By Steve Pomper
What’s worse than cop-haters hijacking the meaning of a symbol beloved by cops, so they can attack it—cancel it? Police leaders who concede to cop-hating liars that the symbol is now offensive. Don’t cops have enough reasons for low morale already?
A cop friend of mine recently received a thin blue line (TBL) coffee mug at his birthday party. He said, “I love it.” His wife, also a cop, said, “But you better not bring it to work.” A non-LEO (law enforcement officer) friend asked if he really could not use that cup at the police department. My friend said, “No way.”
Then the non-LEO asked the obvious. “But that honors cops who get killed, right?” Yes! The TBL also pays tribute to cops as the thin blue line protecting civil society from anarchy. Disgracefully, many police agencies have outlawed the TBL symbol.
Some law enforcement leaders concede to the cop-haters their defamation of the TBL symbol. Then they impose policies that condone hatred for the police while disrespecting their own police officers. According to the Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ), UW-Madison “Police Chief Kristen Roman said the [TBL] flag has been ‘co-opted’ by extremists with ‘hateful ideologies.’” That’s only if leaders like Chief Roman allow radicals to “co-opt” it.
Chief Roman is appeasing a leftist mob that considers any conservative or libertarian—even Republican—to be “extremists” with “hateful ideologies.” So, she “has banned officers from using thin blue line imagery while acting in an official police capacity.” Rather than stand up for a police symbol that shows her cops’ love and respect for fellow officers, especially those killed in the line of duty, she enables the anti-cop cancel culture.
The chief also said, “We must consider the cost of clinging to a symbol that is undeniably and inextricably linked to actions and beliefs antithetical to UWPD’s values.” That’s puerile rubbish, and doesn’t saying, “clinging to a symbol…” betray her true feelings about the TBL symbol?
White supremacist groups also fly the American flag. Will that be cancelled the next time cop-haters hold their breath and stomp their feet? How much American tradition will chiefs like Roman allow radicals to cancel? She’s not alone.
The Ku Klux Klan infamously uses the Roman cross as a revered symbol. Should the Christian church consider its cross “co-opted” and “undeniably and inextricably linked,” to the KKK so therefore “linked to actions and beliefs antithetical to” Christian values? In Chief Roman’s view, wouldn’t the Christian cross have to be cancelled?
What was the traumatic event that elicited this perverse overreaction? Reportedly, it was a TBL flag displayed on a wall in the UW-Madison Police Department office, which was posted on social media. Full of manufactured rage, cop-haters complained, and Chief Roman wilted. Officers had displayed the flag to honor fallen cops—and their police chief essentially ripped it off the wall. Another concession to the fascists.
In further mockery of the truth, Roman has also prohibited any TBL items: pins, bracelets, coffee mugs, etc. But she’s allowing a telling exception. Her officers may display the TBL symbol, when they attend a funeral to bury one of their brothers or sisters. Wait…. Is the TBL a symbol of racist hate or not? Why should the occasion matter? It’s because the chief knows very well the TBL is not a symbol of hate and racism.
Ironically, she recognizes the true nature of the TBL but still bans it in deference to campus cop-hating bullies. Many people whom radicals consider “white supremacists” are simply good people who hold conservative and libertarian political views. But, for the Left, political disagreement is no longer allowed.
Chief Roman demonstrates her leftist bias, here. “In a Nov. 17 statement, Roman said her department condemned the use of the flag when it was ‘intended to defend hate’ or ‘invalidate social justice movements advocating for meaningful police reform.’” But that’s not what she did.
Instead, Chief Roman seems to be accusing her cops of “defending hate,” right? She specifically said she condemned the flag’s use to defend hate. But her officers were not using the flag to defend hate. And, there are millions of Americans, including many cops, who believe the “social justice movement,” as defined by the Left, is invalid, as it seeks to replace equal justice. She banned TBL imagery by officially endorsing one political opinion over another?
The chief has apparently bought into the filth spewed by anti-cop campus radicals who protest anything perceived as pro-police. Discussion is never on their agenda, only repression, cancellation, and hate for America’s cops. Rather than what her officers and most of the American people know about the TBL flag, she chose the hijacked definition her officers’ enemies “cling” to.
The WSJ reported, “The [social media] post was met with backlash from UW-Madison student activists, who denounced the display of the flag and called for its removal, Madison365 reported. The students said university police were effectively endorsing white supremacy and ignoring the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer, which called for an end to racism and police brutality, as well as police accountability.” Chief Roman bought that drivel?
Allow me to translate this dung pile of radical speech alchemy: A group of cop-haters denounced a flag they have intentionally misdefined, already hate, and want outlawed. They believe police are racist for displaying a flag meant to honor fallen officers. And they also accused the cops of ignoring BLM, a violent Marxist group whose members have killed police officers and who continue to call for the murder of cops.
Maybe, Chief Roman should have issued a statement like this: Thin blue line imagery traditionally recognizes the thin line of law enforcement officers standing between the law-abiding and the lawless. It’s also used to honor those officers who’ve sacrificed their lives in the line of duty for their communities. We reject and condemn any use of this symbol by any genuine hate group. But this department will continue to display TBL imagery, adhering to its true and original meaning.