‘Liberals’ rule flag is racist! by Don Frost

            You’re a thoughtful citizen who has been watching police being vilified as “racist pigs” and “Gestapo-like thugs.” You know that some police officers are, indeed, racists and some abuse their authority. But you also realize that common sense dictates that most cops are decent human beings doing a tough and dangerous job and you’d like to show support for them. So you buy a “thin blue line” flag.

            This is a black and white American flag with a blue line across the center. You fly it in recognition of the work police do to keep you, your home, and your community safe. You fly it proudly because it’s an important message you want to share with your neighbors. It’s simply this: Support the police because without them, man’s worst instincts would be the norm and no one would be safe.

            Turns out, what you think doesn’t matter a whit. You might regard your reasons for flying that flag as benign, civic-minded, and even noble. Forget it.  “Liberals” know you’re really a racist and that’s why you fly the flag.

            The Evanston Public Library in suburban Chicago was promoting an upcoming lecture on police reform. As part of its promotional efforts the library displayed a thin blue line flag. The image also appeared on signs and a book. All were taken down after a staff member alerted library officials to the “fact” that it was racist.

            Executive director of the library, Karen Danczak-Lyons, immediately apologized and endorsed the “liberal” judgement that the flag was racist: “This image,” she said in a statement, “can be and is [my emphasis added] harmful, so we apologize to our community. We acknowledge the harm this image has caused in our community, particularly for those who identify as black, indigenous, or [people of color].”

            One cannot escape the fear that the library’s lecture, by a Northwestern University professor, will be an exercise in maligning the police, culminating in a call to further hobble them. That, inevitably, is what happens when people talk about “police reform.”  Check it out. It’s set for Nov. 2.