You Aren’t Batman: The Problem With the Thin Blue Line.

Josh Bobbitt
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

The wave of rage struck me in Costco, somewhere between a sample of CoQ10 and the giant bags of rice. It was just a t-shirt. On a man.

It might be a t-shirt that you’ve seen before. There was an American flag. It was all in black and white, save a single blue stripe. And there, just below the flag, Batman. It was in the same style as a sticker I had recently seen on a truck. An exaggerated skull, the logo of The Punisher, overlaid with a flag. The same black and white motif. The same blue stripe.

And I came a little unhinged (or as unhinged as I come). My wife will verify. I can usually take things as they come. I couldn’t take this one as it came.

If you’re not sure what I’m referring to here, check out Wikipedia’s description”

“The Thin Blue Line is a symbol used by law enforcement, originating in the United Kingdom but now prevalent in the United States and Canada to commemorate fallen and to show support for the living law enforcement officers and to symbolize the relationship of law enforcement in the community as the protectors of fellow civilians from criminal elements… The term came into broad use after the release of Errol Morris’ 1988 documentary film The Thin Blue Line, about the murder of a Dallas Police officer Robert W Wood. Judge Don Metcalfe who presided over the trial of Randall Adams, states in the film, that prosecutor Doug Mulder’s final argument was one I’d never heard before: about the ‘thin blue line’ of police that separate the public from anarchy.”

I’ve been trying to sort out my rage for at least two weeks, and I think I’ve finally come to some conclusions.

First — there’s the chilling underlying message of the “thin blue line” imagery. It’s an intensely grim view of human nature, and I just don’t believe it. More than that, it feels like such a dog whistle. It feels like a way to signal to white people that the police exist as a bulwark against the potential incursions of the criminal horde of black and brown people. I don’t think I’m overreacting. I could link dozens of narratives of detailed stories where black men are cast as hulk-like animals, where the officers always feared for the lives, and I’ll contrast that with the Minneapolis police chief’s resignation after the shooting of an unarmed white woman. If I’m a person of color, the message feels loud and clear. Right or wrong, good intentions or not, the message just feels so utterly tone deaf. Looking back, I think part of my fury was rooted in that tone deafness.

Second — there’s Batman. Batman’s had his ups and downs with the police, but Batman, fundamentally, is a vigilante. The Punisher is a vigilante. They operate outside the law, and they’re very often pursued by the police for working outside the bounds of due process. Due process exists because we believe that everyone has a right to it. By positioning yourself as Batman, or as the Punisher, you’re sending a message — that some people are so criminal that they do not deserve due process. Again — if I weren’t a white person, I would know exactly what that meant, and exactly who you were saying wasn’t worthy of due process.

I do, of course, have to do a comic book aside here. I’m well aware that Batman doesn’t kill, and the role that plays in the mythology of Batman. I get it, and I don’t think it’s the salient point here. The mythology doesn’t matter as much as the message — the implicit threat of violence outside the due process of the law.

And as my emotions about all of this calmed, I realized the last source of my rage. Choosing this message, and this way to represent yourself doesn’t do you any favors. I just cannot see how it earns any good will, or builds in bridges with communities of color, who have been disproportionately the victims of police violence. I believe that most police officers are fundamentally good humans. That’s been my experience with every police officer that I’ve known as a person, and I believe that’s true about the vast, vast majority of police officers, and wearing a shirt like this, or putting a sticker on your car just feels so underneath the dignity of being a police officer. I believe that police officers can be part of our country’s healing, and a message like this feels like ripping open a wound.

Instead of ripping that wound, I was hoping for some solutions.

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