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The blue line symbol

The 'Thin Blue Line' is a phrase that refers figuratively to the position of police in society as the force which holds back chaos, allowing order and civilization to thrive.

The term began as an allusion to the famous 'Thin Red Line', when a British infantry regiment held off a Russian cavalry charge during the Crimean War in 1854, where 'red' referred to the color of the British uniforms. The 'blue' in 'thin blue line' refers to the blue color of the uniforms of many police departments.

2Symbols

History[edit]

The term is derived from the Thin Red Line, a formation of the 93rd Highland Regiment of Foot of the British Army at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, in which the Highlanders stood their ground against a Russiancavalry charge.^[1] This action was widely publicized by the press and became one of the most famous of the Crimean War.

The first known use of the phrase 'thin blue line' is from a 1911 poem by Nels Dickmann Anderson, titled 'The Thin Blue Line.' In the poem, the phrase is used to refer to the United States Army, alluding to the Thin Red Line, and to the fact that US Army soldiers wore blue uniforms from the eighteenth century through the nineteenth century.^[1]^[2]

It is unknown when the term was first used to refer to police. In the 1950s, LAPD Chief Bill Parker used the phrase in the department-produced television show of the same name.^[3] Parker coined the term thin blue line to further reinforce the role of the LAPD. As Parker explained, the thin blue line, representing the LAPD, was the barrier between law and order and social and civil anarchy.^[4]

The OED records its use in 1962 by the Sunday Times referring to police presence at an anti-nuclear demonstration.^[5] The phrase is also documented in a 1965 pamphlet by the Massachusetts government, referring to its state police force, and in even earlier police reports of the NYPD. By the early 1970s, the term had spread to police departments across the United States.^[1]

Use of the term became especially widespread following the release of Errol Morris' 1988 documentary filmThe Thin Blue Line, about the murder of a Dallas Police officer Robert W Wood.^[1] Judge Don Metcalfe, who presided over the trial of Randall Adams, states in the film that prosecutor 'Doug Mulder's final argument was one I'd never heard before: about the 'thin blue line' of police that separate the public from anarchy.' The judge admitted to being deeply moved by the prosecutor's words, though the trial resulted in a wrongful conviction and death sentence.^[6]

Symbols[edit]

Black and white Maple Leaf flag with thin blue line

Black and white union jack lampshade patterns

Black and white Union Jack flag with thin blue line

Black and white American flag with thin blue line

Black and white Israeli flag with thin blue line

Proponents say that the idea behind the various graphics that incorporate a thin blue line is that law enforcement is a thin blue line that stands between chaos and order or between criminals and the potential victims of crime, and it is primarily used to show solidarity with police.^[7] Opponents note that the representations of the public and the criminals as black bars on either side of the blue line are identical, and suggest that the symbolism represents a police vs. everyone else mindset.^[8]

Variations[edit]

Various emblems portraying a thin blue line have been made, including a horizontal thin blue line across a Union Jack rendered in black and white in the United Kingdom, or on a black and white American flag in the United States. The sale of badges and bracelets^[9] with these emblems has been used to raise money for families of police officers that have died in the line of duty.

Due to the popularity of thin blue line phrase for law enforcement, other various groups have derived their own 'thin line' terms and emblems to represent themselves. Most notably, in the United States, the term 'the thin red line' has been adopted by firefighters as an analogy to the thin blue line, despite the phrase originally referring to the British Army.^[10]

The Punisher skull emblem has become popular within the Blue Lives Matter movement, with many companies producing decals, stickers, and T-shirts featuring the Punisher emblem colored with or alongside the thin blue line.^[11] The creator of the Punisher, Gerry Conway, has criticized this usage, saying that police who use the symbol 'are embracing an outlaw mentality' and 'it's as offensive as putting a Confederate flag on a government building'. ^[12]

Controversy[edit]

A blue laser beam was projected during the 24th annual National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial on 13 May 2012 in Washington, D.C.

The 'thin blue line' has been controversial in both the US and the UK as some believe the symbol is emblematic of authoritarianism or a police state.^[13]

In 2015, police officers in Sussex, England were told by their supervisors to remove a badge from their uniforms with a blue line across a union jack since it was not part of their official uniform. There was a concern that it could be seen as a political statement related to cutbacks in police forces.^[14]
In Chicago, in November 2016, counterprotesters carried the black and white US flag symbol to show support for police after a police shooting of Joshua Beal. The counterprotesters carried the symbol in confrontations with another group of protesters who felt the shooting was unjust and racially motivated.^[15]
The black and white US version of the flag with the thin blue line is seen by some as a desecration of the official US flag.^[16]
In Warwick, New York, the painting of a blue line down a roadway was protested by some citizens as being in opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. The town has since painted the line red, white, and blue, the colors of the US flag.^[17]
In Riviera Beach, Florida, a group of police officers flew the thin blue line flags on their personal vehicles. They were ordered by their captain to remove the flags.^[18]
During the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, the thin blue line flag was used by white nationalist groups to symbolize support for police and opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.^[19]^[20]
In 2017, Multnomah County Courthouse removed the flag after it gained notoriety with the Charlottesville white supremacists.^[21]
In July 2019, the 'Thin Blue Line' American Flag was put up by residents of York, Maine, as a way to pay tribute to a local police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty decades ago. Due to locals being concerned that the flag was being used as a symbol of white supremacy, the flag was subsequently taken down.^[22]
In October 2019, the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland was gifted a wooden “Thin Blue Line” flag made by a citizen in recognition of National First Responders Day. The wooden flag was put up in the 5th district police station. After backlash from the public, the flag was taken down in November 2019.^[23]