Criticizing the Police Shouldn't Be a Hate Crime

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

40% : According to the local ABC affiliate, the arresting document stated that she was "smirking in an intimidating manner" and that "due to the demeanor displayed by Gibson in attempts to intimidate law enforcement" while destroying the sign, the charges are subject to a sentencing enhancement -- that is, if convicted, she will be subject to a harsher punishment.
40% : At Reason magazine, C. J. Ciaramella rounded up other cases of law enforcement using hate-crime enhancements "to punish people for criticizing them."
39% : The law allowed prosecutors to seek harsher punishments for criminal offenses targeting people for any of more than a dozen reasons, such as the victim's race, religion, gender identity, or -- fatefully -- status as a police officer.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.