Vancouver police officer is directed to remove Star of David patch from uniform
(vancouversun.com)
from CaractacusPotts@lemmy.ca to world@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 19:11
https://lemmy.ca/post/15539760
from CaractacusPotts@lemmy.ca to world@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 19:11
https://lemmy.ca/post/15539760
#world
threaded - newest
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Vancouver police say an officer has been told to remove from his uniform a patch that shows the Star of David.
An image of the officer wearing the black patch that includes the star and white bars, similar to the Israeli flag, was posted on social media on Thursday.
The Vancouver Police Department replied to the posting on the social media platform X on Friday.
It says the patch is not an approved part of the VPD uniform and the officer has been directed to take it off.
A report to the board said the thin blue line patch was worn to express solidarity among officers but its use had generated “controversy and concern” among the community, including Indigenous advisers who perceived it as a “dividing line.”
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The original article contains 252 words, the summary contains 162 words. Saved 36%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
A member of the police cannot wear a symbol of genocide as part of their uniform.
It’d be like wearing a KKK patch in the American south.
The star of David is a Jewish symbol. The Jewish religion is separate from the Israeli government. The government may be committing genocide in the name of the religion, but that doesn’t mean the entire religion is genocidal.
Cool.
So you’d be OK with a cop wearing a Hamas patch when interacting with Jewish members of the public?
You realize Hamas is not a religion, right?
Neither is Israel?
Which is why my comment clearly differentiates between the Jewish religion and the Israeli government.
Funny, people sure seem to act like it is.
The Star of David is fine, I’ve got concerns about the Israeli flag. Those bars do a lot of painful lifting there.
Though also I’m actually wondering why a cop is allowed to display their religious symbols on their uniforms. I’d be super uncomfortable to see a cop with a cross or a mjolnir so maybe they shouldn’t have a Star of David or a crescent or even a pentacle. Maybe they shouldn’t be thought of as religious but just civil servants until they take their uniform off
Law enforcement uniforms in a secular nation should not bear religious symbols.
Ha! I wish.
No, I’m not okay with the police having any such patches. My comment wasn’t about that though.
So you wanted to agree on the issue but be pedantic on the wording?
I hate these kinds of comments.
They said absolutely nothing of the sort.
Taking someone's valid point and then accusing them of some outlandish thing, completely fabricated by you, on the extreme other side of the spectrum of the context is just a stupid way of interacting with others.
It really just betrays how childish you are and how horribly distorted your world view/psychological condition in general is.
Upon viewing the patch, it’s pretty clear it’s a monotone flag of the state of Israel, not just a Star of David
Considering the Israeli flag is just the star of David with a couple stripes, I’m not surprised the article missed that distinction. I don’t think the police should have the patch regardless, just to be clear.
Canada attempted genocide on the first Nations, remove the Canadian flag from their uniform
While this is entirely true, it’s also true that Israel is using the Star of David as a hate symbol, for example spraying it on desecrated Palestinian buildings. It’s like the swastika, originally used peacefully in religious contexts but now adopted by fascists as a hate symbol, and it’s unfortunate for everyone who used that symbol legitimately.
Then why do they wear a Canadian flag on their uniform? I’m of native blood so I’d love it if we applied your rules across the board
How do you think this is a gotcha? Canadian flag is there just because its their country, but if we could dismantle the shitty white supremacists colonial states and get rid of their flag that would be based too!
The thin blue line flag is an overtly fascist neo-nazi symbol and cops all over America wear those patches, so I see what you're trying to say, but your second sentence is pretty... interesting.
This clickbait headline didn’t specify that it’s not the Magen David, but rather a representation of the Israeli flag, which is not the same thing.
Also, Canada has “thin blue line” flags? What do they look like? The Canadian flag only has two thick stripes, so unless they’re using the version based on the US flag (which makes no fucking sense - they’re Canadian), I don’t see it.
For reference, here’s the image of the patch (downloaded from another article that actually included it: <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/23d539b3-89b8-478b-a655-48c206acfa62.jpeg">
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/6f3c5c7e-9ebc-4374-a725-f800b8fba258.jpeg">
Ew, just as gross as ours. Thanks for the education!
Canadian reactionaries and fascist fucking love American symbolism. They are just standard American Republicans who hate Trudeau.
Man why do so many proto fascists and fascists around the world like American imagery so . . . oh im hearing it now.
I’d say worse. The US flag at least already has horizontal lines on it. This looks especially out of place.
While I agree it shouldn’t be a big deal to have a star of David on your person. as an atheist if you wanna support your faith on your clothes, go nuts, it’s not hurting anyone. But this was already his employers policy and it’s a work uniform so for that reason alone it should be taken off.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/1c90032c-0ac2-4bc0-b861-ea871a807719.jpeg">
This is the patch
Are you fucking kidding me? Wooooow.
Ha, wow. Did not picture this ‘Star of David’ patch when I read the headline.
Wow. Also, the obsession of morons with Punisher is just baffling. It’s not a very complicated story at all, and yet all these idiots just completely misunderstand it and proudly wear this mark because Frank Castle is cool and kills people…
Screw the star of david, having a Punisher skull symbol anywere on or close to your damn uniform should be a fireable offense.
Yeah. Frank Castle beat the shit out of many an officer who tried to follow his path of vigilantism.
Near?
Beat?
Yes. SwiftKey is not always the most accurate.
