Bob CollinsThe City Council in Red Wing has passed a resolution calling for a change in federal law that would include hurting a police officer as a hate crime, WCCO reports.
“I’d like to see the state legislators do the same thing and make this statewide statement and mean it,” Council Vice President Peggy Rehder told the TV station.
But the hate crime law is about race (it was also expanded to include sexual orientation).
It reads:
Offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin.—Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person—
The Fraternal Order of Police is pushing the legislation, suggesting that the killing or injuring of police officers is about color.
“We feel it’s inappropriate to target people because of the color their skin and it’s inappropriate to target people because of the color of their uniform,” says James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of the Police.
“Hate crimes against black Americans have had a long history in this country – we didn’t just see a rise of hate offenses against black Americans over a period of a month or two,” Criminologist Jack Levin told US News earlier this year. “Hopefully the ambushing of police officers will turn out to be a short-term clustering and not some kind of long-term form of hate against the police force in general. We just don’t know that yet.”
