Thin Blue Line Flags Stir Controversy In Mass. Coastal Community
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Crowds are expected in a small Massachusetts town today and over the weekend. They're going to rallies, both for and against thin blue line flags. Maybe you've seen these around. Many see the flags as a tribute to police officers; others say they're racist. Here's NPR's Tovia Smith.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: Firefighters in Hingham, Mass., say when they put thin blue line flags on their fire trucks, their intent was to honor a fallen police officer. But the black-and-white version of the American flag with one blue stripe running across has also been associated with white supremacist groups and Blue Lives Matter, a movement launched in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. So when college student Max Giarrusso (ph) saw them flying, he asked town officials to take them down.
MAX GIARRUSSO: The thin blue line has become a political symbol. It's a symbol of racism, essentially, in my opinion. And so I was upset to see a publicly owned taxpayer-paid-for vehicles flying a symbol that could make a lot of residents in this town feel uncomfortable.
EMMANUEL OPPONG: Yes. If I see that flag, I am scared.
SMITH: Emmanuel Oppong, one of the few Black residents of Hingham, says no matter what its original intent, the thin blue line symbol has taken on new racial overtones. So he says seeing law enforcement officials embrace it only exacerbates the fears that weigh on him every day.
OPPONG: I am dead afraid to get pulled over because I can't be sure that even if my hands are up, even if I did everything right, that I probably wouldn't come home to my three boys. Then you understand it's not just a line.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: They protect you. Their job is not to be your friend.
SMITH: Demonstrators on both sides of the flag dispute clashed this week in Hingham. Firefighters refused orders to take the flags down until yesterday when police from one town over where the fallen officer served said they would take the flags and fly them, quote, "with honor." Later, plans were announced to send a flag on a statewide tour on any fire engine that would have it. Audra Young (ph) is among those who've been rooting for the thin blue line flag to get more spotlight.
AUDRA YOUNG: Where the hell did that become political? Because you don't like police officers, so that's offended. I wear a Boston police mask with a blue line flag on it, and I was in a store the other day and a lady told me that was offensive to her. I said I really don't care. Don't look at my mask. It's none of your business.
SMITH: For his part, while Hingham Police Chief Glenn Olsson did call for the flags to come down, he also insisted his officers are being unfairly maligned.
GLENN OLSSON: Our officers have no connection to a white racist movement of any type. And it's tough to be held accountable to something that doesn't happen in Massachusetts.
SMITH: Pushback against thin blue line flags has been fierce in cities around the nation where law enforcement officers have displayed it. Scott Mainwaring, who's been researching the flag for a national group of flag scholars, says it started gaining popularity around five years ago as more attention was being paid to police misconduct and Blue Lives Matter was gaining momentum. While many proponents disavow any racist overtones, Mainwaring says the flag clearly means different things to different people.
SCOTT MAINWARING: There is a lot of projection that is made onto the flag by both sides, and that's the nature of flags. They're just colored pieces of cloth, so everything that they mean is projected onto them.
SMITH: In Hingham, critics of the flags were glad to see them leave town, but they see sending them out on a statewide tour as a divisive and political act. If the firefighters were interested in healing, activists say, they'd find a way to honor fallen officers with anything other than what they call an overtly racist symbol.
Tovia Smith, NPR News.
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