Police as "pigs"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:00:12 -0500, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

>Berkeley students were calling police "pigs" as early as the Sproul Hall
>Sit-In of December 1964.  From the Free Speech Movement Archives:
>
>     http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1v19p3vr/
>     Summary of the Sproul Hall Sit In and Arrests
>
>     Police officers were apparently goaded by the passive courage
>     demonstrated by most students. They were called "commies,"
>     "pigs," "whores" and other similar names.
>
>It's unclear from this, however, if "pig" was already a specific epithet
>for a police officer or just a general term of abuse.

Ah, never mind.  Now that I reread this section, it seems clear that the
police officers were calling the students "pigs" and not vice versa!

--Ben Zimmer