CPS urged to disassociate from 'thin blue line' flag patches
Article content
The Calgary Police Service should move on from allowing its officers to wear “thin blue line” patches and come up with a new way to express the original meaning behind the symbol, say activists and academics.
During a Calgary police commission meeting on Tuesday, CPS Chief Mark Neufeld responded to criticisms surrounding the patch, which includes a horizontal blue line through the centre of a black and white Canadian flag. The symbol has been seen on some Calgary police officers’ uniforms, including at a protest last weekend against pandemic-related public health rules.
Neufeld said the patches are worn as a symbol of service and integrity and to honour fallen officers.
“There’s an accusation that if you’re wearing that symbol you’re a racist or a fascist — I don’t agree,” he said. “We actually know officers who have that insignia tattooed on their bodies, and quite righteously.”
Mount Royal University criminologist Kelly Sundberg said some have come to perceive the symbol as an “us versus them” or “police versus the public” message.
The thin blue line originates from a battle during the 1854 Crimean War, known as the Thin Red Line, in which a British regiment wearing red uniforms held off a Russian cavalry charge.
The symbol was then popularized through pop culture in the 1970s and 1980s, said Sundberg, as films about crime and policing depicted the police mission of protecting innocent citizens “from the evils of the world, the criminals and the organized crime.”
“It exemplifies the police being the thin line between chaos and crime and law order, not around the ‘us and them,’ ” Sundberg explained.
But conversations about police reform in recent years, sparked by racism and brutality in policing, have prompted some to incorporate Canadian and American versions of the “thin blue line” flag into their messaging and imagery.
“In the beginning, I guess it was a symbol of pride, solidarity, freedom, bravery for the police officers,” said Kay Layton, executive director of Black Lives Matter YYC. “But since then, it’s kind of evolved into a symbol for white nationalists. The evolution of the patch is the reason why it’s offensive now.”
- Doubts raised over Calgary police's commitment to anti-racism efforts
- Burden to Bear: Police called to confront legacy of racism and brutality
- Anti-racism efforts, accountability issues among CPS' top priorities in 2021: Chief
- 'We cannot fail them': Council vows to take action on systemic racism as public hearing ends
- Calgary protest draws attention to violent arrest of Godfred Addai-Nyamekye, pushes for change
Layton said he understood Neufeld’s stance but hoped he would consider other points of view. He said he’d like to see the symbol banned by CPS and replaced with “something more 2021,” adding the patch is a hindrance to the anti-racism work that Calgary police have committed to doing.
“It’s become offensive and it’s become hurtful to a lot of people,” Layton said.
“I think police officers should agree with that, too, that they shouldn’t be wearing the same things that white nationalists or Proud Boys and Klansmen are wearing. Hopefully (Neufeld) would realize that even though they don’t mean it that way, it can definitely be seen in that light by a lot of people.”
The Ottawa Police Service banned its members from wearing the thin blue line symbol last month. The RCMP also issued a directive last fall prohibiting its officers from adding it to their uniforms.
Calgary Police Association president John Orr called it an “important symbol.” He said he believes members of his union, which represents Calgary police officers, would be upset if CPS banned it.
Orr said such patches are meant to honour those such as Calgary police Sgt. Andrew Harnett, who died in the line of duty on New Year’s Eve, and that “if they’re taken by people with ulterior motives then that’s on them.”
“To suggest that by a police officer wearing this patch on their uniform, that they’re racist or fascist, it’s just not true,” Orr said.
“To police officers in Calgary as well as the rest of the country, it’s used to show remembrance, for one, to those who we’ve lost in the line of duty, as well as it representing solidarity amongst police officers. It’s a positive symbol, from the perspective of police officers, and it’s not one that’s worn to be divisive or for any negative reason at all.”
Sundberg said it’s “unfortunate” that the thin blue line flag has been “misconstrued” as a “symbol of militarization.”
“The original meaning and history of the thin blue line has been either forgotten or misinterpreted. The narrative has changed,” he said.
“Because of this controversy, it now has become ‘us versus them.’ ”
Sundberg said the symbol has to change. He pointed to a blue and white, checkered ribbon used by police in Australia, which has come to represent the original ideals of the thin blue line.
“There needs to be a symbol that highlights the camaraderie between officers and the public. I think it’s time that a new symbol be adopted and promoted, and that symbol signifies the sacrifice that the spouses, children and families of injured and fallen officers have to endure.”
shudes@postmedia.com
Twitter: @SammyHudes
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.