In spite of what he described as a warm reception from community members, a Wisconsin police chief’s effort to place “In God we trust” stickers on squad cars came to an abrupt end.
Prescott Police Chief Gary Krutke announced on his personal Facebook page last month that he was asked to take the stickers off just days after they went up.
“Today I was told that I may have to remove these words from OUR squad cars because the BAD guys might be offended by these words ‘In God we trust,’” Krutke wrote in a Jan. 14 post on his public Facebook page.
Prescott Mayor Dave Hovel said he was the one who asked Krutke to remove the stickers. He said the request was not because of any personal concerns of his or complaints from community members in town of about 4,200 people where the St. Croix River flows into the Mississippi near Hastings, Minn.
“I didn’t see a problem,” Hovel said.
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Rather, Hovel said consultation with insurance companies and the League of Municipalities suggested it would be “better to have it off.”
Though Hovel said Krutke took the news in stride, the chief sounded a different note on his Facebook page.
“I don’t know about you but as far as I see it if it is good enough and not so offensive as to be on the money that we spend everyday then it should not be so offensive that WE can’t/shouldn’t have these words on OUR squad cars,” a portion of the post, which has since been removed from Krutke’s page, reads.
The chief declined to comment for the story.
The lone Facebook critic of the “In God we trust” sticker-effort was former Pierce County District Attorney John O’Boyle, who sparred with Krutke in the comments.
Reached last week, O’Boyle said the effort struck him as concerning due to issues surrounding the separation of church and state.
“They’re not your personal vehicles,” said O’Boyle, a River Falls resident. “Regardless of whatever his religious beliefs would be, he works for a governmental agency.”
Constitutional law is clear, said O’Boyle, who now works as an assistant district attorney in Barron County.
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“You can’t be mixing the two of them and promoting a religion,” he said.
O’Boyle said he likes and respects Krutke and that he was only “trying to nicely point out to him he should think about this a little bit.”
Krutke frames the argument from the standpoint of free speech, one of many causes that posts on his Facebook page promote, along with faith, military veterans and pro-gun causes. The page is headed with a profile picture of a former Georgia flag brandished prominently with the Confederate insignia.
A post made the next day -- also later removed -- voiced his defense of freedom of speech.
It reads, in part: “If people are offended by my posts then don’t look at my page! I fought and bleed for this Country and many soldiers just like me did the same thing so that FREE Americans have the right to express themselves FREELY in this Country!”
In his Jan. 14 post, he said the stickers resulted in “nothing but great positive feedback” from community members, and a thread of comments stemming from his post appeared to support that claim.
oved -- voiced his defense of freedom of speech.
It reads, in part: “If people are offended by my posts then don’t look at my page! I fought and bleed for this Country and many soldiers just like me did the same thing so that FREE Americans have the right to express themselves FREELY in this Country!”
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In his Jan. 14 post, he said the stickers resulted in “nothing but great positive feedback” from community members, and a thread of comments stemming from his post appeared to support that claim.
