This is the first I’ve seen these flags. Perhaps not enough LEO live around my neighborhood.
Obviously there is an overlap of law enforcement and Trump supporters. I guess window stickers are not enough any more. What caught my attention is that the behavior of flying the flags is the same as Trump supporters who drive around with US fags affixed to their truck beds.
For a long time the blue line stickers were limited to the immediate families of LEO, at least around here. If you had one and your husband/wife/parent wasn’t a cop, you’d get the steeper ticket, as far as I understood it.
Now, now I just see them as ‘I <3 security theater’ bumper sticker. These blue lines really did start as little stickers maybe 2 inches across for the driver side rear glass. So the officer would see it on their way to your window.
It represents more than that. It also represents the insular culture of police, in which they will protect themselves from perceived outside threats – which not only include criminals, but also external critics or attempts at oversight.
Somehow the alteration of the US flag just doesn’t sit well with me. Altering the image and assigning meaning to something else just bastardizes the flag and dilutes it’s original meaning. It’s like saying America has less or no meaning and now here’s a flag or symbol that matters more to us and our cause.
