A white man vacationing in New Orleans was shot by a police officer for no apparent reason, which is bad enough, but he was then charged with a hate crime. You got that? Taking a .40 cal slug from a cop is an act of hatred, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. It’s a good thing this guy is white or there may have been some outrage surrounding this case.
The Advocate reports that 44-year-old Ronald Martin was in New Orleans last December with his wife. They were planning on boarding a cruise ship, but wanted to see the sights of the Crescent City first. Martin’s wife turned in early, but he wanted to stay out a little later. On his way home some scumbags started following him so he took out his legally owned .380 with a mounted laser sight.
The next thing Martin knows, someone from the opposite direction started shooting at him and he was struck. It turns out the gunman was actually Louisiana State Police Sgt. Alan Arcana.
According to Arcana he heard gunshots around the corner and ran over where he saw Martin. The officer claims that Martin pointed his laser-sighted gun at him at which point he sought cover and began firing. In neither version of the story does the officer try to identify himself to Martin nor was the source of the original gunfire located.
Whichever version of the story is true, one thing is for certain: Arcana rolled up on Martin and started shooting with no warning.
Martin was taken to the hospital with a non-life threatening gunshot injury and then promptly arrested. Last week he was charged with aggravated assault upon a peace officer, possessing a firearm while acting violently, and unlawfully aiming a laser at a member of law enforcement. Plus prosecutors added a hate crime charge against Martin. What?
Louisiana has what’s known as a “Blue Lives Matter” law that makes law enforcement officers a protected class of people like minorities and gays. Under this law, bias crimes against cops can carry an addition 5 years.
The thing is, Martin clearly didn’t target Arcana because he was a cop. He didn’t yell anti-cop slurs and in fact the two men had no interaction before Arcana started shooting. Also, Arcana wasn’t a victim by any stretch of the imagination; it was Martin who was shot. How is this a hate crime?
Making things crazier, Martin is himself a law enforcement officer. He is an Army Criminal Investigation Command agent. What prosecutors are trying to say is that an off-duty federal agent hates cops so much that he tried to kill one randomly. They are alleging that this was a premeditated incident of cop-on-cop hatred and violence, which is as dumb as it sounds.
Martin thought he was going to get robbed and assaulted by some scumbags, of which New Orleans has plenty, and instead he was shot by a fellow law enforcement officer and then slapped with a hate crime. As a finally indignity, he was suspended from his job with the Army pending the outcome of his criminal case.
Martin would have been better off by letting the street scum rob him. He still might have been shot but at least he’d still have a job and wouldn’t be facing 25 years in prison.
Take this exact case and swap out white federal agent Martin with a black convicted felon and suddenly there would national outrage. Why didn’t the officer identify himself? Why didn’t the officer try to deescalate the situation instead of immediately firing? Why weren’t non-lethal methods deployed? If cops shoot a black guy, no matter the circumstances, it’s because of racism. A white guy is shot and all he gets for his trouble is a hate crime charge.
