Cops Add ‘In God We Trust’ To Patrol Cars, Mostly To Piss Off Atheists

[Capt. Obvious]

Thank goodness, America’s Oppressed Christian Majority has found a new way to let the world know that, even if the mean old ACLU won’t let them read the Bible all day over the public school intercom or teach the Book of Genesis in biology class, this is still a Godly nation. Police and sheriffs’ departments all over the Bible Belt are slapping “In God We Trust” stickers on their patrol cars. And there’s not a darn thing the atheist America-haters can do about it, because it’s America’s National Motto, adopted in 1956 to prove that we were not Godless Communists. It’s the biggest victory for Public Godliness since the Supreme Court ruled that town meetings can start with a Jesus Prayer, so long as other weird religions are not overtly banned from offer invocations as well.

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You see, it’s just a way of saying “We love America and God” while also whispering “and if you don’t like it, you’re not really American, are you?” Besides, as Sheriff Brian Duke of Henderson County, Tennessee explains, it’s a way to improve law enforcement’s image:

With the dark cloud that law enforcement has been under recently, I think that we need to have a human persona on law enforcement … It gave us an opportunity to put something on our cars that said: “We are you. We’re not the big, bad police.”

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“This motto has nothing to do with the problem of police forces’ shooting people, but it’s a great way to divert attention away from that and wrap yourself in a mantle of piety so that you’re above criticism,” she said. “The idea of aligning the police force with God is kind of scary. That’s the first thing you’d expect to see in a theocracy.”

Problem is, when FFRF sends a letter complaining that the stickers may be unconstitutional (a matter the Supreme Court has never decided, although the slogan has survived lower-court challenges to its use on currency), a bunch of God-loving Law-N-Order types hear about it and decide they want “In God We Trust” on their burgs’ cop cars, too:

In Texas, for instance, the police chief of Childress, Adrian Garcia, drew attention when he denied Ms. Gaylor’s request and, in a letter to her posted on the department’s Facebook page, asked “that you and the Freedom From Religion Foundation go fly a kite.”

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Wonkette