OR Sheriff Removes Thin Blue Line Flag from Courthouse Breakroom

After white supremacist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, displayed the Thin Blue Line flag, Multnomah County (OR) Sheriff Mike Reese announced a similar flag had been removed from a break room in the Multnomah County Courthouse.

"Thin Blue Line" flag is used to show support for law enforcement and honor officers killed in the line of duty. But some say it's been co-opted by the white nationalist movement and shows disrespect to people of color, the Oregonian reports.

The flag was in a courthouse breakroom for Sheriff's Office staff, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Chad Gaidos. A Multnomah County commissioner raised concerns about the flag to Reese earlier this week, Reese said in a statement Wednesday.

"The community concerns raised led me to ask that the flag be removed while we consider whether or not it is appropriate to display any altered United States flag inside a county-owned facility," Reese said.