America’s Guardian Angels

This painting is one of several on the wall beside the door of the 24th NYPD Precinct on the Upper West Side. It depicts a police officer with angel wings that have the American flag printed on them, surrounded by smaller angels. The religious and nationalistic tones of the image demonstrate and reinforce religion’s role in America’s understanding of its social institutions.

The image’s particular placement, ingrained in the stone beside the door of the precinct presents members of the police force as angelic protectors to people passing by and those going in and out of the building. As civilians pass the precinct and encounter this image it not only reminds them of the role police officers play in their society, but the angelic imagery associates this role with religious ideologies. The artist's choice to add angel wings represents the ways in which religious understandings of the world are intertwined with American definitions of and perspectives on social institutions. Just as the way American money declaring "in God we trust" places American economic activity in a religious context, this painting places American social power structures in a religious context by connecting police-powerful “protectors” in America-with angels-holy, guardian figures in various theological traditions.The image creates a sense of religious reverence for police officers and their work which contributes to a definition of America that is based in religion.

The image holds a particular significance given contemporary tensions surrounding police and civilian relationships in America. Throughout history, and still today, American police officers have been criticized for unfairly targeting racial minorities in their accusations and treatment of criminals. This was seen in class in the way Richard was treated and severely traumatized in Baldwin’s ”Go Tell it on the Mountain.” Recent debate surrounding officers’ accountability and what some consider too frequent abuses of power have increased tensions between civilians and police. A depiction of a police officer with American flag angel wings on the streets of New York enforces the idea that police officers play a positive, almost holy role in America, and thus works against the narrative of police brutality, attempting to make New Yorkers view the police force in a positive light.

        The precinct where this painting is located is a place where people go to serve time when they have committed what is considered to be a crime in America. The image of a police officer as an angel outside where the arrested come in and out also creates the sense of a religious based justice to the American criminal justice system. Associating American police officers with angels in this image implies that the people coming into this building are serving justice under a religious authority in addition a federal one. This is a continuation of a long history of the American government incorporating religious ideas into law, order, and justice. Just as the pledge of allegiance states America is “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all,” the image enforces the concept that police have a religious obligation to deliver justice and protect the country. This image thus subtly works to shape a nationalistic ideology of American society that is founded in religious thought.