican co-sponsors, including five who are in tough re-election fights: John McCain of Arizona, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
A similar “Thin Blue Line” act was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Law enforcement organizations also support the legislative efforts, arguing they will send a message and make suspects think twice before targeting officers and first-responders.
“It sends a message to the community … that blue lives do matter, that assaults against police officers, law enforcement officers, and firefighters are assaults on the most basic, most fundamental level of government,” said William Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations.
“The ambush-style assaults, the murders of police officers across the country … can lead legislators to look at this and say ‘Yeah, this is a real problem.’ ”
Critics contend that so-called Blue Lives Matter and Thin Blue Line bills are redundant and that the message behind them is overtly political.
“When they adopt the Blue Lives Matter movement from Black Lives Matter – that moniker or brand – it’s like a slap in the face,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus. “Especially when you have not done anything to improve conditions so that black lives are not inordinately lost at the hand of law enforcement.”
Besides, Johnson and others say, there are already tough penalties and enhanced death penalty considerations for killing law enforcement officers on the books in many states.