Utah designates law enforcement officers as a protected category under its hate-crime law, a status held by only a few states. After a 2021 traffic stop, a 19-year-old woman allegedly stomped on a "Back the Blue" sign and smirked at a deputy and was charged with a hate crime. Utah law requires intent to intimidate or terrorize, or reason to believe the action would do so, and the victim must be in a protected category. Determining intent is fact-specific. The defendant's youth and unarmed status make actual intimidation of an armed, combat-experienced deputy seem unlikely, though an argument about perceived intimidation is possible. The case raises the broader question of whether law enforcement should be a protected class for hate-crime purposes.
While most states have hate crime statutes, only about five include law enforcement officers as a protected category. Utah is one of these states. After a 2021 traffic stop for speeding, Lauren Gibson is alleged to have stomped on a "Back the Blue" sign while "smirking in an intimidating manner" at a deputy. She was charged with a hate crime for her actions. These leads to two issues. The first is a specific matter: did her actions constitute a hate crime?
Given that Gibson was a 19-year-old unarmed woman at the time of the incident, it seems unlikely she believed she could intimidate an armed deputy. While she probably did not know it at the time, the deputy is a veteran of the department and had seen combat duty while serving in the military. One could, of course, argue that she did think she could intimidate and terrorize him by stomping on a sign and smirking;
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