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Comment by colechristensen | Hacker News Reader

There are many people who are apologists for the police abolition movement (or whatever it should be called).

I’m sorry but it is quite obvious that a whole lot of people carrying around ACAB (all cops are bad) and “defund the police” signs don’t go along with the this-is-what-they-actually-mean explanations. They mean to have their message taken at face value.

I saw myself spraypainted on a Minneapolis building “actually defund the police”. it is hard to reinterpret all cops are bad as anything but the obvious, and it is quite popular.

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ACAB stands for All Cops Are Bastards. Urban Dictionary is always a good source for this kind of thing: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ACAB

Urban Dictionary can say what it wants, I saw many signs in protests, in media coverage of protests, and on social media with All Cops Are Bad and zero with Bastards. Both in first hand experience seeing with my own eyes the messaging people who are saying it and through various means of showing someone else's message.

It's definitely All Cops Are Bastards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.C.A.B.

Everything is vastly more complex than those signs. Sure that's the effort and motivation, end goal of protesters but that isn't a plan to accomplish it. Protest leaders and linked organizations need to draft those plans and lobby local/state/federal officials to pass such legislation and create change via compromise. At some point that change will satisfy the bulk of protesters and the movement will slow until momentum is built back up.

It's a compromise and likely won't come easy or fast given current federal government setup. But other than generational change (ie old people who are heavily conservative die off so younger, more liberal people become the voting base) likely combined with removing money from Us politics (no easy fight there) I doubt it will happen soon.

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