Last year, Louisiana became the first state to extend hate-crime protections to police officers. Since then, a flurry of similar bills have been filed in other states, and Kentucky's own proposal zoomed through the Republican-dominated legislature this year.
Bevin gave House Bill 14 – unofficially known as the commonwealth's "Blue Lives Matter" bill – the final approval it needed to become law this week, although the measure won't go into effect until this summer. The fledgling law will add provisions for police and other first responders to the state's current hate-crime law, which already includes race, religion, color, sexual orientation and national origin as protected classes.
