Armbands for Kitty
This is one of those types of stories that we receive on the newswire on a semi-regular basis, but may not ever make it onto our airwaves. Sometimes, there simply isn’t enough time in an hour to fit them in and more important news always takes priority. It all depends on what’s happening that day. But, I thought this was a tidbit worth sharing here.
Thai officials apparently have a problem with police officers getting into minor trouble on the job so they have come up with a unique way of shaming them into behaving better. From now on, any officer in Bangkok who shows up late, parks in a no parking zone or any number of other small infractions, will have to wear an armband featuring the Hello Kitty logo.
Hello Kitty is from a Japanese toy line that appeals to little girls. Higher ups in the police departments think the macho police officers will be so humiliated by wearing the cute little cat sitting on two hearts, that they won’t get into any trouble again. Under the new form of discipline, the officers will have to spend the day in the department office, wearing the Kitty logo in front of their peers.
It’s highly doubtful that we have the same kind of discipline problems on our police forces that they do in Thailand, but could you imagine if Toronto police Chief Bill Blair decided to impose a similar punishment, say, with Dora The Explorer ball caps or Barbie vests? For starters, the union would never stand for it but even as a concept, it’s just so absurd! We simply could never make this stuff up.