03 Jul Thin Blue Line badge is a tribute to all police officers killed on duty, says campaigner
THE Thin Blue Line badge worn by some police officers should not be banned as it is a fitting reminder of those who have been killed while on duty.
Bryn Hughes was commenting on reports that police officers attending London Pride were told not to wear the badge for fear of causing offence.
Mr Hughes lost his daughter Nicola Hughes in 2012 when she and fellow PC Fiona Bone were killed in a gun and grenade ambush in Manchester after they responded to a 999 call.
He told GB News: “For me, what the Thin Blue Line badge represents is the memory and the legacy of people like Nichola and Fiona and all the other officers we’ve lost, before and since, and remembering that memory and that’s what it should be.
“That’s what it symbolises. And that’s what it should be worn as.”
In a discussion with Patrick Christys, he continued: “If we lined up 100 police officers in the UK now, and we asked each and every one of them why are they wearing it, they would all say without a shadow of a doubt it is in memory and support of their fallen colleagues and the fallen colleagues’ families.
“11 years ago, I lost my daughter Nicola. She was 23 years old. She was a police officer in Greater Manchester.
“Her and her colleague Fiona Bone attended a bogus 999 call and were shot 32 times, and after they were shot 32 times they had a grenade thrown at them.
“That again represents that thin blue line of police officers, but every time we lose some like Nicola, like Fiona, everyone else sits. That blue line gets a lot thinner.
“And at times, that’s all that stands between the general public and people that would do us harm. That’s what it represents for me.”
