"pig" as policeman

[Paul Johnston]

I do.  Born 1950.
Paul  Johnston
On Aug 9, 2006, at 7:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "pig" as policeman
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>
> 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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