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Is Citizen Journalism Promoting Justice?

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Bills are being passed to increase the punishment for killing an officer.

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Dec. 13--Bills filed for consideration in next year's General Assembly include two that would increase criminal penalties for people charged with assaulting or attempting to kill police officers.

State legislators begin meeting next month for the odd-year short legislative session. A variety of criminal justice-related bills have been filed, including a bill that would classify attempted murder of a police officer or firefighter as a violent offense if the officer or firefighter was acting in the line of duty when the offense occurred.

In Kentucky, the violent offender statute says anyone convicted of a violent offense must serve at least 85 percent of his or her sentence before becoming eligible for parole. Attempted murder does not fall under the violent offense classification, which means a person convicted of attempted murder now would eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of the prison sentence.

The bill was filed by Rep. Gerald Watkins, a Paducah Democrat. Watkins said "it's absolutely ridiculous" that a person charged with attempting to kill a law enforcement officer is not considered a violent offender under state law.

Watkins said he was motivated to first file the bill last year after hearing about a 2014 incident where a man made a false domestic violence complaint to 911 dispatch, and then attempted to shoot the responding McCracken County sheriff's deputy from an ambush site in some nearby woods.

The judge in the case "said 'he'll serve 22 months before he'll be out,' " Watkins said.

The bill passed the House last year, but ran into trouble in the Senate.

"The Senate wanted any attempted murder to be a violent offense, which I fully support," Watkins said. But making all attempted murder convictions subject to the violent offender statute would cost the state $48 million for incarceration, Watkins said.

The change is necessary to protect law enforcement, he said.

"They are just targets, especially right now," Watkins said.

He plans to discuss the bill with House leadership and also with members of the Senate Judiciary committee, he said.

Another law enforcement bill would classify an attack against a law enforcement officer, firefighter or emergency responder as a hate crime. The bill has several sponsors, although the primary sponsors are Rep. Kevin Bratcher, a Louisville Republican, and Rep. Joseph Fischer, a Ft. Thomas Republican.

"They're calling it the 'Blue Lives Matter' bill," Bratcher said. "If you attack a police officer, firefighter or EMT simply for doing their job or being what they are, it's considered a hate crime" under the bill.

Classifying such an attack at hate crime "gives the court more tools to prosecute and sentence" the offender, Bratcher said. "Louisiana passed it last year, and I wanted Kentucky to be the second state" with a hate crime provision for law enforcement.

Fischer said Kentucky does not have an increased criminal penalty for hate crimes. Instead, if a person is found to have committed a hate crime, the judge can use that as a factor when deciding to deny probation. The state parole board can also deny parole to a person who was judged to have committed a hate crime.

"In Kentucky, a hate crime is a sentencing option," Fischer said. ... You may end up staying in prison longer, but there's no additional penalty."

The motivation for the bill did not come out of any specific event, but because legislators wanted to support law enforcement, Fischer said.

"Kentucky has been spared (instances of) violence against police officers" experienced more frequently in other states, Fischer said. "But we do have areas of concern. Nothing in my area of Kentucky has motivated it." Rather, legislators were motivated by "a general respect for our first responders," he said.

Legislators will reach out to organizations like the Fraternal Order of Police and firefighter and EMT associations to see if they support the measure, Fischer said. "I suspect they do."

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse

Copyright 2016 - Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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Ky. State Legislature to Consider 'Blue Lives Matter' Bill

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Dec. 13--Bills filed for consideration in next year's General Assembly include two that would increase criminal penalties for people charged with assaulting or attempting to kill police officers. State legislators begin meeting next month for the odd-year short legislative session.

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I am a super cute lion

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#Bluelivesmatter
#Backtheblue
#Thankablue
#Seaofblue
#Serveandprotect
#Alllivesmatter
#policebrutality
#proudpolicesupporter
#PrayforDPD
#Rememberthefallen

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Opening the eyes to more people about the dangers of working as a police officer

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Iowa Police Shooting Renews Call for 'Blue Lives Matter' Law

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The legislation could offer hate crime protections for police

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Four police officers have been shot in a 24-hour period over the weekend in four different cities, and authorities say two of the shootings were targeted attacks.

