This petition is a call for the removal of the "Thin Blue Line" decals from the Sartell Police Department's vehicles.

While we stand in solidarity and respect for the Sartell Police Department and its officers and their commitment to safety for our community, it is disrespectful and offensive that the department had decorated their vehicles with the thin blue line flag. These vehicles were bought with community, taxpayer money, and shouldn't be decorated with a flag that parallels racial injustice.

Although it is not the intent of the Sartell PD, flying and adorning the thin blue line flag directly isolates our community members of color and makes a mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement. The flag no longer just means solidarity and sacrifice. It is now used as a tool of oppression and hatred by pro-policing groups like "Blue Lives Matter" in response to calls of racial injustice, police brutality, and systemic racism towards Black people in our communities.

This should not be tolerated by the citizens and community members of Sartell. We should instead be focused on community driven acceptance for ALL members of Sartell. It is all of our responsibilities to make it a better place.

As of 2019, 90% of Sartell's community is white. Our schools, local government, police force, and grocery stores are filled with white people. As a whole, Sartell is only beginning to address their own implicit racial bias. We have just begun to include and equity vs. equality training curriculum, but that isn't enough.

We all need to be taking direct action to learn, re-learn, and asses our own racial bias in order to address national systemic issues that exist in our own backyards. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I invite you to sign this petition to let Mayor Fizthum, Chief Hughes, and Depty Chief Wayne Schreiner know that this issue is important to the community, and we want those decal stickers removed.