Police Chief Dubs Resisting Arrest A Hate Crime

Louisiana Police Chief Calder Hebert reported to ABC News on Jan. 20 that the ”Blue Lives Matter ” law, a stipulation that modifies Louisiana hate crime prohibition to include protections for police officers, also includes the act of resisting arrest.

”Resisting an officer or battery of a police officer was just that charge, simply,” said Hebert.

”But now, Governor Edwards, in the legislation, made it a hate crime now.”

The new law implicates anyone who gets physical with a police officer as a felon, on top of whatever additional charges the individual may have been stopped for.

”We need the police and the public to work together,” said Hebert.

“The policemen have a job. The public has the job of helping the police. And if someone happens to be involved in criminal activity. Let the courts handle it. Don’t resist physically.”

”These guys go out everyday and the main goal is to protect the public and go home at the end of the day. This is one step in making that happen. Hopefully, the rest of the nation follows suit.”

An WNYC investigation found that instances of resisting arrest are relatively common, but that they are not always justified. The investigation revealed that an estimated 5 percent of NYPD officers were responsible for 40 percent of resisting arrest charges filed between 2009 and 2014.

Raul Delatoba, 34, was one of the first people to be charged with a felony-level hate crime under the Blue Lives Matter law.

Delatoba was originally charged with criminal damages to property and disturbing the peace. Delatoba compounded his arrest charges by allegedly shouting racial and sexist slurs at police officers involved in his arrest, according to The Times-Picayune.

Allison Padilla-Goodman, a regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, believes that Delatoba’s case did not involve a hate crime, judging by the convict’s warrant. Padilla-Goodman acknowledged the severity of Delatoba’s case, but remarked that his slurs did not connect to an underlying crime.

Sources: Reason, WNYC, The Times-Picyune, ABC News / Photo Credit: A Gude/Flickr