A letter written last week by the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, a police union, argues that no one should be able to display materials supporting the Black Lives Matter movement while in court.
"We have received complaints from our member officers who believe that such displays have no place in courtrooms in which justice is to be dispensed," the letter says, calling pro-BLM materials "propaganda." The note continues with an inflammatory analogy and constitutional caveat:
"We are certain that the courts would not allow similar public displays from citizens who believe that killers should be sentenced to death or that sexual predators should be castrated. While we embrace the First Amendment, we do not believe that such statements should be made in the halls of justice." [LVPPA, via Las Vegas Review-Journal]
When police officers are personally involved in trials, it is common practice for fellow cops to show up en masse in the courtroom in an imposing display critics suggest is itself a means of influencing the jury's decision.
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The letter came to public attention after controversy ensued in a Vegas courtroom Tuesday when District Judge Douglas Herndon commanded a public defender to remove a Black Lives Matter pin from her clothes while in court. The lawyer, Erika Ballou, who is herself African-American, refused and asked for a new judge to preside over her case. Though Herndon's ban may be covered by a 1998 Supreme Court ruling that allows judges to prohibit symbolic political expression in court even when it isn't disruptive, Ballou argued the pin was commentary on the criminal justice system, not any political candidate, and therefore should be permitted in a criminal justice setting.
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