The grass-roots organization, Blue Lives Matter, which is made up of police officers, their families, and those who support American law enforcement officers, is speaking out about the shootings, one of which was fatal.
CBN News spoke with Lt. Randy Sutton, a retired police officer who represents Blue Lives Matter, about the violence against police. Watch the video above.
"We have seen the death of one of those officers who was in all reality executed by a coward who walked up behind him and literally shot him through the window of his patrol car while he was writing a ticket -- (a) 20-year veteran of the San Antonio police department -- (an) absolute tragedy," Lt. Randy Sutton, a retired police officer, actor, and author, who represents Blue Lives Matter, told CBN News.

"And another officer was also targeted; (he) thought he was going to be giving directions to someone who just pulled up next to him," Sutton continued. "Instead, the man produced a firearm and shot him in the face twice."

The St. Louis police sergeant was released from the hospital Monday. Police say the suspect was later killed in a shootout with officers, according to The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Monday afternoon police captured the suspect wanted in the deadly shooting of the veteran San Antonio police detective, according to Blue Lives Matter. The group says it was the result of a massive manhunt.

"I think the uniform was the target and the first person that happened along was the first person that (the suspect) targeted," said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus at a news conference Monday, according to The AP.

Sutton believes laws protecting police officers need to be toughened.

"The state of Texas just came out with a statement that they are trying to move forward with legislation which will enhance the legislation for an attack on a law enforcement officer, making it a hate crime as well," he said. "And this is the type of legislation that needs to be adopted all over the country."

"And in addition to that, law enforcement officers need to have the additional training given to them that they so need in officer survival techniques," Sutton continued.

Sutton told CBN News that he hopes better things are in store for law enforcement officers under a Trump administration.

"There has been a push under the Obama administration for quote -- softer policing -- unquote, which also includes the removal of some safety equipment that was given to police officers, police departments, and was actually taken away from them," he said.

"So there needs to be -- and I think we're going to see it under this new president -- we're going to see a whole different day dawning for the American law enforcement officer, I'm hoping," Sutton continued.

Sutton said he's also encouraged by the support of police officers through the Blue Lives Matter organization.

"We have approximately 1.2 million followers on our Facebook page," he explained. "Our website, bluelivesmatter.blue gets anywhere between six and 10 million hits -- individual hits -- a month."

"We are the largest grass-roots police support organization in the country," he added.

"Before all this madness had started, where would you have found more than 1.2 million people openly supporting the law enforcement profession," Sutton said. "You wouldn't have."

"In fact, in the last week, three times citizens came to the aid of police officers in trouble who were in physical altercations," he continued.

CBN News reached out to the Obama and Trump administrations for comment. They have not yet responded to our inquiries.

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'Blue Lives Matter' Speaks Out after Four Officers Shot in 24 Hours

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The grass-roots organization, Blue Lives Matter, which is made up of police officers, their families, and those who support American law enforcement officers, is speaking out about the shootings of four police officers in a 24-hour period, one of which was fatal.

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Four police officers have been shot in a 24-hour period over the weekend in four different cities, and authorities say two of the shootings were targeted attacks.

The grass-roots organization, Blue Lives Matter, which is made up of police officers, their families, and those who support American law enforcement officers, is speaking out about the shootings, one of which was fatal.
CBN News spoke with Lt. Randy Sutton, a retired police officer who represents Blue Lives Matter, about the violence against police. Watch the video above.
"We have seen the death of one of those officers who was in all reality executed by a coward who walked up behind him and literally shot him through the window of his patrol car while he was writing a ticket -- (a) 20-year veteran of the San Antonio police department -- (an) absolute tragedy," Lt. Randy Sutton, a retired police officer, actor, and author, who represents Blue Lives Matter, told CBN News.

