Summary: When someone resists arrest in Louisiana due to their hostility of police, they can be charged for a hate crime.

Louisiana upped the ante by moving resisting arrest charges to the next level as a hate crime when the resistance is motivated by animosity towards the police. The “Blue Lives Matter” bill was signed by Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards last May. The law protecting firefighters, EMS officials, and police officers went into effect in August.

Martindale Police Chief Calder Herbert is ready to apply the law to anyone resisting arrest. He stated, “We don’t need the general public being murdered for no reason and we don’t need officers being murdered for no reason. We all need to just work together. Resisting an officer or batter of a police officer was just that charge, simply. But now, Governor Edwards, in the legislation, made it a hate crime.”

The bill does not specifically note resisting arrest as a qualifying offense. It gives police officials the power to pursue more severe punishments for crimes viewed as outwardly motivated by a hatred of police.

A scenario of this law being applied would be especially pertinent in protest situations. As Huffington Post’s Julia Craven pointed out, “If a police officer grabs a protester’s arm during a demonstration and that person makes a movement the officer considers aggressive, a minor trespassing or disturbing the peace charge could be bumped up to assault and possibly considered a hate crime.”

Louisiana was already among the states with stricter charges of crimes committed against police officers. The Trump administration, just days into office, has vowed to tighten the belt against “the rioter, the looter and the violent disrupter.” They also pledged to place more officers on the streets.

Do you think there should be more steps taken to ensure police are safe when responding to violent or unpredictable situations like protests? Tell us in the comments below.

To learn more about hate crimes, read these articles:

• Four Black Teens Charged with Hate Crime after Torturing White Student in Viral Video
• Lawyer Indicted for Witness Tampering in Anti-Muslim Hate Crime
• Was Murder of 3 Muslim Students from Chapel Hill a Hate Crime?

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

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On Tuesday, first lady Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Committee fundraiser was interrupted by a woman shouting statements about equality for gays and lesbians. Obama was 12 minutes into her speech when she was interrupted by Ellen Sturtz, a member of the LGBT rights group GetEQUAL.

What Sturtz initially shouted is unknown, but Obama paused her speech to address the disruptive guest. “One of the things that I don’t do well is this,” said Obama, a statement that was met with applause. “Do you understand?” Obama then left the lectern and approached Sturtz, saying “Listen to me or you can take the mic, but I’m leaving. You all decide. You have one choice.” The crowd began to shout that they wanted Obama to remain on stage, and Sturtz was escorted out.

As Sturtz was brought out of the event, she shouted that she was a “lesbian looking for federal equality before I die.”

Sturtz spoke with the Washington Post shortly after the event, saying “She came right down in my face. I was taken aback.” Sturtz told the Huffington Post that she didn’t go to the event with the intention of interrupting Obama, but rather to reach out to members of the DNC that were present. Sturtz said that she was moved by the first lady’s urging of the audience to make the country a better place for the next generation to voice her concerns.

“I want to talk about the LGBT young people who are being told, directly and indirectly, that they’re second-class citizens. I’m tired of it. They’re tired of it. They’re suffering,” said Sturtz. “We’ve been asking the president to sign that Employment Non-Discrimination Act for five years. How much longer do we need to wait?”

“Basically, I was asked by the first lady to be quiet, but I can’t be quiet any longer. I was surprised by how negative the crowed seemed to be. It was actually a little unsettling and disturbing.”

Another GetEQUAL activist, Autumn Leaf, interrupted DNC Chair Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s speech just prior to Obama’s.

President Barack Obama was heckled during a speech he made last week, when an anti-war protester interrupted his speech about drones and national security. The president handled the heckling well, saying that the protester’s voice was an important one and “worth paying attention to.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Michelle Obama handled the heckler “brilliantly.”

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It was announced on Wednesday morning that the Time Person of the Year is ‘The Protester.’ The decision was revealed by managing editor Richard Stengel on the “Today” show. The finalists include Admiral William McRaven, Congressman Paul Ryan, and Kate Middleton according to Stengel.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords and Steve Jobs did not make the list of finalists because they appear elsewhere in the magazine. Stengel said that “It’s not a lifetime achievement award.”

Each year since 1927, the magazine has bestowed the famous honor on a person, a group of people, or an idea. In 2010, the winner was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

This year’s group includes protesters from all over the world. Those protesters include the masses who helped fuel the Arab spring to the anarchists in Greece to the Occupy Wall Street movements all over the United States.

Journalist Kurt Anderson wrote in the cover story for Time:

“It’s remarkable how much the protest vanguards share. Everywhere they are disproportionately young, middle class and educated. Almost all the protests this year began as independent affairs, without much encouragement from or endorsement by existing political parties or opposition bigwigs. All over the world, the protesters of 2011 share a belief that their countries’ political systems and economies have grown dysfunctional and corrupt — sham democracies rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change. They are fervent small-d democrats.”

That segment is courtesy of Time and the Huffington Post.

The magazine paid reference to the ousting of Moamar Ghadafi, claiming “the people who toppled governments and brought a sense of dignity to a people who didn’t have it before.”

“For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century, the Protester is Time’s 2011 Person of the Year,” Stengel said in a statement.

In Tunisia, protesters witnessed the toppling of Ben Ali, a dictator, which then spread to Egypt and Libya. Other protests in Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain occurred after the successes of Egypt and Libya.

The Occupy movement continues to rage on in the West, which coincides with the announcement of Time naming the protester the person of the year. Back in 2006, another controversial person was named on the title, and it was ‘you.’ The cover featured a mirror-like surface, reflecting the person holding the magazine. The magazine is sold in thousands of countries across the globe, with the United States being one of them. The Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States are being removed by police forces serving eviction notices.

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