A.C.A.B. is an anti-police acronym meaning "All Coppers Are Bastards". It is used as a slogan and written catchphrase in graffiti, tattoos, and other imagery.
Video A.C.A.B.
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 initialism -- 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. The 4-Skins, a British Oi! punk band, popularized the initialism A.C.A.B. in their 1980s song of the same name.
Maps A.C.A.B.
Usage
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.
Controversy
- 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".
- 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).
- In Germany both "ACAB" and "1312" have been deemed insults by state courts.
- On 4 July 2015, a girl in Alicante, Spain, was fined for wearing a T-shirt with the acronym "ACAB" printed on it.
- 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". The charges were dropped 3 days later.
- On 15 September 2017, a man from Karlovac, Croatia posted a photomontage with the message "Fuck da Police A.C.A.B." from his Facebook profile. For this, he was later charged with violating the public order and fined EUR100 by the Misdemeanor Court in Karlovac.
See also
- Criminal tattoos
- HWDP
- ACAB - All Cops Are Bastards, a 2012 Italian film
References
External links
- Media related to A.C.A.B. at Wikimedia Commons
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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