By Steve Pomper
I wrote about this issue just a month ago, but it bears repeating as often as necessary. Law enforcement leaders continue to surrender time-honored law enforcement traditions to the anti-cop radicals. Specifically, I’m talking about the thin blue line (TBL) symbol often seen based on the American flag but in black and white with a blue horizontal stripe.
Santa Rosa, California Police Chief Ranier “Ray” Navarro is the latest police leader to buy into the cop-haters’ warped redefining of the TBL symbol. Navarro apologized for posting “an image on Facebook that included the thin blue line flag” (we’re trying to verify reports that his spine disintegrated while posting his apology to cop-haters). The TBL flag was a gift to police officers from their community. Chief Navarro’s “rationale” demonstrates his disconnect with his officers.
Chief Navarro’s apology betrays his own apparent disapproval of the TBL symbol. “While the post was intended to thank the community members who made the (TBL) banner, and for the community at large for their continued support, it offended some who viewed it. For this, I sincerely apologize.”
Hey, chief, the “some who viewed it” and were “offended” are already cop-haters who hate anything police related except, perhaps, for LODDs. Remember, cop-haters are the ones changing definitions and the meanings of venerable American law enforcement traditions. Then some police leaders reward these radicals by capitulating to their perverted redefinitions.
Here’s the convoluted “logic.” The Left uses their distorted perspective to redefine American conservatism or traditionalism as, “racist,” “misogynistic,” “xenophobic,” etc. Then they cast as evil, conflating them with white supremacists, an entire group of people (of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexual identities, etc.) who simply prefer a different political philosophy.
So, when conservatives fly the TBL flag at legitimate political gatherings, such as Trump Rallies, the anti-police troublemakers they want you to believe conservatives are flying the equivalent of neo-Nazi, KKK, or other white supremacist flags. This is nonsense.
To reiterate the facts. The TBL symbol represents the sacrifices the relatively small number of society’s cops make to protect their communities, including risking and sometimes losing their lives, as so many brave souls have, recently. These radicals want to turn the TBL into a symbol of racism, which is the epitome of evil—because they don’t like cops.
And some so-called chiefs of police are helping them do it. Does Chief Navarro truly believe the complaints came from objectively concerned citizens? These fabricated “concerns” are coming from political activists who are advancing an anti-police narrative that they have already written.
Every chief who appeases the anti-cop left breathes legitimacy into the radical’s bogus claims about police officers and the TBL symbol. He writes, “It is disappointing that in recent years, the thin blue line flag’s positive connotation has been tarnished with divisive undertones and actions. We do not want to promote these negative connotations.” “Divisive undertones and actions,” committed by whom?
Who does Chief Navarro believe “tarnished” the TBL symbol? The syntax of his words show the chief seems to be blaming cops. If so, how have officers tarnished the TBL symbol. Simply by attending conservative rallies, waving TBL flags, or wearing MAGA hats? Come on, Chief. For cops, the TBL symbol has not been tarnished. It’s a revered symbol the Left is lying about. It’s a lie most cops refuse to buy into. The cop-haters have “tarnished,” if you can call it that, the TBL image by attempting to redefine it falsely and negatively. But that only works if police chiefs allow it.
Normal people do not find the thin blue line offensive. They just don’t.
In the earlier article I mentioned at the top, I wrote about another spine-challenged police chief who took a similar action when she banned the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department from displaying the TBL symbol. Why? Again, because some “community members” (cop-haters) complained it was racist after seeing it in a photo posted on social media.
However, that chief carved out a telling exception: She’s allowing officers to wear the TBL symbol but only if they attend a cop’s funeral. Wait…. Is the TBL symbol racist or not? Why would the occasion matter, if the chief truly believes the symbol is racist?
Anti-police factions calling for defunding or abolishing the cops are the people who invented these “negative connotations” and then attributed them to the TBL symbol. And then the radicals attack cops based on their fake definition of that symbol.
You will never improve police-community relations with anyone who is offended by the TBL flag. That’s because hating the police is an integral part of their debased ideology—appeasement will not change their view. These radicals are the enemies of law enforcement and of civil society.
You will not placate them unless you pledge blind loyalty and promise to think and act exactly as they do. History has taught us repeatedly that appeasing tyrants, even petty tyrants, never works. It doesn’t exempt you from their wrath. They’re a social justice juggernaut that will just move onto its the next unreasonable demand—and some police chiefs may surrender that next thing, too. Where does it end?
What happens when they claim a law enforcement officer’s badge is a symbol of hate? You know they’ll get to that sooner or later, if they haven’t already.