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The 'we're this blue line that divides a top half of black (public) with a bottom half of black criminals' really isn't a message saying 'we are grieving the loss of our officer'. It says 'be grateful for us' and 'we're not the public' which is peak safer communities together
That line from Stuff btw https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/300038649/auckland-police-shooting-police-display-thin-blue-line-image-in-memory-of-officer
The phrase 'the thin blue line' has been around for about a century with regard to cops, most usually employed in copaganda depicting them as the only thing standing between the public and 'civil anarchy'.
In terms of iconography, the thin blue line has come into public consciousness through the Blue Lives Matter movement which is an unashamedly racist pro-cop anti-civil rights counter group organised to combat Black Lives Matter.
The whole idea comes from the Thin Red Line which er, is from the British Army so colonial as hell. It turned into the Thin Blue Line because the U.S army wore blue and then the cops adopted the language because it mythologises their role in society as 'heroic defender' which uhh
In my research I found this in the NZ Police Association if you're wondering what cops are telling themselves cc @cannibality
It's to be beaten over the head with messaging how important and essential the cops are and how without them society would just break down while they simultaneously just beat non-white people over the head.
See also that the Police already have a culturally appropriative symbol SPECIFICALLY TO MOURN DEAD OFFICERS but chose the blue line imagery instead. https://twitter.com/fascismdad/status/1274860680802209792?s=19
This is all borne from a friend genuinely asking what my instinctive revulsion to the cross-platform social media branding relating to an officer's death. There's so much coded into a simple blue line that you can just skim it and think it means solidarity.
Or the Sky Tower lighting blue is the same thing as this, which I don't believe it is. Sky City obvs have vested interest in keeping the protectors of their property happy, but they're not deliberately presenting something so accrued with negative meaning for so many right now.
