August 4, 2016 New York – In response to reports that some members of the New York State Assembly plan to introduce a “Blue Lives Matter” bill today to add police to the groups covered under existing hate crime statutes that currently apply to attacks based on race, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and national origin, Center for Constitutional Rights Executive Director Vince Warren made the following statement:

“Blue lives matter” rests on an outrageous false equivalence that pretends the systemic oppression and violence that African Americans have faced in America for centuries is somehow akin to the extremely rare incidents in which police officers are targeted with violence. While those isolated incidents are no less – and no more – inexcusable than the killing of innocent civilians, they simply are not part of a pattern of violence, and to suggest otherwise by designating them as hate crimes is disrespectful to those who are actual victims of hate crimes. 

The Center for Constitutional Rights won a landmark ruling in August 2013 finding the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices to be racially discriminatory and unconstitutional under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, and works with grassroots groups on a national and local level for police accountability and reform.