"pig" as policeman

[Jonathan Lighter]

I remember the PIG acronym as well.  It may have been in 1969 or ' 70.

  I do not look back to the '60s fondly.  Does anyone - born before, say, 1956?

  JL

"Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
Subject: Re: "pig" as policeman
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Yes, I remember it very well in connection with the Black Panthers. One =
of their favorite expressions was "Off [=3D kill] the pigs!"
In 1968 I moved to Missouri and a year or so later gave a presentation =
to a Jewish discussion group consisting of university faculty.
At one point I happened to mention that bestiality is expressly =
forbidden, and I still remember one of the participants jumping up with =
a sudden burst of inspiration and declaring: "'Off the pigs' is =
Talmudic!"
=20
Gerald Cohen
P.S. Btw, I also remember a newspaper story in the late 1960's of an =
attempt at one police station (perhaps more) to give a favorable =
interpretation to "pig" (=3D policeman). The interpretation was that =
"pig" stands for Pride, Integrity, Guts, and the sergeant at the station =
had a tie clasp in the shape of a little pig. The attempt to give "pig" =
this new interpretation never caught on, however.

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Wed 8/9/2006 11:03 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "pig" as policeman



There have been a few brief exchanges about this on the list. I am =
surprised (nay, astounded) that no one has connected the 1960's and =
later use of the word to the once infamous Black Panther Party, which =
not only encouraged and popularized this usage, but seems to have =
independently coined and reintroduced it to the American vocabulary. =
High-school and college kids are still using it, as are a million =
others.

When the term surfaced in the news in 1968, it was first in connection =
with the Panthers and then other political radicals, notably Jerry Rubin =
and Abby Hoffman.

No one who doesn't remember the period 1967-1973 in America can =
readily imagine the _Zeitgeist_.

Here's the earliest ex. of the Panthers' use I've discovered - not =
atypical of Panther rhetoric and philosophy, esp. in the arts :

1968 _Black Panther_ (Oakland, Calif.) (May 18), in Clayborne Carson & =
Philip S. Foner _The Black Panthers Speak_ (Phila..: Lippincott, 1970) =
18: We draw pictures of our brothers with stoner guns with one bullet =
going through forty pigs and taking out their intestines along the =
way....pictures of pigs hanging by their tongues wrapped with barbed =
wire connected to your local power plant.

A little later that year, "Yippie" "co-founder" (the organization was =
a hoax) Hoffman expressed his view that "pig" was the "perfect" term for =
police, though "not insulting enough."

Former Panther official David Hilliard recalls that a novelty postcard =
received by Eldridge Cleaver satirizing the '60's catch-phrase, "Support =
Your Local Police," illustrated with a cartoon of a hog, suggested the =
use of the word (_Huey: Spirit of the Panther_, Thunder's Mouth Press, =
2006, p. 52). The creator of the postcard is, of course, unknown.

JL

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