# SF police chief to replace ‘thin blue line’ masks that provoked controversy



## RodneyFarva (Jan 18, 2007)

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott is seeking "neutral" face coverings for the city's rank and file, an effort to defuse tensions after officers patrolled a May Day protest in controversial masks emblazoned with the "thin blue line" flag. Members of San Francisco Police Officers Association ordered and distributed the masks, each adorned with a flag that resembles the American flag, except it's midnight blue with a blue stripe across the middle. That blue line traditionally "represents law enforcement's separation of order and chaos," said union president Tony Montoya.

It's associated with the Blue Lives Matter movement, a display of unity and pride among police officers in reaction to Black Lives Matter. Scott acknowledged in a statement that some may perceive the symbol as "divisive and disrespectful."

Officers wore their identical flag-themed masks to oversee a demonstration in the Castro district Friday, during which two homeless women locked themselves inside a vacant house. The women sought to highlight San Francisco's affordability crisis and increase pressure on Mayor London Breed to put all homeless people in hotels amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

But to some people, the police officers, with their matching face garments, became stars of the show.

Retired American Civil Liberties Union lawyer John Crew was irate when he saw the masks, partly because of the flag, but largely because each one had a San Francisco Police Officers Association logo.

"This is two issues combined," Crew said.

"The thin blue line is a political symbol," he noted, referring to the flag and stripe. "And it's a POA-branded mask. It's like wearing a political button."

He viewed the insignia as a direct challenge to a long-standing policy that bars police from expressing political opinions while wearing their uniforms. The police union has sparred with Scott throughout his three-year tenure, though according to Crew, the power struggle between the department and the association existed long before the chief arrived.

"It makes you wonder if it was some sort of stunt and if they were trying to provoke a controversy," he said.

Montoya, the police union president, was incensed by what he saw and Scott's capitulation to "the haters who have made a cottage industry out of carping, complaining and stereotyping the police." He said the union had shown the masks to the chief's command staff, and several of them had asked for more than one.

Even without the police union branding, the blue flag and stripe are potent images that invite various interpretations. Scott described them as a sincere expression "to honor fallen police officers," a sentiment that's more fraught with meaning with so many first responders risking their lives during the pandemic.

Critics, however, perceive Blue Lives Matter as an attempt to undermine a civil rights movement and excuse violence perpetrated by police officers. Some see it as a means to classify police as a separate, superior group - one central credo of the Blue Lives Matter movement is that killing a police officer should count as a hate crime.

Scott offered to replace the masks "as an affirmation of the principle of safety with respect for all."

_Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle

OK, so let us all to recap....
Offensive: 








NOT offensive .








Offensive:








Not offensive:









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## Joel98 (Mar 2, 2011)

The pictures you posted pretty much say it all. If you’re within the accepted liberal purview (as disgusting as it may be), then you’re fine. But once you stray outside that accepted purview, then you’re racist/sexist/intolerant etc...

Those masks are cool, I want to order a couple now.


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## Sooty (Nov 1, 2018)

Those are awesome masks!


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## FAPD (Sep 30, 2007)

Freaking Califools!


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## trueblue (Jan 21, 2008)

I don’t use this word lightly in the profession I was in for 37 years and loved so much but in this case I’ll make an exception. Chief Scott you are running away and hiding from supporting your men and women when it would be so easy to do so. You took the “political route” the “safe route” and somehow forgot what the true meaning of this symbol truly is. For that you are a COWARD. Please turn in your badge, leave our profession and NEVER display a thin blue sticker on anything you own! YOU DON’T DESERVE IT!


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## LA Copper (Feb 11, 2005)

You guys may not agree but Chief Scott is a really good guy and he is definitely not a coward. He left the LAPD as a deputy chief to take the chief job in San Francisco. I've seen him stand up to some of our finer citizens at multiple OIS scenes in south Los Angeles (think Roxbury / Mattapan on steroids) where he was called all kinds of bad names in defense of his officers.

I've spoken to him a number of times and can tell you he's a good guy and a good cop. He was well liked by the rank and file when he left us. He didn't just ride up through the ranks without working the streets first. He has my time on the job so he's been here during many of the trying times in the LAPD. ( I can't say these things about all of our command staff.)

That being said, don't forget, being the police chief in a crazy liberal city like San Francisco is no easy task. Trying to please everyone, his officers, the mayor (his boss) and the citizens there is certainly no easy task. Personally, I'd like to give him a pass on this one.


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## CCCSD (Jul 30, 2017)

Scott is a CUNT.


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## trueblue (Jan 21, 2008)

LA Copper said:


> You guys may not agree but Chief Scott is a really good guy and he is definitely not a coward. He left the LAPD as a deputy chief to take the chief job in San Francisco. I've seen him stand up to some of our finer citizens at multiple OIS scenes in south Los Angeles (think Roxbury / Mattapan on steroids) where he was called all kinds of bad names in defense of his officers.
> 
> I've spoken to him a number of times and can tell you he's a good guy and a good cop. He was well liked by the rank and file when he left us. He didn't just ride up through the ranks without working the streets first. He has my time on the job so he's been here during many of the trying times in the LAPD. ( I can't say these things about all of our command staff.)
> 
> That being said, don't forget, being the police chief in a crazy liberal city like San Francisco is no easy task. Trying to please everyone, his officers, the mayor (his boss) and the citizens there is certainly no easy task. Personally, I'd like to give him a pass on this one.