"And another officer was also targeted; (he) thought he was going to be giving directions to someone who just pulled up next to him," Sutton continued. "Instead, the man produced a firearm and shot him in the face twice."

The St. Louis police sergeant was released from the hospital Monday. Police say the suspect was later killed in a shootout with officers, according to The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Monday afternoon police captured the suspect wanted in the deadly shooting of the veteran San Antonio police detective, according to Blue Lives Matter. The group says it was the result of a massive manhunt.

"I think the uniform was the target and the first person that happened along was the first person that (the suspect) targeted," said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus at a news conference Monday, according to The AP.

Sutton believes laws protecting police officers need to be toughened.

"The state of Texas just came out with a statement that they are trying to move forward with legislation which will enhance the legislation for an attack on a law enforcement officer, making it a hate crime as well," he said. "And this is the type of legislation that needs to be adopted all over the country."

"And in addition to that, law enforcement officers need to have the additional training given to them that they so need in officer survival techniques," Sutton continued.

Sutton told CBN News that he hopes better things are in store for law enforcement officers under a Trump administration.

"There has been a push under the Obama administration for quote -- softer policing -- unquote, which also includes the removal of some safety equipment that was given to police officers, police departments, and was actually taken away from them," he said.

"So there needs to be -- and I think we're going to see it under this new president -- we're going to see a whole different day dawning for the American law enforcement officer, I'm hoping," Sutton continued.

Sutton said he's also encouraged by the support of police officers through the Blue Lives Matter organization.

"We have approximately 1.2 million followers on our Facebook page," he explained. "Our website, bluelivesmatter.blue gets anywhere between six and 10 million hits -- individual hits -- a month."

"We are the largest grass-roots police support organization in the country," he added.

"Before all this madness had started, where would you have found more than 1.2 million people openly supporting the law enforcement profession," Sutton said. "You wouldn't have."

"In fact, in the last week, three times citizens came to the aid of police officers in trouble who were in physical altercations," he continued.

CBN News reached out to the Obama and Trump administrations for comment. They have not yet responded to our inquiries.

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'Blue Lives Matter' Speaks Out after Four Officers Shot in 24 Hours

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The grass-roots organization, Blue Lives Matter, which is made up of police officers, their families, and those who support American law enforcement officers, is speaking out about the shootings of four police officers in a 24-hour period, one of which was fatal.

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Killing of 5 Dallas officers sparks more 'Blue Lives Matter' Supporters

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Do we need to assert that Blue Lives Matter? In the wake of the killing of five Dallas police officers Thursday, it might seem so. President Obama called the shooting "vicious, calculated and despicable." The New York Post proclaimed "Civil War" on its cover. In the same week when thousands of us took to the streets to once again insist that Black Lives Matter, events in Dallas will force a number of false equivalences to be drawn. First among them is that if we say Black Lives Matter, we must say in the same breath Blue Lives Matter.

I won't say Blue Lives Matter, because it does not need to be said. We know this because the death of five officers this week provoked an immediate response from the president, as did the assassination of two NYPD officers in 2014. That's what mattering looks like. While the president's remarks earlier in the week on the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were moving, dozens of unarmed black men killed by cop go without presidential comment. For instance, U.S. police killed more than 100 unarmed black men last year alone. The fact that there are too many such killings for Obama to speak to individually? That's what not mattering looks like in a society.

There was never any doubt about the mattering of cops' lives in this country. To say Blue Lives Matter is to falsely assert that the cops' lives are undervalued and systematically discarded. They are not - no life should be - and the shootings in Dallas do not change that fact.

Five police deaths provoke cries of "Civil War," but hundreds of black deaths are just the "tragic" normal.

And that is why we continue to shout "Black Lives Matter" - the statement contains in itself the recognition that it very much still needs to be said.

It's also relevant that it has consistently taken the visceral and visual representation of black death - Emmett Till's broken corpse in the open casket his mother demanded, Mike Brown's body in the street, Philando Castile bleeding out onto his whiteT-shirt - to prompt popular and media outrage. Black civilian bodies get humanized only through death. It doesn't take a photo or video of a killed cop to provoke outcry. That mattering doesn't demand brutal spectacular cues.

