For many years now, Taunton High School in Taunton, Massachusetts has had a “thin blue line” mural on their building. That’s a rather nice gesture, isn’t it? Having the school show its support for the men and women in uniform who risk their lives to keep the students and teachers safe seems like an inspiring way to help bring the community together, particularly in times like these. Unfortunately, while nobody seemed to pay all that much attention to the mural for quite a while, now somebody has noticed. And because we’re living in the era of “abolish the police,” the mural must go. Someone started a petition to remove it and the “Taunton Diversity Network” (TDN) is on board with it. (CBS Local)

Taunton Police will meet with school leaders about a growing controversy surrounding a mural featuring a “thin blue line” flag.

The mural, painted on a wall at Taunton High School, has been there for years.

The mural was designed to support police officers. But now, there’s a petition to take it down.

If that petition exists online, I haven’t been able to find it and none of the coverage of this story thus far includes a link. But as I said above, the Taunton Diversity Network is supporting it, while claiming to have no idea where it came from. It’s unclear if this push is coming from the students, the teachers, or just other random liberals and socialists in the community.

Whoever is doing this, I will at least give them credit for one thing. Rather than simply showing up in the middle of the night and defacing or painting over the mural (as we’ve seen in other places), they’re asking for a dialogue between the school and the police department. If they have objections to the mural, that’s the way to handle them in a respectful, adult fashion.

Why they would object in the first place is another matter. One spokesperson for the TDN tried to quickly point out that the “bad vibe” isn’t with the police themselves. (Perish the thought.) They claim to “fully support the police and the work that they do.” But she then goes on to say, “lately, that flag has been used to really promote and support white supremacy.”

Seriously? What does the thin blue line symbology have to do with white supremacy? With virtually no effort at all, I could produce a list of officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty and it includes police officers of every race, religion and gender. The thin blue line symbolizes the thin line between a peaceful, lawful society and chaos. The reason the line is “thin” is because the police are vastly outnumbered by the rest of the populace. Law and order are only maintained when a significant majority of civilians support the police and reject criminal behavior. That’s why it’s so dangerous to have swelling, vocal movements calling for the abolition of the police.

Perhaps these are some topics that could be discussed when the two sides sit down for their planned meeting. If it turns out that the message is presented properly, perhaps things could stay as they are. Or a second mural could be added to present divergent views. If, however, a significant majority are opposed to the existing mural, that would be sad, but then the mural could be replaced with something else in a dignified fashion. At least they would have opened the subject for discussion and handled the question in a proper manner.