This could backfire (the bracelet part): The Justice Department on Friday pressured the Ferguson Police Department to stop its officers from wearing bracelets supporting the officer who shot an unarmed teenager.

From The New York Times:

The Justice Department on Friday pressured the Ferguson Police Department to stop its officers from wearing bracelets stamped with the message “I am Darren Wilson,” in solidarity with the police officer who is being investigated for shooting an unarmed black 18-year-old, and from covering up their name plates with tape.

In a stern letter to Chief Thomas Jackson, Christy E. Lopez, deputy chief of the special litigation section of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said that the bracelets “upset and agitated people.”   

 

“There is no question that police departments can and should closely regulate officers’ professional  is no question that police departments can and should closely regulate officers’ professional appearance and behavior, particularly where, as here, the expressive accessory itself is exacerbating an already tense atmosphere between law enforcement and residents in Ferguson,” Ms. Lopez wrote. “These bracelets reinforce the very ‘us versus them’ mentality that many residents of Ferguson believe exists.”

 

Ms. Lopez noted that Chief Jackson had agreed to prohibit officers from wearing the “I am Darren Wilson” bracelets while in uniform and on duty. Nonetheless, she said she was making the letter to him public.