“You see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon-you just see them thrown in, rough-I said, please, don’t be too nice.” In August, not long after that speech, a Trumpist Twitter account began offering free Thin Blue Line flags to its followers.ĥ. For those who display the flag as an angry assertion, in the shape of a skull or emblazoned across the barrel of a handgun, the colors evoke a mixture of menace and patriotism, the peril of a nation under siege by disloyal liberals and salvageable only by what Donald Trump describes as “the power of strength.” That tautology abstracts the desire Trump usually puts in cruder terms, as when he told police on Long Island, New York, about a “rough cookie” on the Chicago force who had assured him that “all the bad ones” could be rounded up in, “if you gave me the authority, a couple of days.” Trump liked that. ![]() The Thin Blue Line runs less risk of alienating potential supporters the American flag, filtered through a lens darkly, might send just the right message. Chat logs from the Charlottesville organizers reveal that savvier white supremacists know that swastikas undermine the breadth of their appeal. The flag began to appear alongside the other standards of lovers of the strong hand: the yellow snake of “Don’t Tread on Me,” the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy, and even-most notably at the August 2017 Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia-the swastika’s crooked cross.Ĥ. Authority for authority’s sake, as seen in personal variations of the flag that soon proliferated: a Christian cross bisecting its stripes, bullets instead of stars. The blue line poses the old question of organized labor-which side are you on?-as a loyalty test. Those stripes also recall media reports on police violence, in part because the media itself is increasingly seen as an enemy of law and order. And the flag symbolized an even deeper sense of peril among its admirers, those who mix Thin Blue Line memes with messages about fighting the Islamic State, “illegals,” and socialism, the “chaos” represented by the black bars below the blue line. The murders were the catalyst for what quickly became a rebuttal to Black Lives Matter, its insistence that we pay more attention to killer cops than to cops killed in the line of duty. The Blue Lives Matter movement, which began after the December 20, 2014, slaying of two New York City police officers, soon adopted the Thin Blue Line flag. Jacob thinks of the police flag as like Old Glory, above faction-despite the fact that the Thin Blue Line leaches its bright hues for a darker vision of threat and violence.ģ. Cross the Punisher’s line, Jacob explained, “and you’ll be served.” Vengeance, in this fantasy, transcends politics and even the rule of law. Instead of capturing criminals, he kills them. ![]() He also sells products inspired by the Punisher, the Marvel Comics antihero who appeared in 1974 as a Vietnam veteran waging war on urban crime at home. Since 2014, he has sold some 50,000 flags, as well as T-shirts, hats, and hoodies. “The black above represents citizens,” he said, “and the black below represents criminals.” That those on the wrong side of the line are typically citizens themselves doesn’t bother Jacob, who has built a thriving business, Thin Blue Line USA. Jacob told me that on that flag, popular with police enthusiasts throughout Europe and Australia, the black represents fallen officers-but he preferred the American exceptionalism of the black, white, and blue and its more pointed meaning. A flag for law enforcement supporters already existed: a blue stripe across a black field. I commend these leaders for their growth and compassionate mindset.Photograph (detail) © B. Some police chiefs and sheriffs are appropriately banning officers from wearing face masks or displaying other artifacts emblazoned with the Thin Blue Line flag, worrying they would be seen as divisive and disrespectful. Unfortunately, police are not speaking uniformly about and against the thin blue line. Sadly, I now recognize that the “Thin Blue Line” has been co-opted and displayed - often along with a Confederate flag - by white supremacists, racists and other hate groups to foster an us-versus-them mentality. In fact, having served honorably as a Marine combat vet and retired as a N.C. criminal justice professional, I once displayed Thin Blue Line materials. Many believe it stands for solidarity and professional pride within a dangerous, difficult profession and a solemn tribute to fallen PEACE officers. As protests over policing and reform continue, one symbol keeps showing up: a black-and-white American flag and banners with one blue stripe.
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