A Brief History of the Word Pig as Slang for Police
by Adam Ortega
Graphic Credit: Lyndsay Dunn
The word “pig” has become synonymous with “police” in some circles. Its use in reference to police is highly polarizing with most police and their supporters calling the term derogatory and disrespectful. Until recently though, the term hasn’t had much use publically in Omaha.
Then last month (June 2021), the Revolutionary Action Party (RAP), a local prison-abolitionist organization, hosted what they called a “pig roast” to protest the Omaha Police Officers’ Association’s (OPOA) controversial mailers targeting former City Council candidate Cammy Watkins. The campaign mailer used imagery alluding to the destruction of Omaha if Watkins, a Black woman, was elected. The event took place at Montclair Park near 135th and Center Street just a block away from the OPOA union hall. The gathering featured speakers from RAP calling upon the Omaha Police Department to stop unnecessary community violence. The crowd marched to OPOA headquarters and scattered severed pig heads wearing costume police uniform hats around the property.
author’s note: rap commented publicly on noise’s post regarding the LANGUAGE used to DESCRIBE their organization. it was first published that the group aims for police reform. However, the revolutionary action party BELIEVES iN prison and police abolition, not refORm.
According to RAP: “It should be noted that we take our characterization of the word “pig” from the analysis of the Revolutionary Black Panther Party who teach us, "A pig is an ill-natured beast who has no respect for law and order, a foul traducer who's usually found masquerading as a victim on an unprovoked attack.”
Also according to RAP’s 10 Point Philosophy, “We believe in the abolition of the prison system that perpetuates modern day slavery and disproportionately affects People of Color.”
After a tense confrontation with police in the parking lot of their union hall, officers ordered the crowd to disperse citing an unlawful assembly was taking place. At least six arrests were made that night - the majority for charges of trespassing and unlawful assembly. Following the event, there was an outcry from local leaders calling the event disrespectful - with Mayor Stothert saying residents “are fed up with hateful and divisive acts,” referring to the protest, but not the campaign mailer. Politicians denounced the event on social media with Gov. Ricketts tweeting “This is disgusting and vile. Our men and women in blue who put their lives on the line deserve our respect and support.”
This is disgusting and vile. Our men and women in blue who put their lives on the line deserve our respect and support. We are a law and order state and will work to stop anti-cop movements that want to defund the police. #BackTheBlue https://t.co/BV8Qs6NPxK
— Gov. Pete Ricketts (@GovRicketts) May 23, 2021
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In light of the roast, NOISE is digging into how the word pig came to mean police presence. This means a brief dip into the field of etymology - the study of the history of words and their meanings—analyzing the historical development and context of the word pig as slang. Its origins are British, however, the word wasn’t just used in reference to police. According to National Public Radio’s A Way With Words, its first use was a general derogatory term for anyone who is disagreeable, overweight or taking more than their share.
In 1874, a slang dictionary published in London listed the definition of pig as “a policeman, an informer. The word is now almost exclusively applied by London thieves to a plain-clothes man, or a ‘nose.’” Still, it’s a bit ambiguous why the term pig was coined in connection to police, but perhaps it was an allusion to early officers and detectives who were sniffing out crime, like a pig sniffs with its snout. This would make sense in correlation with the term “nose” as used above.
Flash forward a hundred years and the word pig saw a resurgence in use for police in the late 1960s. The term was used by protestors and event organizers during the 1968 Democratic National Convention and popularized in the media. A group calling themselves the “Yippies” protested outside the Chicago convention opposing the Vietnam War. The activists carried an actual pig named Pigasus as their presidential candidate, and later called officers “pigs” when told to disband the demonstration. Immediately after, press headlines blared, “Police Called Pigs.” According to International Business Times, the newfound publicity propelled the term to become popular among younger people and the disenchanted.
Yippies uplifting their presidential candidate, Pigasus the pig, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Julian Wasser/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
The Black Panther Party referenced police officers as pigs in the 60s as well. In 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale officially developed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) in Oakland, Calif. Their goal was to serve the needs of oppressed communities and “defend them against their oppressors,” said Newton explaining the creation of the BPP. The group was involved in violent showdowns and dramatic trials that defined the BPP in the national news - often overshadowing the “urban survival programs'' they ran to uplift their communities. Seale delivered a memorial speech for the death of 18-year old Bobby Hutton, the first recruit of the Black Panther Party, at the Kaleidoscope Theater in Los Angeles in 1968. According to American Public Media’s Say It Plain, Say It Loud, around 600 people, many white, crammed into the theater to listen to Seale’s speech and to grieve.
Bobby Seale via American RadioWorks and Say It Plain Say It Loud.
This is a recorded, transcribed instance of the word pig being used to refer to police in a speech. Seale starts by telling a story about a man who was wandering the woods looking for a spring that was supposed to have clear, clean water to drink. Essentially, the story depicts the clean water spring as having been ruined and toxic because of pigs - “There’s a hog in the spring, and a lot of those pigs are running around too in the spring [...] All we want is a little freedom, all we want is a clear drink of water, but there’s a hog in the spring.”
Seale’s speech is a powerful allegory containing dozens of metaphors directly referring to the police as animalistic authoritative figures. “Politics starts with a pig crushing us across our skull and murdering our people,” he said.
Etymology, the study of words, isn’t an exact science. Words and their meanings pop up, become popular, find their way into print and sometimes change over time. The term pig is a long-time metaphor used to deflate and insult any authority figure. Although it has a negative connotation for members of the establishment, the counterculture has long adopted the word pig as a battle cry against its perceived oppressors.
