Louisiana's governor has signed a bill which will cause attacks targeting first responders to be considered hate crimes. The bill was written in response to recent targeted slayings of police officers, but will also protect firefighters and EMS personnel as part of it's provisions. Proponents of the bill say that adding this category to existing hate crime statutes makes sense, because they currently face threats to their lives out of hatred of the uniform they wear. The spokesman for blue lives matter, applauded the passage of the bill, stating that he considered police officers to be a minority group. Opponents of the bill argue that protecting first responders cheapens existing hate crime law, stating that adding a new category of people to be protected based on their job weakens protections for existing minority categories, adding that one's profession "Is not a personal characteristic, and is not immutable."
IMO this seems like a reasonable move. The intention of hate crime legislation is to allow prosecutors to seek extra punishments for crimes motivated by hatred, and that would seem to apply in this instance. The argument that a job isn't a fixed part of someone doesn't hold up particularly well for me, as attacks on people due to religious bigotry are currently considered hate crimes, and one could easily make the same argument that those people could simply choose to convert to a different religion. I would not oppose seeing similar legislation expanded to more states.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/louisi ... index.html
