Kentucky Bill Would Make It A Crime To Insult Police Officers
March 5, 2021 9:09AM EST
LOUISVILLE, KY – MAY 29: A protester engages polices officers in riot gear after hours of protests on May 29, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Protests have erupted after recent police-related incidents resulting in the deaths of African-Americans Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
A proposed bill in Kentucky would make it a crime to insult or taunt a police officer to the point where it provokes a violent response.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Danny Carroll, is a retired police officer and says it’s a response to riots across the country last summer.
He said, “You see people getting up in officers’ faces, yelling in their ears, doing everything they can to provoke a violent response.”
Carroll continued, “I’m not saying the officers do that, but there has to be a provision within that statute to allow officers to react to that.”
An attorney with the ACLU of Kentucky responded, “the idea that the legislature would be criminalizing speech in such a way is offensive.”
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