Comment by ailideex | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ailideex | Hacker News Reader

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https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/counterfactual

> Contrary to the facts; untrue.

Your claim: "the first [police were] the Bow Street Runners".

Not your claim: "the first police force in an English speaking country was the Bow Street Runners"

The fact: The Bow Street Runners, created in 1749, were not the first police force as there were at least one other police force before them created in 1667 by King Louis XIV in France [1][2].

Your claim is contrary to the facts. i.e. it is counter factual. Not sure what about that is unclear to you.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police#Early_modern_policing

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_criminal_justice#In...

Also I would ask for a citation for your claim that the derogatory term for cops started before or with the Bow Street Runners but if we were to, colloquially speaking, face the facts, then it is not likely that you would be able to produce such a citation... you could always prove me wrong though.

>then it is not likely that you would be able to produce such a citation

I will prove you wrong. There's a citation to this usage in the OED back to 1811 that is specifically as I stated. If you had even tried to verify what you are writing you would have found this on your own. This is also flagrantly against this board's guidelines of arguing in good faith and not wasting time with flame bait writing such nonsense.

And look, if we're talking about an English word it is not unreasonable to reference the first instance of the word that language's country. But you sure did put effort in that point that technically speaking, there was an earlier police force, which also has almost no bearing on the idea that the word pig has been used to describe professional police for basically just as long as the english language would have been used to describe police.

> People have been calling police since the first ones, the Bow Street Runners.

Now:

> There's a citation to this usage in the OED back to 1811 that is specifically as I stated.

The Bow Street Runners were founded in 1749[1].

1811 is after they were founded so it does not really support your original claim. Which would require the use to have been <= 1749.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_Street_Runners?wprov=sfti1

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