Thin Blue Line: Fairy Creek vs Lyell Island

De Clarke/Cortes Currents - When Justice Douglas Thompson refused to extend an injunction against old-growth defenders blocking a logging road at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, his decision made headlines around the world.

Justice Thompson referred explicitly in his decision to “enforcement […] carried out by police officers rendered anonymous to the protesters, many of those police officers wearing ‘thin blue line’ badges.” The significance of this language may not be clear to every reader; but the judge’s reasoning was important — to more than just the struggle over the fate of the pathetic remnants (one or two percent) of BC’s old-growth forests.

The judge raised crucial and timely questions about the culture and practise of police work.

The “thin blue line” symbol worn by police officers has a long history. Derived from the “thin red line” of Scottish Highlanders who stood their ground in terrifying circumstances during the Crimean War, by 1922 the phrase had been used in the US to describe police officers. By the early 50’s, LAPD police chief Bill Parker used it often as a rhetorical device, conceptualising the police force as “the thin blue line” that stands its ground between a virtuous citizenry and an onslaught of violence and anarchy.

Today the symbol has acquired less heroic meanings. In 2018 a law review article noted that it can mean the code of silence by which police officers cover up for each other’s misconduct. And by 2014 it had become the rallying symbol of “Blue Lives Matter,” a backlash directed against the Black Lives Matter protests.

In the context of intensifying protests against racial bias in policing, and specifically against the murders of Black Americans by their own police forces, the Thin Blue Line quickly became associated with anti-BLM sentiment and hence with American White Supremacist ideology. White Supremacists began to display the symbol on their web sites and in person, at rallies and marches.

RCMP ban on wearing of the symbol by on-duty officers
Police officers are in general not encouraged to modify their uniforms by adding “loyalty symbols” of any other organisation or group. Recognising the inflammatory potential of the Thin Blue Line symbol, RCMP in October 2020 issued a directive banning officers on duty from wearing the symbol. In response, the police union defied orders by providing its members with Thin Blue Line patches to wear.

Individual municipalities such as Victoria and Saanich have felt the need for directives banning the wearing of the controversial emblem. RCMP officers throughout Canada continue, however, to defy the October 2020 ban. Many of the officers arresting (and mistreating) protesters at Fairy Creek were seen by eyewitnesses and in photographs wearing the Thin Blue Line badge.

The editorial continues in the podcast

Photo credit: RCMP E Division headquarters in Surrey, BC by Waferboard via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)