Oklahoma bill that would block local law enforcement from assistancing in a federal hate crime investigation is dead

Another thing that occurred while I was away in Atlanta was the death of the bill in the Oklahoma State Legislature that would have blocked law enforcement from assisting in the investigation of a hate crime.  Oklahoma State House Representative Mike Shelton of Oklahoma City, co-chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and member of the Oklahoma Black Caucus took the State Senate bill and being the House sponsor of it and killed it.  Shelton asked specifically for the committee to not hear the bill and essentially killing it.  However, the bill's senatorial author socially conservative Republican Steve Russell also of Oklahoma City said if local law enforcement didn’t object to turning over the information, court approval would not be needed, Russell said.  Also that the law is needed to protect free speech after the passage of a federal law that added sexual orientation or gender identity to the categories protected under the federal hate-crimes law would have prohibited Oklahoma law enforcement agencies from cooperating with any federal agency in the investigation of a federal hate crime.  (Bigoted idiot...  Oh well...)