User:410Julia/Hashtag activism

#HumanizeTheBadge
Prior to 2020 #humanizingthebadge was primarily circulating on Twitter and Facebook by organizations promoting stronger bonds between law enforcement and the communities they serve, such as the nonprofit group Humanizing the Badge. This need for betterment was due to police brutality causing George Floydhis life on May 5, 2020. This ignited the public’s want for change placing the black lives matter protests at the forefront of the media. Behind the protest lines, the hashtag humanizing the badge popularized. The purpose of #humanizingthebadge was for officers and officers’ loved ones, to show their communities the person behind the police uniform. #humanizingthebadge is mostly seen on TikTok with over 2 billion posts including the hashtag. These posts strive to humanize officers to reveal them as more relatable and trustworthy. This relatability is an attempt to bring them closer to the citizens and communities they serve. Through the use of Tik Tok officers are able to reach a wider audience. Tik Tok allows creators to jump from audience to audience and trend to trend. These videos receive tens of millions of views promoting bureaucratic propaganda due to officers' supporting the appearance of institutional legitimacy. Within the videos they are able to promote themselves as your average, relatable human, while being in uniform, thus associating themselves with the police department. Creating this link humanizes law enforcement as a whole, in an attempt to show police as the ‘good guy’.

However, this hashtag is not universally promoted by police officers. A former police officer and current entrepreneur Autumn Clifford believe being a police officer is a great responsibility that needs to be represented by leaders. She notes historically society has never loved law enforcement, and citizens do not like being told what to do. Thus they need leaders to guide them in a positive direction. Civilians need to see police as leaders within their own communities. Clifford suggests this can be achieved by officers having real and honest conversations with civilians, and by going out of their way to relate to citizens. This can lead to a greater respect for law enforcement. She provides an example of being called to a troubled teen’s group home and ending the encounter with a dance battle. This encounter changed the teen’s perspective on her, and referred to her as the ‘cool cop’ for the rest of her time on the job. This one simple interaction humanized her to the group of teens.


 * 1) humanizingthebadge has had both support and challenges in attempting to impact its community, with backing and opposition from law enforcement. Those backing the message of #humanzingthebadge are able to display their support in their wardrobe. The company ReLentless Defender was created as a Thin Blue clothing line, to build support for police officers due to their challenging work. Their goal was to create clothing that police officers could wear with pride while promoting the message of the Thin Blue Line. Further publicizing the theme of #humanzingthebadge.

No matter the support or oposition to #humanizingthebadge it has made a lasting impact on social media. With over 28.3 thousand Instagram posts, 4 Facebook groups with over 40 thousand members, and 2 billion posts on TikTok including the humanizing the badge hashtag.