MA Town Backs 'Thin Blue Line' Flags on Fire Apparatus

BRAINTREE, MA—Town councilors backed the display of the "thin blue line" flag on the town's fire trucks as a show of support for fallen police officers.

By a vote of 6-3 Wednesday night, the council approved a resolution of support for flying the flag on the department's trucks. The resolution is not binding, and Town Council President Shannon Hume said that Mayor Charles Kokoros has declared the flag can remain.

The vote came after the councilors turned aside two alternative proposals to honor police officers killed in the line of duty.

District 6 Town Councilor Lawrence Mackin, the son of a police officer, offered the resolution. He said firefighters are flying the flag in memory of Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna, who was shot and killed last year, and Braintree Police Lt. Gregory Principe and Sgt. Ernest DeCross, who died when their cruiser crashed into a tree on Middle Street during a pursuit in 1991.

Mackin said the resolution was prompted by a letter to the mayor and fire chief asking that the flag be removed from fire trucks. A similar complaint led to the removal of a thin blue line flag from a Hingham fire truck back in July.

"Braintree is not Hingham and our flags will fly," Mackin wrote in a Facebook post.

In fact, when the Hingham flag was sent on a statewide tour by the firefighters' union, Braintree was one of the first stops.

District 1 Town Councilor Julia Flaherty attempted a compromise. She said the flag has become a divisive symbol and has seen in rallies of white supremacists.

She said there has to be "a better way to honor police officers."

Flaherty suggested the flag be displayed at the memorial to Principe and DeCross at the Pearl Street underpass to the commuter rail tracks that is named for the officers. When that proposal failed, she proposed that the park that will be created at the newly acquired land at Liberty and Grove streets be named Police Officer Memorial Park and the flag flown there. That failed as well.

District 4 Town Councilor Stephen O'Brien and District 5 Town Councilor Meredith Boericke joined Flaherty in opposition to the resolution.

O'Brien said he opposed the resolution because the U.S. flag code prohibits all alterations to the flag.

Councilors said they received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls on the issue.

The resolution was not on the posted agenda for Wednesday night's remote meeting, with all the councilors agreeing to allow the discussion and vote on the issue.

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