The Minnesota Wild this week announced a series of themed ticket packages for the 2022-2023 season. Among them were Educator Appreciation Night, Hockey Fights Cancer Night, Pride Night and what turned out to be a controversial promotion, Law Enforcement Appreciation Night. The theme itself didn’t cause much of a backlash, but the images and jersey the Wild unveiled for their November 1 game against the Montreal Canadiens were criticized for including the “thin blue line” symbol. Originally intended to recognize the work police agencies do to protect communities and honor fallen officers, the “thin blue line” symbol was co-opted and adopted by white nationalist groups opposed to the fight for racial equality and anti-racism initiatives after the murder. of George Floyd. Minnesota has been central to the debate surrounding police brutality, especially towards black communities. George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a police officer in the city of Minneapolis in 2020. Minneapolis is part of the Twin-Cities, along with St. Paul, where the Minnesota Wild play. The Twin-Cities has a history of high-profile incidents involving police officers killing unarmed black men, including the 2016 killing of Philando Castile in St. Paul and the 2021 murders of Daunte Wright and Amir Locke in Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, a recent investigation concluded that the Minneapolis Police Department “has engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination.” Rebecca Lucero, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, said the report “paints a troubling picture of the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department engaging in a pattern of racial discrimination over the past decade.” The “thin blue line” flag has been associated with white supremacy since the 2017 “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the flag was prominently flown alongside swastikas and confederate flags. The “thin blue line” has appeared on patches and flags at rallies for white supremacist groups, including the Proud Boys and the Klu Klux Klan, as well as at the January 6 riot in Washington, DC. The flag, and the resulting “blue lives matter” groups, have appeared at rallies opposing the Black Lives Matter movement. The story continues When fans saw the Minnesota Wild’s promotional jersey, which featured the “thin blue line” version of the American flag using a blue hockey stick in the design, questions arose online, prompting the Wild to quickly remove the graphic from the website their. . In a statement responding to the use and subsequent removal of the symbol, Wild said: “We understand that the symbol of the black and blue flag means many things to many people. Our only intention was to show support to law enforcement for the great work they do in our local communities. Moving forward, we will work hard to show appreciation for diverse groups in ways that better reflect our shared community values.” Many, however, including Nathan Kalman-Lamb, a former lecturer at Duke University and now an adjunct professor at the University of New Brunswick, did not find Wild’s response sufficient. “That the Minnesota Wild would choose to use imagery closely associated with both racist police brutality and far-right movements more broadly, when the franchise itself is actually at the scene of George Floyd’s police killing, sends a powerful message for the ‘community’ the team is trying to court as fans,” Kalman-Lamb, who also co-hosts The End of Sport Podcast, told Yahoo Sports. In April 2021, following a guilty verdict for George Floyd’s killer, Derek Chauvin, Wild released a statement saying, “The Wild organization is committed to driving social change and fostering inclusion by providing a safe, positive and welcoming environment for ALL community members and employees.” According to Kalman-Lamb, the organization has not kept that commitment. “Indeed, this promotion, and the Wild’s refusal to sincerely apologize for it, is an incredibly clear and disturbing message that despite two years of candor to the contrary, North American hockey culture remains a profoundly — toxically — white space,” he wrote. . Across North America, not only are those involved in the struggle for racial equality now recognizing the current meaning attached to the “thin blue line” symbol, but law enforcement agencies are also making changes to separate themselves from the symbol. In Canada, police services in Vancouver, Calgary, Victoria, Charlottestown and Toronto, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, have restricted the use of the symbol by officers. After an officer in Charlottetown was seen wearing the symbol at a Pride Week event in July 2022, Charlottetown police released a statement saying, “It is clear that the history and controversy surrounding this symbol, especially its racist and extremist origin, it is not in line with the protective and community-based services” police in Charlottestown aimed to offer. In 2020, Police Chief Kristen Roman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, in response to the riot in the US capital, released a statement to staff saying, “We can all agree that the actions and hateful ideologies of extremists who they have Visibly toeing the thin blue line to advance their views not only threaten our democracy, our communities and justice in all forms, but run counter to UWPD’s core values ​​and significantly hinder our efforts to build confidence”. What started as a symbol of support and respect, as Chief Roman says, has changed and the continued use of the “thin blue line” symbol now means something different. “The balance has been tipped and we must consider the cost of clinging to a symbol that is unquestionably and inextricably linked to actions and beliefs contrary to UWPD’s values.” It’s a sentiment echoed by Shawn Cornett, President of the Calgary Police Commission, in a 2022 press release indicating that officers in Calgary will no longer wear the symbol. “People in our community have made it clear that the thin blue line on police officers makes them uncomfortable because of its history and current use by groups opposed to racial equality. As policing evolves, so must its symbols.” According to the Minnesota Wild’s website, the team still plans to hold a law enforcement appreciation night “to thank the brave men and women who serve the Hockey State” on Nov. 1 when the team hosts Montreal Canadiens. The ticket package will also still include a “Wild-branded Hometown Heroes T-shirt,” though no plans have been confirmed yet. More from Yahoo Sports