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Why are the police often called pigs?

Question #124787. Asked by star_gazer.
Last updated Jan 19 2012.
Originally posted Jan 19 2012 12:28 AM.

Daaanieeel
Answer has 3 votes
Currently Best Answer
Daaanieeel
13 year member
105 replies

Answer has 3 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
"If you thought the term pig arose in the 1960s, you're in for a surprise. The OED cites an 1811 reference to a "pig" as a Bow Street Runner--the early police force, named after the location of their headquarters, before Sir Robert Peel and the Metropolitan Police Force (see above.) Before that, the term "pig" had been used as early as the mid-1500s to refer to a person who is heartily disliked.

The usage was probably confined to the criminal classes until the 1960s, when it was taken up by protestors. False explanations for the term involve the gas masks worn by the riot police in that era, or the pigs in charge of George Orwell's Animal Farm."

link http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2209/why-are-the-police-called-cops-pigs-or-the-fuzz

Jan 19 2012, 1:38 AM
gmackematix
Answer has 3 votes
gmackematix
21 year member
3194 replies

Answer has 3 votes.
The Straight Dope is often well researched but I see no evidence that the Bow Street Runners had an HQ with a porcine connection.

Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the Metropolitan Police Force who also obliged all UK cities to have a police force (hence police were called Peelers and are still called bobbies), was a keen breeder of pigs. The Tamworth pig originated on his estate and this may well have encouraged the references to his police as pigs.
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamworth_(pig)#History

The truth is we that don't really know but, as pigs are known for snuffling into things, just as a policeman's lot often involves having to nose into other people's business, perhaps the comparison was inevitable.

Jan 19 2012, 6:25 PM
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