A police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota shot and killed 20-year old Daunte Wright Sunday afternoon. Police Chief Tim Gannon Monday afternoon told reporters and local activists the officer meant to fire her taser, calling it an “an accidental discharge” of her gun.
The Brooklyn Center police station flies a thin blue line flag. That flag has numerous connotations, but is meant to show unyielding loyalty and solidarity to police officers – not to the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect.
Minnesota Star Tribune reporter Andy Mannix posted a short clip showing the flag flying.
There are two versions of the thin blue line flag, one black with a blue line and one of an American flag with a thin blue line.
The Marshall Project published “The Short, Fraught History of the ‘Thin Blue Line’ American Flag,” saying the “controversial version of the U.S. flag has been hailed as a sign of police solidarity and criticized as a symbol of white supremacy.” It’s unclear if the black background thin blue line flag falls into that category, although the largest seller of thin blue line flags offers a version that is the black background with a blue stripe.
It’s not known how long that flag has been flying but it does appear in an undated Google Streetview photo.
Here’s how some are responding to the thin blue line flag flying at Brooklyn Center: