A bill advancing out of a Kentucky Senate committee yesterday would make it a crime to insult or taunt a police officer to the point where the taunts provoke a violent response.

Senate Bill 211 passed by a 7-3 vote. The proposal was a response to riots throughout the country last summer, said the bill’s sponsor, Senator Danny Carroll, R-Benton, a retired police officer.

Louisville, Kentucky saw numerous instances of unrest last year over the lack of criminal charges against police officers in connection with the death of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot March 13, 2020, during a police raid inside her home.

The bill kept language making a person guilty of disorderly conduct (a Class B misdemeanor) if they accost, insult, taunt, or challenge “a law enforcement officer with offensive or derisive words, or by gestures or other physical contact, that would have a direct tendency to provoke a violent response from the perspective of a reasonable and prudent person.”

Other provisions in Senate Bill 11 would push back against the “defund the police” movement and make a person who “knowingly” provides supplies at a riot — that can be used as weapons or “dangerous instruments” — subject to a riot-in-the-second-degree charge.

The legislation also removes previous controversial language that would make it a crime to camp overnight on non-campground state property.

The bill will now go to the full Senate and could be passed as early as next week, though not much time will remain in the 30-day session to also make it through the House.