Some question push for tougher penalties for attacking police

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, MO.

Gov. Eric Greitens is pushing to toughen Missouri’s already stiff penalties for attacking a police officer, reflecting similar efforts underway in other states and pleasing many in Missouri’s law enforcement community, which has been on the defensive since the police killing of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson more than two years ago.

Whether such changes are needed is debatable – among those who think they aren’t is a fellow Republican lawmaker and legal expert who helped craft revisions of the state’s criminal code that just took effect.

Greitens, a former Rhodes Scholar and Navy SEAL officer who ran multiple campaign ads featuring him firing large guns, pledged during his first major policy speech to help pass “the toughest laws in the country for anyone who assaults a peace officer,” even though Missouri already has harsher penalties for people who hurt cops or first-responders.

He also spoke about a “Ferguson effect,” which purportedly has made officers more hesitant about performing their duties since the 2014 killing of Michael Brown due to a fear of being questioned later.

Lawmakers in more than a dozen other states and Congress have proposed making it a hate crime to assault an officer.