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Wanneer: 13/12/2017 - 13:44

A.C.A.B. is an anti-police acronym. It’s an abbreviation for “All Cop[per]s Are Bastards”. Today, the A.C.A.B. we can find on many walls and slogans in graffiti, tattoo’s and another graphic which has the main goal to show antipathy against law enforcement and police.

The first appearing of this acronym in public is in 1977 when a journalist from Newcastle spent the night in prison. He documented A.C.A.B. acronym written on prison walls. He published book “The Dictionary of Catchphrases” where it is written that A.C.A.B. acronym is from early 1970th and can’t be older until full meaning of words coming from 1920. British punk band, the 4.Skins populated acronym A.C.A.B.through their song with the same name during 1980-es.The 4-Skins, a British Oi! punk band, popularized the initialism A.C.A.B. in their 1980s song of the same name.

The acronym is often integrated into prison tattoos in the United Kingdom, commonly rendered as one letter per finger, alternatively sometimes seen as symbolic small dots across each knuckle. Using of ACAB, as we mentioned is most popular in the world of sports fans, especially football ones and their ULTRAS culture. It’s not weird to see graffiti, t-shirts, transparent and other equipment of football hooligan “decorated” with these symbols and acronyms. It’s their way to show their anger against police and law enforcement.

In past years, publishing of ACAB in public, in many countries was forbidden by law, so the football fans created an alternative. The new synonym 1312 means same as ACAB and that was a way to override laws in some countries. 1312 means that every number is one letter (1312=A.C.A.B., where 1 stands for A, 3 stands for C, 1 stands for A and 2 stands for B what fits the letters from the English alphabet).

Today, in most countries in Europe, publishing of these symbols is forbidden by law and punishable as a minor offense because it’s recognized as inappropriate behavior and abutment on riots.

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".
On 7 January 2011, three Ajax football fans in the Netherlands were fined for wearing T-shirts with the numbers 1312 printed on them, the numbers standing for "ACAB" by assigning each letter a numeric value (1=A, 2=B, 3=C).
In Germany both "ACAB" and "1312" have been deemed insults by state courts.
On 4 July 2015, a girl in Alicante, Spain, was fined for wearing a T-shirt with the acronym "ACAB" 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 "ACAB" accompanied by the words "All Cats Are Beautiful". The charges were dropped 3 days later.

Read more: https://gatorna.info/threads/1312-or-acab-1107/