{"id":200523,"date":"2021-03-15T17:50:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T22:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2021\/03\/15\/yeah-thats-gonna-help\/"},"modified":"2021-03-15T17:50:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T22:50:00","slug":"yeah-thats-gonna-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2021\/03\/15\/yeah-thats-gonna-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Yeah, That’s Gonna Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

In response to the brutal and negligent killing of Breonna Taylor by out of control police, the Kentucky State Senate has passed a bill making it illegal to insult police<\/a>, because apparently police officers are beautiful cinnamon rolls too perfect for this world.<\/p>\n

OK,the bit about cinnamon rolls came from The Onion<\/i>, but God help us, the rest of this is true: <\/p>\n

Kentucky\u2019s Republican-majority Senate on Thursday moved forward a bill that would make it easier to arrest protesters for insulting a police officer, a measure that critics say would stifle free speech.<\/p>\n

The bill<\/a>, passed two days before the anniversary of the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor, would make it a misdemeanor to taunt or challenge an officer with words or gestures \u201cthat would have a direct tendency to provoke a violent response from the perspective of a reasonable and prudent person.\u201d Conviction would be punishable by up to 90 days in jail and fines of up to $250.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Danny Carroll (R), who sponsored the bill, said it would enable officers to arrest someone inflaming them before the encounter turns violent. The provision is meant to apply to comments that are \u201cobviously designed to elicit a response from the officer \u2014 something to push them to making a mistake, pushing them to violence,\u201d he said, although courts would have the final say in interpreting the rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have a right to accost a police officer,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n

In addition to criminalizing taunting police, the bill would expand the category of protest behavior considered illegal, heighten sentences for offenses related to \u201criots\u201d and prevent early release for those violations. It comes as Louisville, Kentucky\u2019s largest city, prepares for hundreds of people to gather downtown Saturday to recognize the first anniversary<\/a> of Taylor being fatally shot during an early-morning raid.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky called the measure<\/a> \u201can extreme bill to stifle dissent\u201d with broad and ambiguous language.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s criminalizing speech in a way that\u2019s directed at protesters and people who are speaking out against police action,\u201d said Corey Shapiro, ACLU of Kentucky\u2019s legal director. \u201cIt is a bedrock principle of the First Amendment that people should be able to criticize police action, even if it\u2019s using offensive speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

The provision of the bill that would ban insulting police was modeled on laws in other states prohibiting comments that could reasonably push a person to violence, said Carroll, himself a former police officer. Those statutes, which are not specific to anti-police comments, rely on an exception to the First Amendment known as the \u201cfighting words doctrine,\u201d which holds that words inciting immediate violence<\/a> are not constitutionally protected.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am going to go out on a limb here, but I think that dealing with violent and verbally abusive people is a central part of a police officer’s job. <\/p>\n

Also, the, “Fighting Words Doctrine,” has largely been vitiated over the past 4 or 5 decades, and <\/p>\n

If you cannot deal with someone calling you a pig-felching racist douche bag without resorting to violence, you probably are:<\/p>\n