Critics of a new Louisiana law, which makes it a crime to approach within 25 feet (7.6 meters) of a police officer under certain circumstances, fear that the measure could hinder the public’s ability to film officers — a tool that has increasingly been used to hold police accountable.
Under the law, anyone who is convicted of “knowingly or intentionally” approaching an officer, who is “lawfully engaged in the execution of his official duties,” and after being ordered to “stop approaching or retreat” faces up to a $500 fine, up to 60 days in jail or both. The law was signed by Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, Tuesday and goes into effect Aug. 1.
While the legislation’s language does not specifically mention filming, critics say that by default it would limit how close a person can be to observe police. Opponents have also gone further to question the law’s constitutionality, saying it could impede on a person’s First Amendment rights.
Police are suddenly going to become really bad at estimating just how far away 25 feet is.
Nah. They just walk keep walking towards you. This law legalizes a behavior they already display called “bulldogging”. They walk towards you attempting to intimidate you into walking away. If you can’t be intimidated then they escalate until you are arrested for resisting arrest. This is just more smoke cover for cops to act like an occupying force.
These states are basically fascist testing grounds at this point
Whenever I see dumb laws like this being passed, I think about all the problems they aren’t fixing. Louisiana is damn-near last place on all of the quality of life indexes. It’s sad that they keep electing politicians who refuse to better their quality of life.
They’re not electing anyone. 83% of the population didn’t vote in the recent Governor election.
I keep saying Louisiana should increase turnout by instituting a “vote by dealer” policy. You want your weed, fill out the ballot.
It doesn’t help that it was a shitty election cycle. People didn’t vote and are in shock that the republican won where turnout was 36% of registered voters because people assumed the jungle primary would cause a dem and repub to move forward when in fact, of that 36%, Landry won outright with 51%.
Im not saying he wouldn’t have won anyways, but it would have been much closer if people would actually vote.
Closer than 51%? How much closer can you get?
Fair. I guess I just mean he won with less than 20% of registered voters so it’s difficult for us to know if it’s a fluke since dems did not come out to vote
That’s the idea, they want a rule that allows exclusion of journalists so their shittness is less public.
Literally. They write laws meant to be test cases before the supreme court to usher in fascism via minority rule.
I can’t wait for someone to try to justify fleeing the police with this law. “Officer, you were executing your official duties. I was trying to obey the law by staying 25 feet from you but you kept pursuing me!”
Guess I’ll cross New Orleans off my list of possible vacation destinations. Not a big fan of voluntarily entering police states.
Guess I’ll cross New Orleans off my list of possible vacation destinations.
It’s funny because, as a person from outside the USA, I know a lot of people who have decided to do that with the USA as a whole!
Must be nice knowing a lot of smart people.
No need to be smart, just need to have principles
Or access to news
I’m sure there are plenty of people who know exactly what’s going on in the USA and that decide not to care and still go. Hell, I know pro choice people who still travel to red States that have banned abortions every winter because they’re not ready to give up on something they like.
You could inform them that California has the good winter weather as well. Heck if a few more of them go to Arizona, we might permanently flip that state blue.
Conservatives: acab? Who are you gonna call when you need help? A crackhead?
cops: it is illegal for you to approach me if I feel like it
crackhead: i’ll do anything for you for 50 bucks
I love the knowledge that if someone is breaking into my house, the cops will show up later to tell me nothing will be recovered and to hand me a piece of paper.
My friends sister lives in an area where you’re never more than a minute away from a cop sitting somewhere looking to
collect taxesgive a ticket. She literally watched someone pull out of her driveway in her car and immediately called the cops. The car couldn’t have been more than 1 block away and they said “sorry can’t help you, call your insurance.”I drove to target and saw 6 cop cars and probably a dozen cops all holding on or standing near a guy with a bag who stole something…
They’re fucking useless pet executioners, tax collectors, and defenders of obscene wealth.
This is blatantly false and I won’t stand for the sullying of taxes like that.
Taxes are (generally) distributed to the community and not just straight to the justice system, and the IRS is actually willing to work on improving things and working with people. I’m also pretty confident the IRS is definitely on the lower end of the doggo body count compared to a lot of the other 3-letter agencies.
Lol I appreciate your rightful defense of taxes and the IRS. I was just “joking” about how cops aren’t here to help or protect us, they are here to extract more money from us and to protect the wealthy. The IRS is it’s own thing and definitely needed.
:P
At least they’ll shoot your dog for free… whether you wanted them to or not.
Beautiful, wipes tear from eye it’s just as our forefathers imagined.
…O’er the la-and of the freeeeeee!
also cops: sometimes we will just come into your house and kill you even if you’re the victim, oopsie doopsie
Police is such a poor term, why not Citizen Control Forces.
The CCF does have a nice ring to it! /s
Those are my initials…
You can be their leader or their mascot.
Pass… Idk if this makes it worse, but I live in Louisiana lol
Can confirm, it makes it worse.
How the fuck do I ask a cop for help? I mean… Not that I ever would, I mean if I call a crackhead to help me, they’re not gonna shoot my dog…
Not being able to approach Police Officers because they legally can then THROW YOU IN JAIL is called FREEDOM!
<eagle screech>
<red tailed hawk screech with image of an eagle>
I remember learning about this a few months ago. It’s wild. Actual bald eagles sound so friendly in comparison.
Apparently bald eagles really aren’t that different from seagulls, or so I’ve heard.
This is just the result of the general populous allowing the legislators to pass whatever laws they wish, instead of laws to benefit constituents.
We need more outrage and change when these things happen. At least enough to make people remember what’s happened when it’s time to vote.
The cost of a functioning republic is vigilance: If people stop participating, things get worse.
You mean all the people saying no one should bother voting because “both sides bad and it does nothing” might not have the US’ best interests at heart??
spoiler
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fear that the measure could hinder the public’s ability to film officers — a tool that has increasingly been used to hold police accountable.
Yeah, that’s the point. Why else would they enact a law like this?
Given that the courts already shutdown Arizona’s attempt last year to keep people 8 feet away from a cop, I’m not sure arguing for 3 times the distance is going to stand.
They want to push it to the Supreme Court. Arizona lost it’s Republican governor and AG. The Dems settled the case and stopped pushing it.
Louisiana is going to waste a lot of money defending this law. The Supreme Court has been very consistent on filming cops is allowed. Also 25 feet is huge, that effectively closes sidewalks if a car is pulled over, and any two lane roads. The selective enforcement options are endless.
Which, as always, is the point. Keep everybody in a constant state of law breaking so you can always shake anyone down to make a point.
A bunch of people will get screwed while this winds its way through the courts though.
It’s not like any of the ones with less range mattered this way. The cops just walked towards you.
Can’t even be in a courtroom since the bailiff is a cop performing police duties.
I didn’t even think of that. You could probably fine a bunch of prisoners as well.
If this is allowed to stand, Americans’ first amendment rights end at 25 ft away from a police officer, in Louisiana.
And if they walk towards you while saying “back away”, suddenly you’re fleeing a scene if you actually back away
They saw all these cases against officers and decided they better make a new law to justify using lethal force
Well, I guess that gives people an excuse to start pointing lasers at them (gotta accurately measure distance somehow). Also might be fun when those that are hard of hearing start trying to keep 25’ back and can’t hear the officer trying to ask them to stop.
Exception…you are carrying big bags of money towards the officer.
To
serve and protectdiscriminate and oppress
