In the battle to stamp out extremism from the ranks of the police, state lawmakers have found themselves confronting a thicket of obstacles and somewhat unexpected opposition, ranging from partisan clashes to profound questions about protecting constitutional rights. In California, a police officer in Fresno was fired after videos surfaced that showed him supporting the Proud Boys at a protest. Yet when lawmakers in the state recently proposed legislation to give police departments more power to weed out officers with extremist ties, they met resistance. Police officers, like everybody else, enjoy First Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly, so the challenge for lawmakers is figuring out how to preserve those rights while barring extremists from infiltrating the ranks.

Source: New York Times May 11, 2021 20:06 UTC