The Virginia Senate has passed a bill reducing the charges for assaulting a police officer from a class 6 felony to a simple misdemeanor if the officer isn’t actually injured in the attack.
The bill, which passed 21 to 15, also removes the mandatory 6-month jail sentence for assaulting a police officer, even when the attack results in visible bodily injury.
If you’re still not sure that it could really be as bad as all that, here’s the summary of bill itself, straight from the Virginian legislature:
Eliminates the mandatory minimum term of confinement for an assault and battery committed against a judge; magistrate; law-enforcement officer; correctional officer; person directly involved in the care, treatment, or supervision of inmates; firefighter; or volunteer firefighter or any emergency medical services personnel and provides that such crime can no longer be committed as a simple assault and must result in a bodily injury.
Interestingly, the bill includes a provision stating that “if a person intentionally selects the person against whom an assault and battery resulting in bodily injury is committed because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin, the person is guilty of a Class 6 felony, and the penalty upon conviction shall include a term of confinement of at least six months.”
Meaning that the same exact assault against an officer would be prosecuted differently depending on what the perpetrator’s intentions were at the time.
The bill will now move to the Democrat-controlled house for consideration before it could make its way to Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam's desk for signing.