"pig" as policeman

[Robert Fitzke]

Who was it who said. "Anyone who can remember the sixties wasn't there".

I do, I have three kids who started the sixties ages 2, 5, and 12. Yes I do.

Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 5:48 PM
Subject: Re: "pig" as policeman


> >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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