(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Lawmakers revive plan to create 25-foot police buffer [1] ['Richard A. Webster', 'More Richard A. Webster', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-03-27 Nearly 10 months after Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed a controversial bill that would create a 25-foot buffer around law enforcement officers, a Louisiana House committee greenlit a similar piece of legislation Tuesday (March 26), effectively reviving the proposal. House Bill 173 by Rep. Bryan Fontenot, R-Thibodaux, states that “no person shall knowingly or intentionally approach within twenty-five feet of a peace officer who is lawfully engaged in the execution of his official duties after the peace officer has ordered the person to stop approaching or to retreat.” Anyone found in violation of the law can be fined up to $500 or imprisoned up to 60 days. The House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice unanimously approved the bill despite objections from civil liberties advocates, who say it could criminalize free speech of people trying to film the actions of law enforcement officers. Last year, Edwards vetoed a similar bill by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, saying if the bill were to become law, it would chill the “exercise of First Amendment rights and prevent bystanders from observing and recording police action.” Gov. Jeff Landry’s office provided a card in support of Fontenot’s bill for Tuesday’s hearing, and the governor is expected to sign it into law should it reach his desk. The legislation differs from last year’s bill in that it provides a defense for people accused of violating the law. Fontenot’s proposal states that a person can prove their innocence by establishing that the officer’s command to stay 25 feet away was “neither received nor understood … nor capable of being received or understood under the conditions and circumstances that existed at the time of the issuance of the order.” Fontenot, who previously worked for the Thibodaux Police Department and the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, acknowledged that the public’s filming of police officers throughout the years has exposed wrongdoing. He said his bill preserves that right. “I think that the use of cell phones and videos has highlighted in many instances where officers probably need to be on video, they need to be checked,” Fontenot said. “And there’s really nothing within a 25-feet span that someone couldn’t pick up on video.” At the same time, that mandated buffer would allow officers to do their jobs without fear, he said. “At 25 feet, that person can’t spit in my face when I’m making an arrest,” Fontenot said. “The chances of him hitting me in the back of the head with a beer bottle at 25 feet, it sure is a lot more difficult.” Opponents of Fontenot’s bill echoed the same concerns they had with Johnson’s bill: in addition to criminalizing free speech, the proposal is unnecessary as it is already illegal in Louisiana to interfere with law enforcement. Misunderstandings of what constitutes 25 feet in the heat of the moment could lead to wrongful arrests, critics said. “I don’t know if police officers are going to have to walk around with measuring tape to ensure that they’re actually 25 feet away,” said Stephanie Willis, policy strategist for the ACLU of Louisiana. “And if there are more than two officers at a scene, how do I know which officer to step away from? Would I then be breaking the law if I’m not 25 feet away from one officer as opposed to another?” Opponents also pointed out that a similar law in Arizona that made it a crime to film police activity from within a radius of eight feet resulted in a federal lawsuit by a group of news organizations represented by the state chapter of the ACLU. A settlement and a subsequent court ruling permanently blocked enforcement of the law last summer. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/03/27/lawmakers-revive-plan-to-create-25-foot-police-buffer/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/