A Kentucky legislator is pulling a controversial proposal that would have allowed the police to stop people and demand identification after being pilloried on social media.
Senate Bill 89 would have allowed a police officer to stop a person in a public place they suspected to be involved in criminal activity or about to commit a crime. The officer would be allowed to demand identification and have the person explain why they are there “to the satisfaction of the officer.”
Speaking on his chamber’s floor, Republican Sen. Stephen Meredith of Leitchfield said he faced a swarm of criticism from political observers, especially online, for proposing the bill. He specifically pointed a finger at Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones and Marc Murphy, a freelance cartoonist for The Courier Journal.
“Neither one of these gentleman, nor anyone else in this chamber, in this state or in this nation has the right or privilege to question my love for this country nor the Constitution,” Meredith said.
Murphy, a federal defense attorney whose work appears frequently in the Opinion section of The Courier Journal, mocked Meredith in a Jan. 17 tweet:
Hey look who doesn’t understand the Constitution, or freedom, or America. Or does, and hates them. Or you. @slmeredithky1 https://t.co/VkLmpCSTZI
— – (@MurphyCartoons) January 18, 2020
Jones tweeted that the bill was “a terrible idea.”
Meredith also mentioned how under the Kentucky Constitution, officeholders must take an oath that they haven’t participated in a duel. He said questioning someone’s integrity or character used to mean “life or death” for some, but not anymore.
“My first reaction is to say if you’re man enough to come out from behind your microphone and keyboard, we’ll meet personally about this, and I’ll convey to you how much I love this country, and it will be a lesson you will not forget,” Meredith said.
In other news, I think a Kentucky state Senator may have threatened to beat me up on the Senate Floor today
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) January 22, 2020
In a statement to The Courier Journal on Wednesday, Jones described Meredith’s floor speech as “absurd.”
“Rather than admit that his bill was terrible and has no support, he chose to engage in a ‘woe is me’ diatribe and challenge me to ‘step outside,’” he said. “For a man who lectures us all on personal responsibility, he once again takes none.”
The same Kentucky state Senator threatened me and Matt to a dual. Presumably at different times because otherwise it’d be a Turkey Shoot. Watch this space for my response after Matt’s show tomorrow after noon. https://t.co/UL1vsXIS8C
— – (@MurphyCartoons) January 22, 2020
Opponents of the measure specifically argued SB 89 would have violated the Fourth Amendment’s clause against unreasonable search and seizure. The bill also would have infringed on a person’s Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, critics said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which opposed the bill, noted that law enforcement can approach a person and ask for their name or identification, but that a person can refuse to respond.
Police can also frisk a person if they have a reasonable suspicion the person is carrying a deadly weapon, but state law does not allow authorities to detain a person for not identifying themselves or explaining what they are doing to law enforcement.
Meredith said the legislation wasn’t perfect but was a work in progress intended for senators to deliberate. He said the bill was met with a “trial by social media” and a level of vitriol that would make “the devil cringe” after critics slammed him for proposing the idea.
“I have received emails, tweets on Twitter and Facebook (messages) in which I’ve been personally threatened, called a communist, a fascist, a racist, a bootlicker, scum, un-American idiot, an old wrinkled white guy, which obviously I can’t deny but I don’t know it’s anything germane at hand,” he said.
Meredith, a retired hospital executive from Grayson County, said he proposed the measure after the sheriff and county attorney in his area told him about a man later identified as a convicted felon who was found hanging around a woman’s apartment complex. He said there was another report of a man carrying an AR-15 rifle at a festival in Grayson County.
“The policeman tracks him down because no one recognized him being from our community,” Meredith said during his floor speech. “The man just walked away … he simply walked away.”
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Written by Phillip M. Bailey. Cross-posted from the
Courier-Journal via the Kentucky Press News Service.