Round two: Burns reintroduces Blue Lives Matter bill for 2017-18
Rep. Frank Burns January 23, 2017 | 9:21 AM
HARRISBURG, Jan. 23 – Amid high hopes that his proposal to make assaulting a law enforcement officer a hate crime will become law, state Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, has reintroduced his Blue Lives Matter bill for the current legislative session.
House Bill 158 is a replica of H.B. 2261, which Burns introduced in July but which wasn’t advanced in the Republican-led legislature by the end of the year, necessitating its reintroduction to remain viable in 2017-18.
“With assaults on police officers trending upward, in the commonwealth and across the nation, I would find it incredible if a majority of my colleagues don’t support this proposal,” Burns said. “This is about as bipartisan an issue as you can get: letting our police, corrections, probation and parole officers know how much we appreciate the jobs they bravely perform every day.”
Burns, whose bill obtained swift backing from the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police last summer, said he is tired of publicly cataloging an ever-increasing number of assaults on law enforcement, such as the December death of a Pennsylvania state trooper shot and killed while responding to a domestic dispute.
However, since the number of police deaths nationwide skyrocketed 56 percent last year and since local police departments fear a sharp decline in applicants, Burns said he feels compelled to use these examples to beat the drum for passage of a Blue Lives Matter bill.
Burns’ bill would stiffen penalties for assaulting a law enforcement officer, making the offense one degree higher than current law. A crime that is a first-degree misdemeanor, for example, would become a third-degree felony.
“We can – and we should – change the law to add employment as a law enforcement officer to the categories of race, color, religion and national origin currently protected by the state’s hate crime statute,” Burns said. “Regardless of party, we need to show these officers we’ve got their backs.”