Met oficers seen wearing divisive ‘thin blue line’ symbol at sensitive protests despite orders to remove them

Metropolitan police officers are openly defying orders not to wear badges appropriated by the far right and linked to white supremacy.

In July, the force’s chief, Mark Rowley, banned officers from wearing the “thin blue line” badge saying that in the US an equivalent symbol had been used by “hard-right groups”.

However, images have emerged of Met officers wearing the symbol late last month as they policed a stand-off between LGBTQ+ rights supporters and a rightwing group over a drag act’s performance at the Honor Oak pub in Lewisham, south London.

  • @talEnglish
    1•8 months ago

    Ironically, the term was apparently derived from a British one.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_blue_line

    The phrase originated as an allusion to the British infantry regiment The Thin Red Line during the Crimean War in 1854, wherein the regiment of Scottish Highlanders—wearing red uniforms—famously held off a Russian cavalry charge.