The Monroe County Legislator who drafted the county law making it a crime to harass a first responder on the job has introduced a measure to repeal it.
Republican Karla Boyce appeared with Democrats Vincent Felder and County Executive Adam Bello, announcing she now wants to repeal the law she authored. Boyce said her intention was to honor and give a new layer of protection to police, firefighters and EMTs in the county, not to disrupt police community relations.
The law immediately became center of a controversy from groups who argued it would violate first amendment rights and could make videoing a police officer a crime. Since it passed there has been considerable feedback against it, and a number of police agencies in the county said they would not enforce it.
