Posted on 03/05/2021 3:36:28 AM PST by USA Conservative
A bill advancing out of a Kentucky Senate committee on Thursday would make it a crime to insult or taunt a police officer to the point where the taunts provoke a violent response.
Senate Bill 211 passed by a 7-3 vote, according to reports. The proposal was a response to riots throughout the country last summer, said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, a retired police officer.
"In these riots, you see people getting up in officers' faces, yelling in their ears, doing everything they can to provoke a violent response," Carroll said, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
"I'm not saying the officers do that, but there has to be a provision within that statute to allow officers to react to that. Because that does nothing but incite those around that vicinity and it furthers and escalates the riotous behavior," he continued.
Louisville -- Kentucky's largest city -- saw numerous instances of unrest last year over the lack of criminal charges against police officers in connection with the death of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot March 13, 2020, during a police raid inside her home.
Carroll noted the bill wasn't about limiting lawful protest "in any way, shape, form or fashion."
"This country was built on lawful protest, and it's something that we must maintain — our citizens' right to do so. What this deals with are those who cross the line and commit criminal acts," he said.
The bill kept language making a person guilty of disorderly conduct -- a Class B misdemeanor -- if they accost, insult, taunt, or challenge "a law enforcement officer with offensive or derisive words, or by gestures or other physical contact, that would have a direct tendency to provoke a violent response from the perspective of a reasonable and prudent person."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This is not protecting jack. It’s giving police a cart blanc to bash anyone over the head who says boo to them, and then charge them under this law. I would support a bill permitting police officers to shoot anyone who throws a brick, frozen water bottle or firebomb at them. But not this. This is criminalizing free speech and licensing thin-skinned LEOs to hurt people.
Fighting words are not protected speech.
And police body cams will likely limit abuse.
FWIW, I don’t have a problem for a misdemeanor charge for this.
Despite the fact that my support for LE has cratered.
So now a cop can claim you called his mother a name after he’s caught on video tasing you? The unintended consequences of this Law will be felt immediately.
“What this deals with are those who cross the line and commit criminal acts”
If the acts are already criminal, then no new laws are needed; all one needs to do is enforce laws already on the books.
If it makes you feel any better, this is likely just a sop the LE. I bet it won’t be prosecuted, especially if the perp’s a person of color.
Congress has a mad-on for state and local law enforcement.
That bill in Congress will make LE’s jib even more of a nightmare.
It’ll be interesting to see if LE there can be appeased with this little offering.
Police should be trained to take insults and taunts. A citizen is not. Fighting words should be more strictly defined for a LEO, because he’s expected to be inured to verbal abuse. Physical abuse, such as throwing unidentified liquids at a LEO, or pelting them with hard or incendiary missiles is another thing entirely. That they should be allowed to respond to with deadly force.
Note to law enforcement: If so many if you hadn’t taken Deep State in the coup, you’d have far more support now.
But it’s hard to be sympathetic when your boots are on the public’s neck.
Just a thought.
This is a VERY BAD law.
It is WAY too subjective. And our officers are not snowflakes. Insulting an officer CANNOT be a crime.
Now, I know what they are trying to get to, which is protect officers from Antifa assholes.
The way to do that, is pass a law that says you may not approach an officer within a 3 foot radius without his or her permission.
Yell all you want... from 3 feet away.
Shout in their ears all you want..... from 3 feet away.
Wildly gesture all you want.... from 3 feet away.
Insult all you want.... from 3 feet away.
Something you might want to keep in mind: Police aren’t what they used to be and that’s for a reason.
Older, more experienced officers are being intentionally replaced with younger, less experienced officers willing to obey anything for a paycheck, pension, and bennies.
That’s not an accident.
That’s the plan.
So citizen calls police officer a name, police officer shoots him, citizen is guilty of insulting the officer? Doesn't seem quite right.
Nobody says that police have an easy job or that they deserve the name-calling and insults they seem to get on a regular basis. But a violent response on the part of the officer should be the result of a clear threat to his or a bystanders life or safety, and not because they got insulted.
Say the name and address of his wife and kids from three feet away?
> This is criminalizing free speech and licensing thin-skinned LEOs to hurt people. <
I must agree. If they make it illegal to taunt a police officer, why not make it illegal to taunt anyone? Call me a name, go to jail. Not very 1A friendly.
Another problem with the law is that a protester can never be sure just what an illegal taunt is. “...from the perspective of a reasonable and prudent person.” Pretty darn vague. I guess that leaves it up to the cop.
The one thing I would support is a keep-your-distance law. Stay six feet away from an officer in the course of his duties. No walking up to an officer, no in-your-face stuff. After one warning, it’s disorderly conduct.
But leave 1A rights alone.
Yes. Say the name and address of his wife and kids from 3 feet away.
However, reality collides with your premise, and your premise is badly injured as a result.
How often has this happened? Nearly never?
You see an officer, he has a badge number. Some precincts display an officers' last name on a tag mounted on the uniform, most do not. Let's say the Antifa thug happens to be in the rarer precinct. He has read the last name of the officer. Let us assume he read "Alvarez".
Now, he has to ascertain the officers' first name. I suppose if he is a professional hacker, he MIGHT be able to hack into the police department's database and cross-reference the last name with the badge number. Then he could get the first name. Then, he'd have to hack into a variety of commercial databases, and try to narrow down the first and last name to, say, three home locations. Then he'd have to hurry to all three locations, asking the wife if her husband is a police officer. Assuming she complies -- and doesn't slam the door in the Antifa thugs face -- he'd then have to hack into one or more school databases to extract the children's names.
And he'd have to do all this while teargas, jostling, and confusion is all around him.
Your premise is a silly stretch.
I agree, but I'd lower the distance to 3 feet. A little over arms-length. Too far to spit, too far for a yell to do hearing damage.
I might be convinced to go to 4 feet.
Yep!
Yep!
Unconstitutional. If ever enacted will be immediately struck down. USSC has already ruled that insulting a police officer is protected speech.
Most states have something that covers this under “assault”. What we don’t need is an okay to smash someone. They already have arrest powers.
One wrong word and you get a wood shampoo
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