Zimmerman’s Blue Lives Matter Legislation Would Make Targeting Police and Emergency Personnel a Hate Crime
HARRISBURG – Rep. Dave Zimmerman (R-Lancaster) has introduced legislation to add police, firefighters and emergency medical service (EMS) personnel to the list of those who are targeted by their identity for murder or assault to Pennsylvania’s hate crimes statute.
After several incidents of emergency personnel being threatened and attacked – both locally and even more nationwide – Zimmerman authored the legislation to prevent hate attacks on vital public servants. One incident occurred in the small town of Bowmansville in northern Lancaster County as EMS personnel responded to a call to provide medical attention to the victim of a bar fight. When they arrived, they were threatened by one of the assailants standing on a roof with a weapon.
Last night, a police officer in Indianapolis was shot during a traffic stop. Seven days ago, a police officer in Kansas City was shot to death while chasing people suspected of a drive-by shooting. In 2014, two Pennsylvania State Troopers at the Blooming Grove barracks were shot by a sniper and one died. All this is on top of the three police officers murdered in Baton Rouge and five more in another sniper attack in Dallas in what cannot be described as anything else but hate crimes, Zimmerman said.
“This did not start a week ago or two weeks ago,” Zimmerman said. “In just four days during the second week of February, five police officers were killed in the line of duty; a Colorado sheriff's deputy was murdered; two sheriff's deputies were killed in Maryland; a police officer in Georgia was killed while serving a warrant; and a police officer was shot to death in North Dakota.”
Section 2710 of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes mandates additional penalties for crimes motivated by ethnicity and identity.
Zimmerman’s legislation,
House Bill 2268, would specify that those who target persons for violence or intimidation based on their identity as a police officer, firefighter or emergency service provider would face hate crimes charges and penalties.
“Our police officers are being hunted by hate groups,” Zimmerman said. “Attacks on our public-safety personnel are direct attacks on civilized society and a descent into anarchy. We need to address it immediately, and updating our hate crimes law is just one of the steps we must take.”
Representative Dave Zimmerman
99th Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Charles Lardner
717.260-6443
clardner@pahousegop.com
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