Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill Thursday making violent acts against police officers, firefighters and EMS workers a hate crime.
Louisiana becomes the first state to add someones vocation to the list of defining factors of hate crime, like skin color, religion and gender.
The bill did come with some criticism, namely from Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League Allison Padilla-Goodman “Working in a profession is not a personal characteristic, and it is not immutable,” said Goodman.
The bill was pushed into action after a Texas sheriff’s deputy, was ambushed, shot and killed while in uniform last August.
