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Texas legislators filed a bill Monday that would make it a true hate crime (versus a phony one) to purposely and maliciously target either police officers or first responders for execution.

“We’re going to ask that it become an emergency legislative item for the governor so that as soon as we get to Austin in January, we pass it right away, make it law right away,” State Rep. Jason Villalba told Houston station KHOU.

What made this bill especially noteworthy was that it was filed less than 24 hours after a San Antonio police officer was gunned down.

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“(Detective Benjamin) Marconi was shot twice in the head while sitting in his patrol car outside of police headquarters late Sunday morning,” WFAA reported. “He was taken to San Antonio Military Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.”

Thankfully, the suspect in this case, Otis Tyrone McKane, was quickly identified, tracked down and taken into custody, courtesy of surveillance footage from the scene.

According to Fox News, however, three other officers across the nation were also shot Sunday in similar “incidents (that) appeared to be targeted attacks and involved law enforcement officers sitting unsuspectingly in their patrol cars, either waiting in traffic or after pulling vehicles over for traffic stops.” These three officers made it out alive.

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It was clear nevertheless that changes needed to be made to the law to discourage crazed maniacs and possible “Black Lives Matter” goons from targeting police officers for execution.

To learn more about the Texas bill, watch the video below:

“Texas will arm our prosecutors, D.A.’s and judges with every tool they need to punish to the fullest extent possible those who harm our first responders,” Villalba also told KHOU.

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Until the bill became law, though, police officers in Texas had no other choice than to be on their guard.

“In the wake of the tragic ambush that occurred in San Antonio along with the other three police shootings that happened across the nation yesterday, I have reminded our officers to take extreme caution as they perform their duties and to always be aware of their surroundings and cover each other,” the Dallas Police Department’s Interim Chief David Pughes reportedly told his officers.

Please share this story on Facebook and Twitter and let us know what you think about the plan by Texas legislators to make purposeful attacks on police officers a hate crime!

What else can cops do to protect themselves? Scroll down to comment below!