Calls are continuing to grow for the ousting of the police chief at West Virginia University after a Thin Blue Line flag was spotted at his home during a Zoom call, despite the fact that he has apologized for it.
It all started when West Virginia University hosted a virtual Campus Conversation over Zoom in the wake of the death of George Floyd. The goal of this call was to discuss “how we can work together to foster a safe, diverse, and inclusive culture,” according to Campus Reform.
It was during this call that a hand-carved wooden Thin Blue Line flag was spotted on the wall of W.P. Chedester, chief of University Police. This flag is seen by many people as a symbol of “honor and respect,” with Flags of Valor stating that “the Thin Blue Line embodies the unbreakable component of law enforcement standing as a safety barrier between the law-abiding citizens of America and the criminally inclined.”
Unfortunately, students and faculty of the school did not see the flag that way, and they were instead “triggered” and enraged by it. Within hours, Chief Chedester was left with no choice but to issue a letter of apology in which he explained that the flag always symbolized “a way to honor the commitment I made as a first responder to protect our community.”
“I understand now that it represents something else to many others; something that I now know was traumatic to some of our community tuning in for our Conversation,” he added. “I sincerely did not have any intent to suggest that police lives matter more than Black lives nor was I intentionally trying to cause any harm or offense.”
The police chief then promised to remove the flag from his office.
“I am committed to rebuilding that trust beginning today. I am taking the flag down from my office wall,” Chedester concluded.
This, however, was not enough to satisfy WVU faculty members. Rose Casey, an assistant professor in WVU’s Department of English, fired back at Chedester’s apology by saying that “the Blue Lives Matter flag is associated with white supremacy.”
WVU associate professor of Biochemical Genetics, Vagner Benedito demanded that Chedester resign, tweeting, “The only way forward is with his resignation. Why is it so difficult to comprehend?”
https://twitter.com/vabenedito/status/1271102714227851267?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1271102714227851267%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.campusreform.org%2F%3FID%3D15266.Xw9JK40Ued8.facebook
“Campus police chief is a position we all should trust. POC will not be trusting his leadership. Moving forward, he must resign to make sure there is inclusions and equality regarding the police actions on campus!” Benedito added.
Benedito later doubled down on this in an interview with Campus Reform, saying that he believes the fact that Chedester displays the Blue Lives Matter flag shows an unwillingness to defend minorities.
“As you already know, that flag was crafted to oppose the Black Lives Matter movement, even though historically police lives have always mattered while black lives have been taken away by systematic police brutality over and over again,” he said, adding that he did not find Chedester’s apology letter “convincing.”
“If he was indeed ignorant about its meaning, he should not be in a position of so much power for being so much misinformed about the current situation of the country, especially in matters involving the police,” Benedito said. “To be clear, the diverse community at WVU and allies are demanding the replacement of WVU Chief Police moving forward.”
It remains to be seen whether Chedester will be able to successfully weather this storm.
This piece was written by PoliZette Staff on July 16, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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