Let's Talk about the Calgary Police Service

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

This is where I come to it as well. I realize there's some charged language leading to people hunkering down in their positions, but in my mind:

- once the man stabbed the dog and then charged at officers with the nice, the shooting became a justified use of force
- what happened before that and the effectiveness of how it was handled should be up for debate

Sure, according to a witness, he hit someone with the stick, so there was the potential of being a threat. But, I also see the argument for why he wasn't an immediate threat to anyone in the surrounding area sitting in the middle of a police-blocked area on his knees.

I'm not going to say it was a right or wrong use of force by the police, but I will say I don't understand why it was the right use of force at that exact moment, and I'm sure others don't either (and I'm sure, despite any protestations and justifications on a keyboard, only the officers involved have a clear picture of why that is). So, I think it's a fair thing to question.

The rubber bullet shots certainly do seem like "**** waiting around for this ****, let's get this done, he's had enough time to comply", to me, but I'm no expert. And whether those initial rubber bullet shots were justified or not they definitely seemed to be the catalyst for the impending fatal confrontation.

[DownInFlames]

Calgary police officers will defy order to stop wearing 'thin blue line' patch: union

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...ne-patch-union

Wear it all you want when off-duty. Your uniform should represent your duty to serve others.

[btimbit]

Can someone more in the know tell me what the issue is with the whole thin blue line thing? It's a saying I've heard all my life and never really heard many issues with the whole 'what stands between good and evil' thing, I just figured it for a harmless moral booster. Do people just take exception that it can come across as us vs them mentality? Or is it another case of something that used to mean one thing and now just means something else and I've just never heard the new meaning?

[DownInFlames]

I'm sure for a lot of cops it's meant to just show esprit de corps but it seemed to become more prevalent after BLM became a thing so many people see it as an "us vs them" symbol. It's not as bad as the Punisher logo but I think it doesn't belong on the uniform as long as it causes anyone to feel like cops are not on their side.

[timun]

Originally it was meant as you described, "what stands between good and evil", but since... about as long as I can remember, back to the early '90s at least, it's also been used as a euphemism for some police officers' "code of silence" about their own misconduct. The idea that "thin blue line" not only stands between "good" and "evil", but between fellow cops and anyone else. In such a case, it insinuates that cops = "good" and the rest of us = "evil" that they have to protect each other from, and when cops start viewing the rest of the populace as "evil" or "the enemy", well... you get itchy trigger fingers and pieces of #### like Derek Chauvin.

It's also something that a lot of fascists and other far-right groups have glommed onto. That whole idea of "law & order" over a "just" society that happens to be mostly white and Christian...

[btimbit]

Kinda seems like an odd ACAB mentality to get upset over it, but DownInFlames mentioning adding extra things to the uniform being unnecessary seems fair enough to me, especially if it' something that can be deemed offensive

Disclaimer again being there's definitely just something here I'm not understanding

[Krovikan]

It's not complicated, the Thin Blue Line flag is a racist copy of the Firefighter flag for down firefighters, it's a symbol for the Blue Lives Matter movement.

It didn't exist before the racist Blue Lives Matter movement, there is no past history, it's just pure anti-black bigotry.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Krovikan

It's not complicated, the Thin Blue Line flag is a racist copy of the Firefighter flag for down firefighters, it's a symbol for the Blue Lives Matter movement.

It didn't exist before the racist Blue Lives Matter movement, there is no past history, it's just pure anti-black bigotry.

It did exist before that, I've heard the term since the 90's.

Blue lives matter is dumb, I agree, and if that is indeed some meaning people are now associating with the thin blue line then I understand being upset about it

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by btimbit

It did exist before that, I've heard the term since the 90's.

Blue lives matter is dumb, I agree, and if that is indeed some meaning people are now associating with the thin blue line then I understand being upset about it

The term existed before. The flag concept is from 2014.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Thin_blu...reater%20Black

[btimbit]

Got it. So it's now being associated with the whole 'Blue Lives Matter' crap. In that context I definitely understand people being annoyed by it, and then I agree, it should go

[Krovikan]

Originally Posted by btimbit

It did exist before that, I've heard the term since the 90's.



Blue lives matter is dumb, I agree, and if that is indeed some meaning people are now associating with the thin blue line then I understand being upset about it

When I looked into it while debating with someone who was flying it in Mahogany and made the community upset it was some guy who created it for the Blue Lives Matter group.

Thin Blue Line has been a phrase forever, but there hasn't been a flag. And historically Police officers wore a band around their badge to represent a down officer, not a flag.

I did not find anything earlier than Blue Lives Matter protests for this racist flag.

[Krovikan]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Got it. So it's now being associated with the whole 'Blue Lives Matter' crap. In that context I definitely understand people being annoyed by it, and then I agree, it should go

No, it's not now being associated with, it was created as an anti-black flag.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Krovikan

No, it's not now being associated with, it was created as an anti-black flag.

See, this is why there's no dialogue on the internet anymore. I asked a question to try and gain understanding and through that came around to agreeing with the other viewpoint, but you're being a condescending dick

[Krovikan]

Originally Posted by btimbit

See, this is why there's no dialogue on the internet anymore. I asked a question to try and gain understanding and through that came around to agreeing with the other viewpoint, but you're being a condescending dick

It's a racist flag, it always has been, it always will be... If me stating that is me being a dick, then fine, I'll happily be a dick and not support racism... What a dumb post...

[Deviaant]

..

[btimbit]

nvm

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Krovikan

It's a racist flag, it always has been, it always will be... If me stating that is me being a dick, then fine, I'll happily be a dick and not support racism... What a dumb post...

Got it, I'll refrain from asking questions in the future, no room for understanding here. Guess I'm just a dumb racist

[Krovikan]

I did not see anyone call you a racist, mistake n sure, but I had not enough information to call you a racist. I only called the flag a racist flag, because it is.

There is a lot of white washing and Blue Live Matters BS that goes on with this flag, so it's understandable to have confusion around it. There was also a phrase that it uses that existed previously and the firefighter flag that is similar, which can also make the history more convoluted.

[btimbit]

Fair enough. I was just looking for a conversation, but your posts came across as a lecture instead

[#-3]

I've thought of the thin blue line thing as a way of expressing that cops will protect cops, not explicitly saying it but still implying and justice is not equal for officers because the enforcement arm of the law will rally around them. It's kind of like all of those back in blue stickers indicating certain vehicles are exempt from traffic enforcement.

To me it's a shockingly cynical statement, and the last time I was in the southern US is was pretty disturbing to see the shear number of thin blue line / thin red line flags. Telling me the enforcement arm of the state puts a much lower value on those of us who aren't part of their club.