BATON ROUGE, La., May 27 (UPI) -- Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the "Blue Lives Matter" bill, becoming the first state in the country to protect police officers under a hate-crime law.
Typically applied to crimes against victims based on race or religion, the new law will now add police officers, fire fighters and emergency medical technicians to those with special protections under the law. Although there are currently at least 37 states with special penalties for violence against police officers, Louisiana is now the first to protect them under hate-crime laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures