Monday, May 16, 2022
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Volume 111 Issue 19
Diverse university police force meets roadblock: Money
See Pages 6 & 7 The university police is less than 2% of CSUF’s budget. ( Christiani Aquino/ Daily Titan)
Thin blue line emblem to be removed Campus rally from CSUF police vehicles defends Roe v. Wade ZIMRY HERNANDEZ Staff Writer
The stickers have been on the cars since January 2020. (Spencer Otte / Daily Titan)
The symbol has become controversial in recent years. CATHERINE NORBY Asst. Editor
Some Cal State Fullerton police vehicles have had stickers with the thin blue line symbols on them since January 2020, which are being removed following inquiry by faculty and the Daily Titan.
The thin blue line has a history dating back to 1854, where it was first used by British soldiers as a battle formation term. The thin blue line flag became common around 2016, when a group of officers in Dallas, Texas were ambushed. People showed their support for officers by putting “Back the Blue” and “Thank a Cop” signs in their yards and mourners wore blue hair ribbons and neckties. Sarah Hill, an associate professor of political science, called attention to
this on Feb. 17 when she spotted the decals on a police vehicle in a faculty parking lot. She immediately emailed the interim chief of police Carl Jones to demand they be removed. Jones did not investigate the matter until March, originally responding to Hill with reasons why he and the police force value the blue line symbol. However, after looking deeper into how the emblems got on the cars, he noticed something was not right. “The first stickers went on the vehicles in January of 2020 and over a 10
month period, seven vehicles and one cart was found to have the thin blue line decals on them,” Jones said. Jones said he found that former chief Raymond Aguirre would have been the one to authorize the decals placed on the cars. Aguirre retired in August 2021 and Jones was brought out of retirement to act as interim chief. Jones said the squadron cars were taken to a sign shop in Brea to have stickers and decals placed on them.
Students and faculty members held a rally in the Humanities Quad on May 12 in response to the leaked draft ruling from the Supreme Court indicating that Roe v. Wade may be overturned. Several students gathered outside of the Humanities building around 12 p.m. Brooke Cusick, a graduating senior psychology major, was one of the students leading the charge at the rally. “I just offered my voice. I know that a lot of hard work has been put in by many faculty members and students on this campus,” Cusick said. “I know that as soon as Roe v. Wade was threatened that people were acting and going to let them know that we’re not going to stand for this. So it’s happening pretty fast and we don’t see signs of slowing down.”
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