Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has signed a so-called Blue Lives Matter law, which expands the state’s hate crimes statute to add police officers, as well as firefighters and EMS personnel, to the list. The new law is the first of its kind in the country. Its signing sparked outrage by civil rights groups. Louisiana NAACP President Ernest Johnson said, “Hate crimes law is based upon a history of discrimination against certain groups of people, and a bill like this just tries to water down that reality, because there is not a history of discrimination against police and firefighters.”