by mapi
Ever wonder where all those Blue Lives Matter Flags are coming from?
A recent Tweet by Newton City Councilor Bill Humphrey, revealed that our “depraved state prison labor system” is producing and selling Thin Blue Line flags at a profit.
Mass Cor Industries from Milford, Massachusetts uses prison labor to manufacture and sell Thin Blue Line flags.
Their slogan proudly proclaims, “everything MassCor makes is hand crafted and hand assembled right here in Massachusetts!” Makes you feel proud to be an American, knowing Thin Blue Line flags are hand crafted by prisoners, doesn’t it?
Mass Cor Industries is just another word for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, as their history page explains.
“The Department of Correction made a commitment to reconstitute the correctional industries program, which was rebranded as MassCor, shorthand for Massachusetts Correction Industries. MassCor teaches the importance of work ethics and vocational skills to approximately 500 offenders. MassCor operates 17 manufacturing operations within seven institutions.”
The Department of Corrections claims that forcing 500 prisoners to make Blue Lives Matter flags provides prisoners with “a job related skill set.”
Who here believes ex-con’s will be able to make a living, producing Blue Lives Matter flags once they are released from prison?
This story takes a truly bizarre twist when The Patriot Ledger revealed that Hingham, MA., firefighters refused an order to remove Thin Blue Line flags from their fire trucks last week.
“Fire Chief Steve Murphy and Police Chief Glenn Olsson explained in a letter to personnel that the blue and black flags, which are black-and-white versions of the American flag with a single blue line in the center, will have to be removed from where they’ve flown atop Hingham fire trucks after a citizen complaint. Murphy and Olsson say the flags are now in violation of a long-standing town policy that forbids displaying any political messaging on town property.”
“At this time, the Hingham Firefighters of Local 2398 respectfully request the town reconsider their decision to deem these flags as political statements. Otherwise, we regret to inform you that over the past four days no member of Local 2398 was able to sacrifice his or her moral fortitude in order to remove the flags from the apparatus,” Melanson said. “As we said before, our support for our brothers and sisters in blue is unwavering. The flags have continued to fly with honor every day. They will have to be removed by someone other than a member of this union, the president of Hingham’s fire union, Lt. Chris Melanson, said”
It takes a certain type of moral fortitude to even display a Thin Blue Line flag in America during Black Lives Matter protests.
Today, the Massachusetts Firefighters Union announced that they would take Hingham’s Thin Blue Line flag and display it across the state.
“The Professional Fire Fighters Association of Massachusetts will now send one of the flags to unions around the state to be hung in a show of solidarity with police officers. The flag will be presented to Sergeant Chesna’s family after the tour.”
The wife of fallen Weymouth police officer Sgt. Michael Chesna, claims police reform bills and removing Thin Blue Line flags is “showing the utmost disrespect.”
“Now, those same politicians are showing the utmost disrespect to our officers with this reform bill and even a certain town (with the agreement of both the fire chief and police chief) are disrespecting our officers by demanding that the Thin Blue Line flag be removed from their fire trucks, Cindy Chesna said.”
Earlier this year, the Boston Herald revealed that Massachusetts police officers showed up for a Trump Rally wearing “Cops For Trump 2020” T shirts.
“He stands up for law enforcement. It’s really, really great to get that type of support from a president,” said Chuck Vella, who said he works for the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department.
Sgt. Todd Testa of the Milford Police Department said, he likes “to have someone who really supports law enforcement” in the White House. “It makes me feel good.”
It’s time to demand an end to manufacturing Thin Blue Lives and Blue Lives Matter flags, especially in light of the demonstrations against police racism and abuse going on across the country. Doing so would show the utmost respect for people of color everywhere
Why not do some soul-searching and embrace the public’s desire for national police reform in words and deeds instead of claiming that removing Blue Lives Matter flags from taxpayer paid vehicles is a sacrifice to their member’s moral fortitude or that police reform is the utmost disrespect?