Do Blue Lives Matter?
Do “blue lives” matter more than other lives?
According to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, they do. He signed a new law last week making attacks on armed government workers – you know, cops – a “hate crime” subject to harsher and additional penalties than would otherwise apply.
Edwards – a former armed government worker himself – has an interesting view of crime and punishment, as well as of rights. These vary in degree according to such things as the color of the uniform one wears.
Punch a mere peon (not uniformed) in the face because you hate the guy’s guts and it’s still a crime, but a lesser one. “Hate” enters into it only if the person receiving the punch happens to be a certain category of person, such as a uniformed one.
One of the states armed enforcers.
The presumption being you didn’t exactly like him, either.
But now (in John Bel Edwards’ fief) it’s an actionable offense to not like the blue-clad person you struck. Whereas if the reverse were to happen (the armed/costumed government worker threw a punch at you) it is merely a physical assault and not also a “hate” crime. . . .
We are to assume it’s nothing personal, you see.
But even if it obviously is – let’s say the armed/costumed government worker is caught on tape cursing his victim, calling him a “dirty skell” or a “maggot” – he can only be prosecuted for the actual punching.
His hate isn’t actionable.
Which is… odd.
Well, not right.
Rights – such as the right to not be punched in the face – cannot vary according to the person affronted. It’s either right – or it’s not. Regardless of the color of the people involved, or the costumes they happen to be wearing.
And punishing people differently (or additionally) for committing the same violation of another person’s rights cheapens the currency of one person’s rights, while valuing another’s more dearly undermines the very concept of rights.
This is a feudal way of doing things. One may not affront the person of the king – or his barons. But the king – and his barons – may do as they like with the serfs.
That is what Governor (perhaps Shire-Reeve would be the most fitting title) Edwards has just codified into the law.
He claims it was done in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, but this doesn’t parse. The BLM movement does not claim that the lives of black people matter more than the lives of other people. Their complaint – a legitimate one – is that the lives of black people should not be valued less than the lives of other people.
By people wearing blue especially.
They – blacks – have a legitimate grievance. There is no question, for example, that they are disproportionately hassled and punished by people in blue over trumped-up (because no victim) “offenses” involving arbitrarily illegal “drugs” (not including alcohol, which is a more socially accepted and therefore arbitrarily legal drug).
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