You’ve seen it cropping up the past few months on everything from flags and garden banners to hats and license plates – thin blue line merchandise has flooded the marketplace as people scramble to show our brave law enforcement officers their respect and pride for their service and sacrifices in the wake of the fatal shooting of five Dallas police officers this past July. But what is the thin blue line? The emblem, which features a black horizontal top stripe, a single blue line running horizontally through the center and a bottom black horizontal stripe is representative of three things: the public (the black stripe on top), the criminal element (the bottom black stripe) and law enforcement (the blue stripe in the middle). The phrase is analogous to the term the Thin Red Line, which was a military action by the British Sutherland Highlanders 93rd (Highland) Regiment at the Battle of Balaklava on October 25, 1854 during the Crimean War. During this particular battle, a correspondent for the British newspaper, the Times, wrote that he could see nothing between the charging Russians and the British regiment's base of operations at Balaklava but the "thin red streak tipped with a line of steel" of the 93rd. This was condensed into "the thin red line", and the phrase became symbolic of British composure during battle. Simply put, law enforcement is the barrier, or thin blue line, that protects law-abiding civilians from lawless criminals. AmericanFlags.com is honored to support the men and women of law enforcement by offering a wide variety of Thin Blue Line merchandise.