Полицияға қарсы акроним: ACAB және оның мағынасы

Anti police acronym

ACAB, an acronym of the phrase "all cops are bastards", is a political slogan associated with people who are opposed to the police. It is typically written as a catchphrase in graffiti, tattoos or other imagery in public spaces. It is sometimes numerically rendered as "1312", representing the position of the letters in the English alphabet.

The phrase "all coppers are bastards" first appeared in England in the 1920s, British director Sidney Hayers also used a censored version as the title of his 1972 crime drama All Coppers Are In 1977, a Newcastle journalist saw it written on the walls of a prison cell. In the wake of the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by the police officer Derek Chauvin, the use of the term ACAB became more frequently used by those who oppose the police. As protests in response to Floyd's murder and discussions about racially motivated police violence spread through the United States, ACAB was more frequently referenced on social media and products bearing the acronym became available.

In Germany, usage of the term is a criminal offense when it refers to a single person. It is permitted when used to describe a large group of people. Both "ACAB" and "1312" have been deemed insults by state courts. In 2015, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in reference to the term "FCK CPS" (read as 'Fuck Cops') that an insult is only punishable when it is directed at a specific, identifiable group, but left interpretation of individual cases to the criminal courts. In Austria, the use of ACAB was seen as "violating public decency", which could be punished under administrative law, for example, using an administrative penal order. The fine could be up to 700 euros (or alternatively a week police detention). In 2019, the Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) ruled that treating the slogan as a violation of decency, in certain cases, violates the fundamental right to freedom of expression under Article 10 ECHR. The specific case involved a soccer fan who had waved an ACAB flag in the stadium. According to the VfGH, the banner should "primarily refer to the tense relationship between some football fans and the police and to express the negative attitude towards the police as part of the state's regulatory power" and should therefore "not be a concrete 'insult' to certain other people". Therefore, the criticism expressed "should be accepted with a view to the special meaning and function of freedom of expression in a democratic society, taking into account all circumstances of the case". In other European countries, there are examples of police action toward people using ACAB in some fashion. Brian Stableford's 2009 Exotic Encounters states that "many years ago" during a fad for wearing ACAB shirts, a British youth was arrested for incitement to riot for wearing one, and ineffectively claimed the shirt stood for "All Canadians Are Bastards". In January 2011, three Ajax football fans in the Netherlands were fined for wearing T shirts with the numbers 1312 printed on them. On 4 July 2015, a woman in Alicante, Spain, was fined for wearing a T shirt with the acronym "A. C. A. B." printed on it. On 22 May 2016, a 34 year old woman in Madrid, Spain, was charged under Article 37 of the Citizen Safety Law for carrying a bag displaying the acronym "A. C. A. B." accompanied by the words "All Cats Are Beautiful". The charges were dropped 3 days later. On 15 September 2017, a man from Karlovac, Croatia posted a photomontage with the message "Fuck da Police A. C. A. B." from his Facebook profile. For this, he was later charged with violating the public order and fined €100 by the Misdemeanor Court in Karlovac. On 4 April 2019, a 26 year old ice hockey fan was arrested for wearing a T shirt that had a numeric version of ACAB, 1312. "A. C. A. B." and 1312 are both considered "extremist information" in Belarus. Prosecution on the grounds of ACAB being offensive is not limited to Europe. In 2018, a group of Persija Jakarta football fans in Indonesia were arrested for displaying a banner with the message "All Cops Are Bastards" on it during the league match day. Following a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, 15 protesters were charged with assisting a criminal street gang for using the phrase "all cops are bastards" while wearing black clothes and carrying umbrellas. The police officers who arrested them said the protesters were members of "a group known as ACAB All Cops Are Bastards." Criminal charges against the protestors were dropped and a probe characterized the case as "deeply flawed", "insubstantial", and lacking credible evidence in support of the claim that "ACAB" is a gang.