The Obama administration will consider expanding hate crimes law protection to police officers, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.
Citing the murder of two police officers in New York City last month, the National Fraternal Order of Police has called for expanding the existing federal hate crimes statute to include police officers who are targeted for violence because they are cops.
The vehicle leading the funeral procession of New York Police Department Officer Wenjian Liu passes along the funeral route as police officers salute, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Liu and his partner, officer Rafael Ramos, were killed Dec. 20 as they sat in their patrol car on a Brooklyn street. The shooter, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, later killed himself. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
“I think that’s something we’d have to consider,” Earnest said. “Obviously, we certainly condemn in the strongest possible terms violence against police officers. Just a couple of weeks ago in New York, we saw a brazen act of violence that really shook that community in New York.”
President Barack Obama last month established the Task Force on 21st Century Policing after altercations with police in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City ended in the deaths of unarmed black men. In both cases, grand juries opted against indicting the police officers. Earnest said part of the task force's goal is to keep police officers safe and build trust in communities.
“I think the question is ultimately what are the things we can do to make it safer for police officers to do their important work,” Earnest said. “This will be among the things considered by the task force appointed by the president at the end of last year.
The Fraternal Order of Police, which represents about 300,000 law enforcement officers, called on Congress to expand protection under the hate crimes law – which currently protect those target for their race, religion, disability and sexual orientation – to include police officers.
"My thoughts and prayers over the past few weeks have been with the families of officers who were, with malice and forethought, gunned down just because they served as police officers," Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement. "Enough is enough. It's time for Congress to do something to protect the men and women who protect us."
He added that 19 percent of gun fatalities in 2014 were members of law enforcement, including NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu; Cpl. Bryon Dickson of the Pennsylvania State Police, who was killed by a sniper; Det. Melvin Santiago, who killed by a suspect who assaulted a guard, stole his gun then waited for officers to respond; and Las Vegas Police officers Igor Soldo and Alyn Beck, slain by two gunmen as they ate lunch at a pizza restaurant.
