Pennsylvania township can’t ban 'thin blue line' flag, federal judge rules
Pennsylvania township can’t ban 'thin blue line' flag, federal judge rules
Springfield Township cannot ban municipal employees from displaying the "thin blue line" flag, a federal judge ruled Monday.
It's a hate flag, no less than the Confederate or Nazi flags, but they're allowed too — in your window at home, or on the bumper of your personal car.
This, though, is vile —
… Tensions began when the Springfield Township Police Department incorporated the “thin blue line” flag into its official logo in 2021. ...
Just need to make it shameful to fly it. Spam the internet with "patriotic" posts about our flag is Red, white and blue. Give people shit that their flag is disrespectful to our troops since the red signifies the blood of our armed forces that protect us. Make it the equivalent of kneeling for a flag.
And start calling theirs a quilt.
Pigs in a blanket
Trying to shame authoritarians into doing anything is always a losing strategy. They're not capable of shame because they're not capable of seeing themselves as doing anything wrong.
Make em think it's gay then. Next pride parade should reappropriate it as a American LGBT Unity flag. They'll run, not walk, to the nearest fire to burn all their flags/decals/shirts.
It's absolutely a hate flag. It represents their support for police brutality and outright murder. Little more than a gang sign.
And it's not even as bad as the fucking Punisher skull. "But why skulls, though?"
I love that the actual Punisher comics denounced police using that symbol.
It represents loyalty between police, not loyalty to the law, not to their oaths, not to the public: just to other cops. It's an omerta; "blood of my blood."
It's antithetical to the role of police as officers of the law.
They aren't soldiers in a trench. Their loyalty has to be to the public trust before it's ever to "every other cop, just because they are cops."
Springfield Twp is largely progressive, I hadn't even noticed that our police had added the thin blue line to their logo. This doesn't represent the majority of people here, just the cops, whose biggest on-the-job risk is that someone might get in line ahead of them at Wawa.
Pretty sure the majority wouldn't agree with what that flag stands for if they knew. If it's part of the official police department logo, though, it represents everyone in town.
You know we probably should have all see this coming when we told cops that they literally didn't need to serve communities and that their job was not to protect it even enforce laws equally but to make money.
All cops are now just 9-5ers with the right to use guns against people they dislike dealing with. Like a gas station employee with the right to kill.
honestly since we're just handing out licenses to kill we should give them to wait staff at restaurants and retail employees. Not the managers just the employees.
Do iiiiit
Like a gas station employee with the right to kill.
That would be fun.
I live in a Midwest city of 2 million people, and almost all of our police cars have a thin blue line sticker.
Yikes.
Did they choose black and blue to symbolize the color you'll be after they're though with you?
What you put on public property isn't free speech, what the fuck? God our system of justice is so fucking broken.
I feel like this is because it's essentially a poster. It's not a real flag, it's a poster for losers. I actually prefer to allow it so I know who the window lickers are.
In general, I am happy to give people the right to express themselves in awful ways because it is supposed to mean that everyone's free speech is protected, but this isn't quite as easy:
Springfield’s commissioners voted, 5-2, to ban the flag’s display by any township employee who was on duty, as well as on township property and vehicles.
(re-ordered)
... saying that the flag had become central to tensions between marginalized communities and law enforcement, and adding that it had been adopted by white nationalists since its introduction.
That seems fair, but was probably too restrictive. They should have banned all kinds of extraneous messaging.
District Judge Karen Marston wrote in Monday’s ruling that the Springfield’s ban was an “unconstitutional restriction on employee speech under the First Amendment,” which “protects speech even when it is considered ‘offensive.’”
This sort of thing generally escalates and gets picky -- down to "you must wear your uniform and nothing else" and then they get exceptions for wedding rings, crosses, hair bands, glasses, jewelry, and then people wear pins of the 'banned' item but since it is jewelry it becomes hard to argue that certain jewelry is OK but some isn't.
They should still be able to completely disallow 'defacing' of their public propert (vehicles, etc.).
Practically an antisocial gang symbol, yet ironically as you would expect, with little wars and starvation going on people find new reasons to get angry
- acquire a thin blue line flag
- take a shit on it.
- photograph and share
Aquire is the important word here. Don't give money to anybody who makes the white supremacy flags.
- Return the flag.
Draw some art on it lol
I've never understood why some people are so proud of being the thin blue line that divides the USA
I guess boot leather is just that delicious.
Believing that banning a piece of fabric will stop police oppression is, ironically, encouraging such oppression by coercively violating the right to private property and freedom of expression.
From the article:
Springfield Township officials banned its employees from displaying the flag on township property in January...
It has nothing to do with private property. I think it might be a slight bit fucked to walk into a Township courthouse and have the secretary flying a Nazi or Confederate flag. This is really no different. It certainly would deter me if I wanted to report excessive force if half the township was flying a flag that basically signaled that they believe the police no matter what. I don't see how banning the display as a public employee, at the place where you work as a public employee, is infringing on anyone's privately held freedom of expression.
See you're completely correct, and there's literally no coherent argument against your point. How the fuck do we have federal judges who come to other conclusions?
Suppose police officers on duty were flying a flag with the burger king logo? Wouldn't the town be justified in prohibiting it? They can fly whatever they want on their own time and property, but not with public money.
Now what if they were flying a Republican flag while on duty? Not saying they're the same, but the thin blue line flag is political in nature, and it's inappropriate for an officer on duty to be advocating for political positions.
I don't think we should ban flags
I think we should ban hate flags on government logos and stationery.
I agree, my fault for not actually reading the article
Headline could be misleading, but it was a ban on police and municipal employees not private citizens.
Tensions began when the Springfield Township Police Department incorporated the “thin blue line” flag into its official logo in 2021.
Springfield Township officials banned its employees from displaying the flag on township property in January, saying that the flag had become central to tensions between marginalized communities and law enforcement, and adding that it had been adopted by white nationalists since its introduction.
Springfield officers displayed variations of the flag on pins, clothing, bumper stickers, and other personal items — even on rubber replacement wedding rings, according to the lawsuit. They also displayed the flag at department events, which took place on township property.
Oh, I hate misleading headlines. Yeah, I think that's fair.
They could have just enforced the law that's already on the books.
“Whoever knowingly casts contempt upon any flag of the United States by publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning, or trampling upon it shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.”
Of course they would have to find some kind of cop that was actually interested in enforcing a law of some sort.
It’s a hate flag, no less than the Confederate or Nazi flags
This is why people don’t take this shit serious.
You'll notice you're at -10 and dropping.
Is that at all an indicator that you might be incorrect? Or is the whole world full of clowns graced by your intellect?