Professor Pushes for College to Remove Thin Blue Line Flags, Local Police Leader Objects

The College of DuPage, in  Glen Ellyn, Illinois, is being asked by some to remove thin blue line flags from campus, including possibly one that is a memorial to a fallen local police officer, Raymond Murrell.

Frank Giammarese, the director of public safety for the Bloomingdale Police Department, in a college board of trustees meeting said he learned that members of the public and a full-time criminal justice professor at the school voiced concerns during a tour. The professor he named says that the allegations by Giammarese about his wanting to remove the memorial are not true.

That same professor is reported to have submitted a letter to the board of trustees in a meeting that alleged the thin blue line symbol has been used by white supremacists, and in opposition to Black Lives Matter.

The flags and other artwork depicting the thin-blue line flags are on display at the school, which also houses the Homeland Security Education Center (HEC).

Members of the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy, an agency that trains law enforcement and public safety officials, have displayed thin blue line flag material in office spaces and within a memorial for fallen police officers on the second floor of the HEC, reported The Courier .

At the Collee of DuPage’s September 21 board of trustees meeting, Giammarese said removal of the flag depictions and in particular from the memorial for the fallen officer would be a dishonor to police and Murrell’s service. The 27-year-old officer was killed in a car crash while responding to a retail theft call in January 2017.

If the school chooses to remove the flags, Giammarese says he will remove his agency’s support for the academy, not sending recruits to the 16-week training program.

“If the College of DuPage decides to take this police memorial down and this police flag down, I will take every resource out of the academy,” Giammarese said. “I will not allow another potential probationary police officer to be part of this academy. That’s how much that means to us.”