It is a powerful statement: a fence line marked with black and white American flags all with a single blue line down the middle.
The condo complex says it was done to honor police officers and the job they do, it never meant to spark a controversy.
The thin blue line flags were back up Friday on the gates and fences surrounding the Kingsbrooke Condominiums in Palatine after more than two dozen were destroyed earlier this week.
"It wasn't that they were just cut down," Condo board president Elliott Davidow said. "They were pulled down and cut down, but the blue fields were stabbed repeatedly."
Davidow said that raised additional concern.
"And we had to send out to everyone here not to interfere with anyone pulling the flags down because we are seeing a knife being used in a very irrational and hate filled way," Davidow said. "I don't need people hurt because of this."
Davidow says the flags were placed around the complex in honor of National Police Week and to thank the Palatine Police Department in particular, which he says partners with the complex to keep residents safe.
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He says he had no idea the flags themselves were controversial and had, in the past, been co-opted by white supremacists.
"There was a parallel made by the people in Charlottesville, the white supremacists, who were wearing the flag," he said. "We didn't have any idea about that."
In Connecticut, a painting with a similar design was taken down from the State Capitol.
And in Alameda, California surveillance video captured someone tearing a flag down in front of a real estate office.
Back in Palatine, police are reviewing the complex's security camera videos as part of their investigation.
And although Davidow says he has received some criticism, he says the majority of his residents stand behind the flags and their police positive sentiment.
"Clearly, a lot of the people support what we did," he said. "Some people were asking how come we didn't know. The answer is we didn't spend that much time researching it."
