Dearborn Heights, Michigan, Mayor Bill Bazzi announced Friday that the new Arabic police patch was not “official” — but didn’t rule out adopting such a badge of surrender in the future.
A Facebook post from the police department posted earlier this week read: “The Dearborn Heights Police Department [DHPD] is proud to share a new optional patch that our officers may wear as part of their uniform,” according to Fox News.
The patch, according to the post (which appears to have since been removed), “incorporat[ed] Arabic script alongside English” and was “designed … to reflect and honor the diversity of our community – especially the many residents of Arabic descent who call Dearborn Heights home,” Fox reported. It purportedly “represent[ed] unity, respect, and our shared commitment to service.”
Bazzi announced Friday on the DHPD Facebook page that the “patch effort” was an internal discussion “among some” within the department, but “was not put forth for consensus or further review.”
“Should efforts like this be formally undertaken to make any changes to the Police uniform, it is our goal to include multiple PD stakeholders for a larger conversation, to ensure all are included in the discussion,” Bazzi said in a statement.
But “efforts like this” should never be formally undertaken.
The hallmark of assimilation is learning and embracing the language — which in this country, is English. The fact that city officials even considered the badge might be necessary only underscores what’s becoming increasingly obvious to everyone in America: Too many immigrants have no interest in assimilating. It’s a dangerous reality, one the founders understood all too well.
George Washington noted in a 1794 letter that when immigrants settled in a “body,” they “retain the language, habits & principles (good or bad) which they bring with them; whereas, by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, manners and laws: in a word, soon become one people.”
“Dearborn Heights’ Middle Eastern or North African population was 39% as of 2023,” Fox 2 Detroit reported. The neighboring city of Dearborn “became the first Arab-majority city in the United States” in the same year, as previously noted in The Federalist.
Washington understood that allowing immigrants to form ethnic-enclaves discourages assimilation and prevents the nation from being “one people.”
Similarly, Benjamin Franklin, watching the mass influx of Germans into Pennsylvania, feared that Pennsylvania “will in a few Years become a German Colony. Instead of their Learning our Language, we must learn theirs, or live as in a foreign country.” Franklin’s comments underscore the concern that when migrants arrive in masses, they don’t assimilate — they instead retain their language and culture. They form mini colonies that leave their customs intact, leaving the host society to adjust around them, rather than the other way around — just like what’s happening in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.
Washington and Franklin’s comments only underscore why Dearborn Heights’ Arabic patch snafu is not a symbol of “unity” but a symbol of disunity. Whether such a patch would be “optional” or not, there is no practical reason for any city to adopt or promote police badges in foreign languages or for police officers in an American city to wear Arabic script — unless it’s to accommodate a community that won’t assimilate.
Our republic was never supposed to work this way. As Alexander Hamilton warned in 1802, “The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common National sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias, and prejudice.”
Pandering to unassimilated ethnic-religious enclaves means we’ve replaced assimilation for appeasement.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2