Which is not to delegitimize growing fears among police ranks that they will become targets by virtue of their profession, their uniform. Dallas shows the validity of these concerns. Yet it remains the case that policing does not even rank in the ten most dangerous jobs, according to a 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Fisherman, farmers and, above all, loggers are more likely to die on the job, and police are, according to the same statistics, more likely to commit suicide than be killed by a criminal. While cops may have reasons for increased concern, this does not deserve a movement. There remain no grounds at all to call police officers a persecuted minority, nor to equate the oppression of black life with that of police in America.

The Dallas shooting will no doubt buoy ongoing efforts by police departments and representatives around the country to see officers officially recognized as a persecuted minority. In May, Louisiana Gov. Jon Edwards passed a Blue Lives Matter bill, which renders targeting an officer a hate crime. Last year, the 300,000-member National Fraternal Order of Police union ask Congress to include police officers under its hate-crime statute as a protected minority. On Capitol Hill, the House and Senate have both introduced a "Thin Blue Line Act," which would strengthen penalties for attacks on law enforcement.

Numerous layers of bad thought undergird these initiatives. For one, they only serve to make what is already de facto the case in our criminal-justice system the de jure case, too. Long before Blue Lives Matter entered the rhetoric, numerous state houses had specific, harsher sentencing mandates on their books for cop killers. New York's minimum sentence for the murder of a police officer has been life in prison for over a decade. To kill a cop is already a criminal-justice mark of Cain.

By comparison, for example, Peter Liang was the first NYPD officer to be convicted for an on-duty killing in the last ten years. He shot unarmed black man Akai Gurley in a Brooklyn project housing stairwell, after he had his gun drawn because a stairwell light was out in the residential block he was patrolling. He had not been called to the scene of a crime. He won't spend a day in jail; his manslaughter conviction was accorded a sentence of five years' probation.

I'm not equating the intentional assassination of police officers with the (regular) killing of black people by cops. I don't believe most cops are hunting down black people - but I also don't believe murderous racist intention is necessary to make an execution a brutal, racist act. There are not very many people hunting down cops. Cops' lives are already valorized; it costs everything to take one. For a cop to take a black life, in criminal-justice currency, costs nothing at all. This, again, is what mattering does and does not look like.

The other flawed logic driving Blue Lives Matter initiatives is the equation of a uniform with a skin color - only one of which you can take off. The police uniform is accorded unique authority, impunity and power. Black skin is marked with the opposite.

We don't need a Blue Lives Matter movement to assert that cops' lives matter - that fact is as established in this country as white supremacy.
Watch President Obama's emotional address on Dallas police shooting.

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After Dallas, We Don't Need to Say 'Blue Lives Matter'

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Do we need to assert that Blue Lives Matter? In the wake of the killing of five Dallas police officers Thursday, it might seem so. President Obama called the shooting "vicious, calculated and despicable." The New York Post proclaimed "Civil War" on its cover.

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Sheriff David A. Clarke talking about Blue Lives Matter

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POTUS Donald Trump 2016 Rallies & Speeches

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Utter Arrogance Of This Lying Liberal Apologist For Radical Islam

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California Professor Attacks & Threatens Students Whom May Have Supported Trump Will Loretta Lynch

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Sheriff David A Clarke... Blue Lives Matter!!!

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Sheriff David A Clarke makes an emotionally powerful speech that all of us patriots agree with 100%...BLUE LIVES MATTER!!!

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News story on Baton Rouge officer attack 

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News story on Baton Rouge officer attack 

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Attack on officers, shows the killer's mindset, as well as the situation with body cameras.

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Pathetic Yet Dangerous Grasp For Power Bombshell Emails

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Warning! Graphic Content. A video compilation of police officers confronted with danger on the streets of America. Sometimes a routine traffic stop can turn into a deadly encounter. Help us spread the word about the liberty movement, we're reaching millions help us reach millions more.