.

Originally the term referred to a real thin red line in Crimea, over which someone could not pass, because of muskets and bayonets – and men with guts behind them. It referred to the “thin red line of heroes,” the red-coated Sutherland Highlanders, who repelled a Russian cavalry charge at the Battle of Balaclava, October 25, 1854.

We used to value this “thin red line” only in wartime, but then soon forget the heroes and how much we owe them. As Kipling put it:

Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,

By extension, we now refer to a thin blue line, the defunded, understaffed, underequipped, emasculated police who stand between us and violent anarchy. True, the symbol is sometimes misused by racists. So what? The cross was misused by the KKK. Must we get rid of the cross? The dollar sign was misused by scam artists like Sam Bankman Fried. Must we pay the rent in euros?

Los Angeles Chief of Police Moore, as woke as the next guy, has banned thin blue line decals from use by LAPD. This is akin to the Methodist Church banning use of the cross because bigots have misused it. No. The answer is to continue using the symbol for the noble purposes it was intended, not to erase it in cowardly submission to woke enemies who will never be satisfied until the entire police department is neutralized or disbanded. We’ll never please them, so why even try?