Pro-Police Flag Banned at HS Football Games After Being Declared ‘Racist’

There are certainly problems with the policing system here in the United States, and we would be foolish to ever believe that improvements are not needed.  But the overwhelming belief of the liberal left that policing as a whole must be replaced, defunded, removed, abolished, or otherwise nuked is a dangerous and polarizing idea.

Of course, any subject deemed to be the least bit polarizing finds itself turbocharged in an election year, which has brought this issue of law enforcement to the forefront of the national conversation. Americans are wearing their hearts on their sleeves in 2020, likely due to the despondency of feeling as though you’re living through the end of the world day after day.  This has meant that both supporters and opponents of the current policing system have been publicly pledging their allegiance to one side or the other for months.

This, too, has led to confrontations and controversy.

A thin blue line flag has been banned by a local high school in Neptune Beach, Florida following a series of complaints that circulated on social media, according to a report by News4Jax.

According to the outlet, the Fletcher High School football team started carrying the pro-law enforcement flag last year, as a way for one of its players, Caelan Lavender, to honor his late father, Cpl. Andy Lavender. Mr. Lavender was a Jacksonville Beach police officer who unexpectedly passed away in August 2019 after 29 years in law enforcement, and was active in sports programs.

The school quickly put the kibosh on that gesture.

As a result of the backlash, Fletcher High School’s principal, Dean Ledford, issued a statement announcing the flag would be banned.

“The flag, which is known as the Thin Blue Line flag, has different meaning for different people, and rather than representing the young man’s personal feelings, it was being interpreted as a political statement of the team and of the school,” Ledford said. “In consultation with the coaches, I determined that the act of using this flag in this personal way, while in the context of the football game opening ceremony, could easily be construed as representing a political position of our school and not just the personal feelings of the student and his teammates. Therefore, I have determined that it is no longer appropriate to continue.”

Those upset with the team’s use of the flag had been extremely vocal online, even going so far as to declare the thin blue line flag “openly racist”.