On the Thin Blue Line

It is interesting how symbols, such as the Thin Blue Line, come to be. The Thin Blue

Line came to common usage through a grass roots movement. It wasn’t designed or

designated by some central authority, rather it was discovered and embraced by

everyday Police Officers all over the world. It resonates strongly with many members.

We see in the Thin Blue Line ties to deep values. It is not only a representation of the

things we hold dear, but an aspiration. A symbol like this should also call us to be better

as Police Officers.

One of the critiques of the Thin Blue Line is that it represents an “us vs them” mentality.

Critics say that it places cops separate from the community, and in opposition to it. This

is an overly simplistic way to look at it. The reality is that this “Thin Blue Line” is the

razor thin line between order and disorder, calm and chaos, harmony and anarchy.

Maybe, most importantly, it represents the line between Good and Evil.

Police officers know evil. We have seen it. We have spoken with it. We have been up

close and personal with it. In our struggle to comprehend it, there is a temptation to

personify it, and center it, in the souls of specific people. This is the wrong way to look

at evil.

Our critics do not understand this. In our struggle to articulate what we have

experienced; they have misunderstood the nature of this “line”. The talk of “badguys”,

and “crackheads” give rise to this misunderstanding. It is very important that we have a

clear head and understand, as Police officers, where this line between good and evil

truly runs.

We see this line running down the middle of our city streets where, were it not for

enforcement, more collisions would bring untold damage, injuries, and death. We see

this line running through a quiet neighbourhood, preventing everyday people from

getting robbed, assaulted, or worse. We see this line running through the middle of a

family, stuck in a chaos beyond their control, that has spilled over into conflict. We see

this line running through the life of a single person, who struggles unsuccessfully with

serious metal health or addiction. And in moments when we are truly honest, we see

this line running much closer to home.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Soviet writer and novelist. He served as a Captain in the

red army during World War II. Near the end of the War, he was arrested for criticizing

Stalin in a private letter. This resulted in his conviction and sentence to a decade in a

Soviet prison camp.

Now Solzhenitsyn knew evil. He later wrote about the worst atrocities he witnessed the

Red Army commit in Germany. He had been sent unjustly to a forced labour camp and

was subject to all the worst that humanity has to offer. The interesting thing about it

was, that during his time in prison, Solzhenitsyn decided to go back over his life and

figure out everything he had done wrong that had led him there. Later in life he was

released and wrote many books including The Gulag Archipelago, a book which was

partially responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union.

After having experience evil of the type most of us can only imagine, Solzhenitsyn had

this to say. Writing in The Gulag Archipelago, “It was granted me to carry away from my

prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential

experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of

youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the

surfeit of power I was a murderer, and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was

convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments.

And it was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the

first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating

good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between

political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all

human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within

hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the

best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.”

It can be difficult for me to admit the line runs down the center of my own heart. I know

for sure, that in my career, I have not always been on the good side of that line. That

realization is very difficult. The nights are long, some people are just horrible, and it can

be so tempting to, just by default, consider yourself the good-guy. It’s sometimes in the

small things. The overly harsh words for someone I thought deserved it. In the small

shortcut that makes it a little easier to complete a call. Being on the good side of the line

is definitely not the default setting. It takes work. It takes paying attention. It is hard.

But we don’t do this job because it is easy. We do this job because it is necessary. It is

required. We need the few standing on the Thin Blue Line. And if we are sincerely

meaning to stand on the Thin Blue Line, we must always choose the good…