Kentucky GOP Bill Criminalizes Insulting Police Officers

CBS News reports:

Senate Bill 211 mandates up to three months’ imprisonment for a person who “accosts, insults, taunts, or challenges a law enforcement officer with offensive or derisive words,” or makes “gestures or other physical contact that would have a direct tendency to provoke a violent response from the perspective of a reasonable and prudent person.”

A person convicted of this misdemeanor charge could also face a $250 fine and be disqualified from public assistance benefits for three months.

The bill advanced through the Senate’s Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection committee on Thursday in a 7-3 vote, with only Republicans supporting it. Republicans control both chambers of Kentucky’s legislature.

Read the full article. Photo: Sen. Danny Carroll, sponsor.