The Kentucky Senate passed a bill Thursday that makes insulting police officers a misdemeanor offense.
Republican Kentucky State Sens. Danny Carroll and Michael Nemes introduced the bill in February in response to the protests and riots following the death of Breonna Taylor.
The Kentucky Senate votes to make it a crime to insult a police officer, boost “rioting” penalties 22-11 pic.twitter.com/bfnYgXs0ro
— Ryland Barton (@RylandKY) March 11, 2021
Under the bill, anyone who “accosts, insults, taunts, or challenges a law enforcement officer with offensive or derisive words” is guilty of disorderly conduct. An individual would face up to 90 days in jail if convicted, according to CBS News. (RELATED: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Legislation Increasing Penalties For Rioting)
“We are a civilized society, and that’s what we need to maintain,” Carroll said during a committee hearing, according to WFPL Radio. “And I think it’s time that we send a message in this commonwealth.”
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the bill on free speech grounds, writing on Twitter that it is “an extreme bill to stifle dissent.”
#SB211 is an extreme bill to stifle dissent. It’s so extreme it would make it a crime to say “insulting” or “offensive” things to law enforcement. ACLU-KY Legal Dir. Corey Shapiro told @courierjournal that lawmakers trying to criminalize speech is, itself, “offensive.” #KYGA21 https://t.co/kwFCRAKovZ
— ACLU of Kentucky (@ACLUofKY) March 5, 2021
In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled in Houston v. Hill that individuals have the right to insult police officers.
“The First Amendment requires that officers and municipalities respond with restraint in the face of verbal challenges to police action, since a certain amount of expressive disorder is inevitable in a society committed to individual freedom, and must be protected if that freedom would survive,” Justice William Brennan wrote for the majority at the time.