A police-themed flag is being returned to the Connecticut state Capitol after it was taken down earlier this week following concerns it was not respectful of the Black Lives Matter movement.
State Rep. Brandon McGee, D-Hartford, requested the handmade Thin Blue Line Flag be removed but dropped his opposition Thursday after meeting with John Krupinsky, the president of the Connecticut Fraternal Order of Police.
Krupinsky told the Hartford Courant the flag, which has the design of an American flag with a blue line replacing a white stripe, represents officers who have died in the line of duty. The flag became controversial after it appeared alongside Confederate flags and Nazi flags at a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
"We reject, in the strongest possible terms, any association of our flag with racism, hatred, and bigotry,” Thin Blue Line USA, one company that manufacturers the flags, said in a written statement at the time. “To use it in such a way tarnishes what it and our nation believe in. The thin blue line flag stands for the sacrifice law enforcement officers of this nation make each day. We ask our nation to hold faith with those that defend the thin blue line.”
Republicans had earlier called for the flag to be returned and said that its purpose was misunderstood.
