Louisiana’s ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Law Is About To Be Tested

Protests are growing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, over a harrowing video showing police shoot Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, at point-blank range while he was laying restrained on the ground. The protesters could be the first people to run afoul of the state’s freshly minted “Blue Lives Matter” law, which will make targeting a police officer a hate crime starting August 1.

Video surfaced this week showing Baton Rouge officers wrestle Sterling to the ground and then shoot him several times in the back. Officers say they were investigating a call and claim that Sterling had a gun. The Department of Justice has opened an investigation.

Protesters have remained peaceful, but as national attention zeroes in on Baton Rouge, their ranks are growing — as is tension in the police department. By Tuesday night, more than a hundred people had gathered outside the convenience store where Sterling was shot.

Enhanced penalties for assaulting a police officer already existed before the law, but at the end of May, Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) massively expanded protections for police and other first responders. Starting in just a few weeks, police officers can claim they were victims of hate under a statute intended to protect vulnerable minorities.

Hate crime protections don’t just kick in for people who directly assault a police officer. They extend to crimes including “institutional vandalism” and “criminal property damage,” categories meant to enhance penalties for attacks against houses of worship. Now that police are a protected class, this language could be used to target any damage done to squad cars or protests on police property, like the sit-in at the Minneapolis Police Department over the death of Jamar Clark, or the Black Lives Matter blockade of the Oakland Police headquarters in California.

A misdemeanor offense under the Blue Lives Matter law means that a defendant could face an additional six months in prison and a $500 fine. For felonies, the statute adds up to five years in prison with hard labor and a $5,000 fine.

There’s also a risk that the new law could be used as a weapon against innocent people in the wrong hands. Even without special hate crime protections, police often accuse victims of brutality of assaulting them as a way to discredit their claims of abuse in what’s known as a “cover charge.” Sometimes, if the victim is lucky, video footage emerges and clearly contradicts the official version of events. Otherwise, it’s simply their word against the full clout of the police department.

In part because of the lack of video footage, determining how common these types of false arrests are can be close to impossible. Investigations in several cities have found evidence that low-income people of color are more frequently charged with obstructing an officer or resisting arrest. A San Jose Mercury News investigation found, for example, that San Jose police used force in 70 percent of cases involving resisting arrest or obstruction charges — most of which targeted Latinos.

When police clash with protesters, the truth can become even murkier. The atmosphere gets chaotic quickly, and an accidental jostle can ignite an already charged situation. Police arrested dozens at the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011 and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Ferguson for disorderly conduct, assaulting or obstructing a police officer. Prosecutors decided to pursue charges against demonstrators sometimes months after the initial incident.

In some of those cases, the protesters were simply standing on the sidewalk or being attacked themselves. Protesters who shut down a Los Angeles highway in protest of police killings were also arrested for vandalism. One woman, Jasmine Richards, was even charged with “lynching” because she intervened during a police confrontation.

It’s not yet clear that Baton Rouge police will respond like their counterparts in other parts of the country, or if prosecutors will try to invoke Blue Lives Matter. But demonstrators don’t show signs of letting up anytime soon. Community members sustained their demonstration throughout the night and blocked an intersection outside City Hall this morning. A vigil is planned for tonight and demonstrations will culminate this weekend outside the police department headquarters.