The Green Bay Police Department of Wisconsin is starting off the new year by welcoming in several new recruits, one of whom has sparked some debate online about his arm. While having tattoos is nothing new or abnormal in any field of work, especially law enforcement, the arm of one police recruit had what many recognized as the “Three Percenter” tattoo. For those not in the know, this symbol represents a movement that was started by right-wingers after Barack Obama was elected back in 2008.
For additional context, the Three Percenter is a “right-wing, anti-government militia movement symbol” that’s a modified Betsy Ross flag, as one Reddit user explains. The right wing created it to symbolize the belief that only 3% of colonists fought in the American Revolution for victory against the British tyranny, which many compared to Obama’s election and presidency. Now, “it’s often associated with gun rights advocacy and extremist ideologies.”
Despite all the red flags that this tattoo portrays, the Green Bay Police Chief still came out publicly defending both the new recruit and his controversial tattoo. According to Madison365, the chief claims that the tattoo is “intended to symbolize resistance to tyranny, not affiliation with any extremist ideology or unlawful organization.” Furthermore, nothing in the recruit’s background investigation raised any concerns of extremist bias or values that didn’t adhere to what the Green Bay Police Department stands for, the police chief argues.
Despite his attempt to protect the recruit and the tattoo’s symbolism, many online users didn’t feel like the Green Bay Police Chief was in the right with his defense. “Gets tattoo about ‘resisting tyranny’ …Becomes cop…You can’t make this stuff up,” remarks a commenter. “Does the police chief have the same tattoo?” questions another user. A highly upvoted reply commented on how Wisconsin has quite a number of racist people in its population. “This is the garbage that they are hiring,” groaned a third.
At the very least, it’s good that the Wisconsin police chief is addressing the controversy, for transparency’s sake. But the fact that he completely dismisses what many people know to be a symbol of racism and right-wing extremism is rather concerning.
