Police union demands Amazon to remove 'Bulletproof Black Lives Matter' shirt
Walmart pulled the shirt from its own marketplace last week
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The US's largest police union has urged Amazon to remove a T-shirt from its third-party marketplace that says: “Bulletproof: Black Lives Matter”.
The Fraternal Order of Police has already succeeded in having garment removed from Walmart supermarkets. But as of Sunday morning it was still available on Amazon.
Union president Chuck Canterbury said he didn't expect that to change anytime soon.
Characterising Amazon as a “pretty liberal marketer", he told The Guardian that the T-shirt's rhetoric had inspired violence against members of law enforcement.
According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 64 police officers have been fatally shot in the line of duty in 2016.
At least 940 people have been killed by a police office across the country over the same period, according to the Washington Post database that tracks police violence.
The owner of the Connecticut-based Old Glory Merchandise, which sells the shirt in question, doesn’t seem to be a staunch supporter of Black Lives Matter - the umbrella organisation formed to protest against percieved unjust policing in communities of colour.
Owner Glenn Morelli told CNN that he quickly pulled the controversial shirt from his website after they failed to drive sales.
“It wasn’t a big seller at all,” he said, adding that T-shirts in support of Blue Lives Matter - a pro-police movement - had sold more.
He added: "We don’t like to offend anybody... You have to sell all different kinds of shirts. It’s hard to make everybody happy."