LA,
I have much respect for you as I have read for years the numerous well thought out and helpful posts on MC. But on this issue we will have to agree to disagree. Scott may have been a good cop but he's the typical Chief who "forgets where they came from" I never asked much of my Chief and his/her command staff except for support when our cause and actions were right and just. Yes, Scott choose to accept the position in a very liberal city but he also choose to side with these very same liberals when he had the opportunity to stand tall, explain why these are important and time honored symbols to our profession, and back the cops on the street. He FAILED miserably and collapsed under minimal pressure from the same "critics " who come after us time and time again. He sacrificed his integrity in the name of political correctness and in my book he is a coward.


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## LA Copper (Feb 11, 2005)

True, I understand and I appreciate that. And you're right, we shall agree to disagree on this one. 

We really don't know what happened behind the scenes, whether it was minimum or maximum pressure. We really don't know what his boss told him "behind closed doors," which is one of the reasons I give him a pass on this one. 

As a deputy chief, he definitely didn't forget where he came from. He defended his officers in South LA when tempers were raising towards us at OIS scenes. He was called many names, which I won't repeat here. His officers appreciated that, as did I. 

At the chief level in a major city, it's not the same. Sometimes you're "damned if you do, damned if you don't." Chiefs can't always make everyone happy. Having been a supervisor for the last 20 years, I can understand that, although on a much smaller scale of course.


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## CCCSD (Jul 30, 2017)

Scott has bent over backwards to ensure that Gays and Lesbians run that agency, along with citizen groups, all to ensure the cops are limp wristed milque toasts, who can’t enforce anything but bias laws.

He should MAN THE FUCK UP and be a Cop, not a bitch.


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## res2244 (Feb 28, 2020)

These people don't seem to understand that Blue Lives Matter was never meant or supposed to be a "counterprotest", it was to honor the lives of the fallen men and women of blue. I was only 15 years old and beyond shocked when Officers Wenjian Liu and Raphael Ramos were brutally murdered by that psychopath with a laundry list of felonies that was "on a quest for retribution for Eric Garner". The homicide of those officers brought real traction and awareness to the sacrifices that LEO's give day after day. Quite simply every occupation has bad apples. The majority of LEO's take the oath for the right reason, a passion for public safety... it just doesnt get to their thick skulls and they riot and loot; pillaging like barbarians while quoting Martin Luther King. It's a shame this sort of daily social chaos is reoccuring and far from the Civil Rights Movement that they poorly attempt to emulate with such disillusionment and hypocrisy.


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## Inspector71 (Sep 30, 2007)

LA Copper,
You def have my respect and I think you're probably in the top 5 "wise men" on this site.
You're also 100% correct in your assessment of Bill Scott as an LAPD warrior and leader. If you say it's so, then its gospel as far as I am concerned. 
Bill Scott is now however, a Politician, loyal to his paycheck and not his troops. If we see each other at a Meet/Eat/greet
I am buying your first one. Be safe!


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## LA Copper (Feb 11, 2005)

Inspector, 
Thank you, I appreciate that. And like with Trueblue, we shall agree to disagree about Chief Scott and the mask issue.

I'd be happy to meet with you at a Meet and Greet. In fact, I'll start a thread on it now!


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## GARDA (Dec 30, 2003)

I don't agree with SFPD Chief Scott's decision to capitulate on the TBL mask issue.

He may very well have been a stud with LAPD, but it appears he left those principles in LA when he became SF Chief.
Let's not forget he didn't "inherit" this new position, he knew what he was getting into when he "applied" for it.

In an email to officers, Scott told them that while he personally considered the emblem "a meaningful expression to honor fallen officers," others consider it "divisive and disrespectful," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

That statement alone is the antithesis of a coward-politician. What he should have said is this:

The TBL flag is not, and has never been political, no matter how hard some of you with anti-LE feelings wish it to be.
The TBL flag honors our fallen dead, supports our wounded, and inspires us all to fight like hell for the living.

Believe in something,
or die for nothing.


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## Danusmc0321 (May 21, 2012)

Seems like when people get into these positions admin positions, they take the path of least resistance a lot of times. Squeaky wheel gets the grease, it's easier to have people you employ, that you have semi control over in a para military institution upset with you, than the local government and national and public media that would come along with you taking a stand. He could have been a hero to his employees, boosted moral, and his cops and union would have his back, but that is the hard path, especially is SF. I'm sure he is/was a great guy and great cop, but time and time again, respected and great cops do what's easiest for them, appeal to their bosses until they can pull the retirement parachute.


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## IamTheDude (Aug 6, 2017)




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## RodneyFarva (Jan 18, 2007)

I love that movie.


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