Transit officials were upset when they saw Thin Blue Line decals on police cruisers. After complaining to the department and requesting their removal from the vehicles, the sheriff sent them a letter with a very clear response.
In accordance with the ideology of wokeness, progressives get to determine the meaning of symbols they find offensive. Regardless of the true meaning, the icons must be banned once activists decide that they are implicitly racist. So, when individuals spotted police decals they identified as xenophobic, they wanted Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer to remove them.
According to KNKX, Pierce County Transit officials made a request to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office — remove the Thin Blue Line flag stickers from three patrol cars. The officials made the request in response to at least two complaints, one of which labeled the flag a “symbol of intimidation and anti-blackness.” Pierce Transit CEO Sue Dreier personally contacted the department with the request.
“These symbols have become polarizing and divisive,” Dreier wrote, “especially to people of color.”
After the first request, Pierce Transit heard nothing back from the sheriff’s office. They sent another request, insisting that the decals must be removed to prevent further offense.
“We encourage the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department to follow the lead of the Tacoma Police Department and find an alternative to the symbol,” the letter states. “We feel strongly this request represents the reality for many of our customers.”
Two months after their initial complaint, the sheriff himself replied with his final decision. In a letter to the agency, Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer denied their request, announcing that the Thin Blue Line flag decals would remain on the cruisers.
“We must continue to educate the community on the true meaning of the image,” Troyer wrote. “It is time to start listening and understanding. It is time to mend the seam, and for all of us as leaders to hold together our community as we confront the challenges that divide us and look to a better future.”
Troyer denounced Pierce Transit’s “disheartening” misinterpretation of the flag, warning that such propaganda leads to division and hostility. He expressed his desire to educate the masses on the meaning of the Thin Blue Line instead of caving to the campaign of misinformation surrounding its connotation. The flag has been used for nearly 75 years as an homage to fallen officers as well as a symbol of support for men and women in uniform.
Unfortunately, Pierce Transit wasn’t interested in stopping the spread of misinformation. Instead, the agency doubled down, insisting that the symbol must be removed because it is seen by some as divisive and outright racist.
“I am guessing as the customer, if we don’t want them on the vehicles they should come off,” chief operating officer Mike Griffus wrote in an email to Jim Kelly, the public safety chief for Pierce Transit who works for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
Disturbingly, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards, who also serves as chair of Pierce Transit board of commissioners, decided to leverage her power to pressure the department to remove the stickers. She and other officials expressed their “disappointment” in Sheriff Troyer’s refusal to comply.
“We do stand by our original belief that the decals should be removed,” they said in the statement. “It is our hope that the conversation about removing the stickers can continue and we can find common ground.”
Pierce Transit later admitted that only two complaints have been lodged and that “some may have occurred at the staff level” that weren’t elevated to the agency’s board or leadership. They were determined to have the decals banned.
As with every anti-police initiative, the issue isn’t potentially divisive stickers or their meaning. The real target is law enforcement. Their critics wish to paint the criminal justice system as inextricably racist in an effort to abolish it altogether.
Attacking the Thin Blue Line is merely one small step of many that leads to the defunding and dismantling of the police. Tragically, this initiative has made our streets, communities, and officers less safe.
