Mount Prospect, Illinois – When the Mount Prospect Police Department began wearing a new patch in 2017, they would have never imagined the controversy that would emerge three years later. Granted, calling it controversy feels pretty dumb but here we are again talking about how a “thin blue line” makes others feel unsafe.
It does seem odd that no one seemed to care in 2017 or at just about any other time in history. Not to repeat the same history lesson that no one seems to be listening to but a thin blue line has nothing to do with anything in law enforcement other than a ceremonial expression of honoring fallen officers.
In an old and tired “woke” complaint, the Mount Prospect Police Department came under fire from a few really stupid people because they believe the thin blue line represents racism or any number of make believe items they are told on Twitter.
Don’t get us wrong.
When others say they “feel unsafe” around a thin blue line, we believe them.
But when did society begin listening to insane people and developing policy around those insane tirades?
Well, politicians in Mount Prospect do and in August, they voted to remove the patch from the department.
What happened next, should be proof positive that insanity never stops and it is time to stop listening to any of it.
The department gathered the patches from the uniforms and sold them for charity.
Chief James Koziol told the Chicago Tribune that it “was is one way to make a positive out of a negative.”
In a statement on the village website, Koziol explained that he proposed the sale as an alternative to the union fighting the issue and they hoped to raise $15,000 to $20,000 dollars for charity. That charity, 100 Club of Illinois, is a nonprofit group in Chicago that donates proceeds, including college scholarships, to families of officers and firefighters who die in the line of duty.
Unfortunately, Chief Koziol thought he woke up in 2019 because nothing masked sense to those bent on providing 24/7 outrage.
Like one women in Arlington Heights that told the Tribune it was “infuriating” that the sale of the patch to benefit charity protected a symbol that she said made people of color feel unwelcome or unsafe.
After all, that’s how equity works.
Apparently, the opinion of this lady far outweighs the facts as law enforcement has known for 99 years and the opinion of all others.
The first documented description of “thin blue line” occurred in 1922, when New York City Police Commissioner Richard Enright, used the term to describe members of the New York City Police Department who wore blue uniforms. The imagery took on new life in 2014 when NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Raphael Ramos were brutally murdered while sitting in their patrol car.
For decades, the symbol has represented honoring the profession along with the men and women that have sacrificed everything to protect even the most outrageous of those in society….even those that are scared over a blue line.
This ridiculous issue certainly isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. We have published countless articles over the years of one stupid decision after another and if Mount Prospect has taught us anything, it is that crazy people will never be happy with the actions of law enforcement and that politicians could never get by in a real job with the incompetence and cowardice they show on a daily basis.
