“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” I’m sure you’ll recall specifically which type of animal on George Orwell’s Animal Farm made that proclamation.
In other words, we’re back to Orwellian lawmaking in this country. And not the usual kind. The 9/11 attacks in 2001 led to one sort of Orwellian lawmaking. That was dialed back a bit following the Snowden leaks, but as we’re now more than a decade out from that watershed, there’s been a bit of a return to business as usual. You need look no further than the latest Section 702 surveillance renewal for evidence of that.
This form of Orwellian lawmaking is a bit more novel. As phones became something everyone carried and those phones started containing cameras, efforts were made to prevent people from filming cops. But as pretty much every appellate circuit has held, filming cops is protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has yet to weigh in, but it really doesn’t need to as long as the circuits remained unified in this view.
Cop accountability became a hot button topic (again!) following the murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin. With protests sweeping the nation, some efforts were made to reform or rebuild law enforcement entities. But while the outrage remains, there’s been no unified front across the nation for a few years now, and legislators are getting back to passing laws constituents (as least those not employed by cop shops) aren’t really asking for.
Arizona did it first. Legislators dropped the pro-police halo down to eight feet before the bill was finally signed into law. But it didn’t matter. It has already been permanently enjoined by a federal court because it’s (you guessed it) unconstitutional.
Florida was the next to pass a law preventing people from coming within 25 feet of police officers. Governor Ron DeSantis pretended it was about giving “first responders” space to do their jobs. But only certain “first responders” are asking for laws like these. EMTs and firefighters haven’t been begging for more space to do their work. It’s only cops who seem concerned when people (and their cameras) get too close. That law takes effect at the beginning of next year, at which point it will be met with multiple lawsuits asking courts to prevent it from being enforced.
Now, it’s Louisiana’s turn, as Politico (via the Associated Press) reports:
A new Louisiana law will make it a crime to knowingly approach within 25 feet of a police officer while they are “engaged in law enforcement duties” and after the officer has ordered the person to stay back.
[…]
“This is part of our continued pledge to address public safety in this state,” [Governor Jeff] Landry, who has a law enforcement background, said during the bill signing.
Whatever. This has nothing to do with “public safety” and everything to do with limiting accountability. Louisiana has plenty of problematic law enforcement agencies that need a lot more oversight, but instead of that, state residents are getting hit with further restrictions on their rights. And it’s also worth noting (as the AP does) that legislators tried to pass this under the former governor (a Democrat), but were met with a veto.
At least this law is a bit more intellectually honest about its intentions. There’s no wording in there to help pretend this about protecting all first responders. Instead, this pro-cop, anti-citizen halo is limited to “peace officers.”
Anyone approaching closer than 25 feet after being “ordered […] to stop approaching or retreat” can be arrested and hit with a $500 fine or up to 60 days in jail. Nothing in the law makes it any less likely to be found as unconstitutional as the one passed in Arizona but at least this provides for an affirmative defense if the accused person can demonstrate no order was given to stop or retreat.
Given that other crimes like obstruction and assault are still on the books, the only reason this law exists is to make it more difficult to film police activity. That is made exceedingly clear by the supporters and writers of the bill, who are now saying stupid things in public to defend this bit of legislative bootlicking.
“This is a bill that’s enacting all across America that gives our police officers a peace of mind and a safe distance to do their job,” Republican state Rep. Bryan Fontenot, who crafted the legislation, said at a signing ceremony Tuesday.
I’m not sure how three states out of 50 is “all across America,” but a man’s gotta dream, I guess. This “bill that’s enacting” only applies to Louisiana. And even in the cop-friendly Fifth Circuit, it’s unlikely to remain in “enacted” status for very long. And it’s actually just two states: Arizona’s law (at only 8 feet!) has already been permanently enjoined.
This isn’t the only stupid stuff said by Rep. Fontenot in defense of his unconstitutional bill:
“At 25 feet, that person can’t spit in my face when I’m making an arrest,” Fontenot said while presenting his bill in a committee earlier this year. “The chances of him hitting me in the back of the head with a beer bottle at 25 feet — it sure is a lot more difficult than if he’s sitting right here.”
LOL. This isn’t about any of these things. It’s about making it more difficult to film cops — the sort of thing that often undercuts cop narratives about how things went down. Going back to the murder of George Floyd, the official narrative — until undone by a bystander’s recording — was that officers arrested someone who just happened to die. And, as the original Minneapolis PD press release took care to point out, the officers turned out OK following this murder.
Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction
May 25, 2020 (MINNEAPOLIS) On Monday evening, shortly after 8:00 pm, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department responded to the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue South on a report of a forgery in progress. Officers were advised that the suspect was sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence.
Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later.
[…]
No officers were injured in the incident.
That’s why bills like these are being written. A citizen’s recording undermined the official narrative. The only thing it verified is that the MPD officers escaped the murder scene without injury.
Fortunately, most of these stupid bills aren’t being signed into law. And one-third of those enacted have already been permanently blocked by a federal court. This is just more police protectionism, which cops don’t need because they already have more “rights” than the people they serve. Hopefully, this law will meet the same fate Arizona’s law did : an enactment, a lawsuit, and a permanent injunction.
