A.C.A.B.

ACAB graffiti in Barriera di Milano, Turin, Italy

A.C.A.B. is an anti-police acronym meaning "All Coppers Are Bastards".^[1] It is used as a slogan and written catchphrase in graffiti, tattoos, and other imagery.

History

Director Sidney Hayers used the phrase as the title of his 1972 crime drama All Coppers Are..., and the Dictionary of Catchphrases states that while the acronym — later seen in 1977 by a Newcastle journalist written on the walls of a prison cell — may be no older than the 1970s, the full phrase may date back as far as the 1920s.^[2][3] The 4-Skins, a British Oi! punk band, popularized the acronym A.C.A.B. in their 1980s song of the same name.^[4]

Usage

A Montreal police car spray-painted with "ACAB" during the 2012 Quebec student protests

The acronym is often integrated into prison tattoos in the United Kingdom, commonly rendered as one letter per finger, alternatively sometimes seen as symbolic small dots across each knuckle.^[5]

Punishment

• Brian Stableford's 2009 Exotic Encounters states that "many years ago" during a fad for wearing ACAB shirts, a British youth was arrested for incitement to riot for wearing one, and ineffectively claimed the shirt stood for "All Canadians Are Bastards".^[6]
• On 7 January 2011, three Ajax football fans in the Netherlands were fined for wearing T-shirts with the numbers 1312 printed on them, the numbers standing for "ACAB" by assigning each letter a numeric value (1=A, 2=B, 3=C).^[7]
• In Germany both "ACAB" and "1312" have been deemed insults by state courts.^[8]
• On 4 July 2015, a girl in Alicante, Spain, was fined for wearing a T-shirt with the acronym "ACAB" printed on it.^[9]
• On 22 May 2016, a 34-year-old woman in Madrid, Spain, was charged under Article 37 of the Citizen Safety Law for carrying a bag displaying the acronym "ACAB" accompanied by the words "All Cats Are Beautiful".^[10] The charges were dropped 3 days later.^[11]

See also

• Criminal tattoos
• HWDP
• ACAB – All Cops Are Bastards, a 2012 Italian film

References

1. Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2014). The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-415-52720-0.
2. Elliot, Paul (2014). Studying the British Crime Film. Columbia University Press. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-1-906-73374-2.
3. Partridge, Eric (1986). A Dictionary of Catch Phrases. Taylor & Francis. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-415-05916-9.
4. Woodman, Gordon (2009). The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 57/2008. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 53. ISBN 978-3-643-10157-0.
5. Thompson, Tim; Black, Sue (2006). Forensic Human Identification: An Introduction. Taylor & Francis. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-8493-3954-7.
6. Stableford, Brian (2009). Exotic Encounters: Selected Reviews. Wildside Press LLC. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-434-45760-8.
7. "Football fans fined for anti-police t-shirt". DutchNews. 7 January 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
8. "Constitutional Court allows 'FCK CPS' sticker". The Local. 28 April 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
9. "Multa de 600 euros en Alicante por llevar una camiseta que pone "ACAB"". Yo Me Tiro Al Monte. 4 July 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2016. (Spanish)
10. Hancock, Jaime Rubio (24 May 2016). "All Cats Are Beautiful or All Cops Are Bastards?". El País. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
11. "Madrid police drop action against woman with All Cats Are Beautiful bag". El País. 25 May 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2016.

External links