"pig" as policeman

[Laurence Horn]

>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

I do.  To the extent that I remember them.

LH (1945-    )

>
>"Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
>Subject: Re: "pig" as policeman
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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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