What is the deal with all the blue stripes on cars?

The man who started Project Blue Stripe has been moved by how many people have taken up his simple idea to honor police and first responders. It is a trend striping across the country.

Though, he says a small number of people have expressed hesitance to show their solidarity with police.

“(Some) people are scared to stand up and show their appreciation and respect because they are afraid their car will get smashed or it will get keyed or their tires will get slashed,” Andy Audette told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show. “You cannot be concerned about that. If my truck got a key scratched down it, I would proudly represent that scratch. I wouldn’t believe part of our country acts this way, but I wouldn’t even fix it.”

Another reason, a misconception Audette notes, is that the blue stripe is somehow opposite other current movements and sentiments. This is not true.

“This is not about race, but some folks say that this is anti-Black Lives Matter or anti-another group,” he added. “But it’s not. It’s just in support of police and first responders. It’s not a slam against any movement.”

Audette doesn’t have a law enforcement background. He says he has a friend who is in law enforcement, but that’s his only tie to the police community. Yet when officers were recently shot and killed in Baton Rouge, he became emotional.

“I was out in the garage when I heard about it,” Audette said. “Right in front of me was a roll of blue tape. I took it, put a blue stripe across the back of my truck. Took a picture. Put it on social media. And it exploded from there.”

That was the start of Project Blue Stripe.

It’s simple — put a blue stripe across your vehicle to show support for police and first responders. The idea quickly spread. Soon, others were putting blue tape on the back of their cars. About 600 people decorated their cars in that way in Audette’s hometown of Maple Valley, he said. And thousands more did across the nation.

“The blue stripe symbolizes the fallen officers and appreciation,” Audette said.

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Other communities also started organizing events to put blue stripes on their cars. Then national media began picking up on the trend and it took off.

Audette said he thinks he was motivated to do something because Baton Rouge was the second shooting of police officers in a short period of time.

“I think it turned from Dallas being one guy attacking police officers into a trend — it resonated as a trend,” he said. “When it became a trend it hit me pretty hard.”

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