Sikh cops are allowed to wear turbans and it doesn’t harm anyone when they do.
Canada has at least one. America has them. Being able to see someone’s hair doesn’t really seem like a requirement for police officers. Back in the day, police officers all wore hats in the US anyways.
You talking about the uniform caps, or just hats in general?
I consider caps to be hats, yes.
What part of a police officer’s job is made impossible by wearing a scarf or a hat?
The government should not be forbidding anyone’s religious practice. That being said, a patch on a uniform is not a religious obligation. Totally different category from a kippah, hijab, turban, ash, bindi, etc.
That position requires a willful ignorance of the difference between a religious symbol and a religious practice.
Do you really think it’s a coincidence that the law carves out a specific prohibition on religious practices that doesn’t affect Christians, the dominant religious group? Your flag has a cross on it.
Why didn’t you address their point? The flag has a cross on it
I see.
Well thanks for confirming some things I have always suspected about Christianity in general and European Christianity in particular.
“We can’t allow distinctive religious or cultural symbols representing the state!”
“What about that one right there?”
“Well, obviously that one is allowed. It’s a part of who we are!”
Emphasis on “we”
Yeah this is the equality vs equity debate. Saying that you are banning all religious dress doesn’t weigh equally on Christians vs non-Christians. Additionally even when it would there are loopholes given. The NT endorses woman to grow their hair long. The various security forces of the world usually allow woman to do it. So even the argument that you are treating every religion the same doesn’t hold up.
A turban is not endorsement of Sikhism. By banning mandatory religious garments you are just promising that the police do not reflect the demographics of the area. Which is not a great thing.
Uniform dress
By that logic, these officers are not able to function in their job. Or maybe it’s just certain types of hats and scarves that are objectionable.
Any symbols other than the flag of the jurisdiction you’re serving should be forgone while wearing a uniform.
And insignia of course
It is an odd adoption but the Punisher skull is a known alt-right symbol particularly amongst the “Three Percenters”, Proud boys and a certain age range of Neo Nazis.
The alt right continuously does this thing where they adopt symbols to recognize each other in a pack but the shit they choose is purposefully ridiculous and childish so you sound like an absolute moron trying to explain to an authority that pepe the frog is actually potentially construable as sexual harassment in certain situations because it’s essentially a short hand for rape… It’s inane but it is very effective.
Completely off topic but I gotta rant it out…
There’s also this thing that the Canadian Conservatives are great at which is controlling the media coverage by lies of omission. My hometown had this whole “scandal” where someone’s mic was shut off during a town council for “bringing legitimate concerns about trans people.” and papers ran it like that… But what actually happened is the mic shutdown happened because the person in question kept using the mic to be vile about trans people on every open mic opportunity. Open mic portion regarding adding speed bumps : " nope I am gunna talk over the allotable time about pronoun policies in schools." Oh you want to talk about changes to funding structures of municipal trash collections? " Nope mic time to use the t-slur and rant more about woke teachers." One could pretend that they just don’t understand the basic Roberts rules of order but their aim is always to spin anything they can as oppression.
They are doing the same here. The articles are not providing proper context that the patch is not just a Star of David patch… It’s a black and white version of the Israeli flag with the bars thay mark it as thus. It’s not depicting a specific religious stance, it’s depicting a political regime. But it creates a fine opportunity for religious bigots to banging the drum about headscarves and turbans and how we should strip government officials of their comfort for daring to have visible markers of their religious beliefs as though these are somehow the same.
Like I get it. Not understanding what counts as hate speech or legitimate targets of criticism is probably very confusing and alarming when you feel like people shut you down at seemingly random … But they could just assuage their anxieties by just LEARNING the rules. Like we have actual laws about what counts here.
Bruh
This looks like some 4chan shit lmao
The truth is that they want him to remove it because it’s extremely cringey.
It’s a call for genocide…
Take off every sihks turban then?
What are you talking about, sikh cops are allowed to wear their turbans
He’s suggesting that if person A needs to remove a star, person B could be forced to remove a turban
This is the definition of false equivalence, that’s comparing two situations without considering their relative differences, leading to leaps in logic or inaccurate statements.
Sikh head wraps are an extra article of clothing which is worn for religious purposes and is widely recognized as such. This patch, while worn for religious purposes also contains clear political messages, which is inappropriate for a police officer. They are peace officers who if someone disagrees with, and they happen to be highly opinionated could ruin that person’s life unfairly or even cause them harm.
But disregarding that, and going back to my original statement, is not an extra accessory but a modification to the uniform, which is against the department’s policies. That is why this was acceptable to be made to be removed.
Tell them that not me, I’m just clarifying the comment
No I realize that, sorry, i was posting this on your comment for context, as im sure they’ll check for replies at some point, sorry if I came off aggressively
Feel free to come off aggressively, this is the internet. It’s your right
A patch is not a religious obligation. If it were a kippah it’d be different.
People should be allowed their religious freedom, but that doesn’t mean decorating their uniform however they want.
Looks like Vancouver PD has been infiltrated by foreign agents to me.
Lol, it’s not a star of David patch, it’s an Israeli flag/punsher insignia patch. Fuck this guy.
I completely agree. On their own time as civilians they should wear whatever crazy political or religious thing that they want. When they are on the clock representing the government charged with upholding the law and protecting the public they should not be endorsing anything else. Yes I would say exactly the same thing for any other flag/emblem including a pride flag.