Police officers in Cincinnati, Ohio, stoked tensions with groups protesting against police brutality by raising a provocative flag that represents police officers outside a law enforcement building in place of the stars and stripes.
The so-called “Blue Lives Matter” flag is a black-and-white US flag with a blue stripe replacing one white stripe. Thin Blue Line USA, the group that sells the flags, says the thin blue line represents officers in the line of duty and the black represents fallen officers.
Pictures of the flag flying outside a local justice complex went viral, stoking anger nationwide among people protesting the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, the latest case to fuel the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality.
Cincinnati, has like scores of other major cities, been the setting for protest over the last three nights which has seen protesters and officers injured.
The Cincinnati police pulled down the American flag at the justice center and replaced it with the thin blue line. Infuriating. Picture from a friend. pic.twitter.com/1bM0ovH0T6
— ✌Pokes✌ (@P0kes) May 31, 2020
On Sunday, the Hamilton county sheriff, Jim Neil, said on Twitter the American flag that usually flies outside Cincinnatti’s county justice center “was stolen during the vandalism of the Justice Center. The Thin Blue Line was raised by our deputies to honor the CPD Officer who was shot. The flag has been removed and we will replace it with the American Flag in the morning.”
Local media reported that the officer in question had been struck on his helmet by a bullet, but was not injured.
Chris Seelbach, chair of the Cincinnati city council, tweeted that the raising of the flag would make unrest worse in the city. “[It] should have been replaced with American flag immediately. Not replaced with a politically charged blue lives matter flag when thousands are protesting in our streets because #BlackLivesMatter. Sheriff Neil has only made things worse. Again.”
The flag has been a previous center of controversy.
In Portland, Oregon, last year, a government employee won $100,000 in a settlement after she alleged she was bullied by fellow employees who displayed the flag in her office. As the Associated Press reported then, in her lawsuit against Multnomah county, Karimah Guion-Pledgure said the flag demeaned the Black Lives Matter movement.
