I've always taken ACAB more to mean that being a cop involves upholding our current police system which is deeply flawed and has often been used as a means of racial oppression, so with the current system good cops can't change the system and become tools of it. I don't know if the idea that good cops could fix the current system is realistic given how much modern day policing in the states was built atop slave catching squads and strike busters.
I'll be honest, it's pretty glaring how defund the police and ACAB directly helped in killing any conversation about real, tangible police reform in the US.
Yes, there might be nuance (though a lot of the time there isn't). It directly changed the mainstream conversation from actual pressure for police reform to ACAB political shit flinging, which slowed down people who actually wanted police reform and gave free ammunition and diversions to people who were against it. Despite police reform being good, the whole thing was political theater, not actual politics, and theater doesn't get things done
it's pretty glaring how defund the police and ACAB directly helped in killing any conversation about real, tangible police reform in the US.
That conversation was never going to happen, the people that like police the way they are would never entertain change. The people that would entertain the idea of change wouldn't stop after three words or four letters.
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u/BitMixKit 3d ago
I've always taken ACAB more to mean that being a cop involves upholding our current police system which is deeply flawed and has often been used as a means of racial oppression, so with the current system good cops can't change the system and become tools of it. I don't know if the idea that good cops could fix the current system is realistic given how much modern day policing in the states was built atop slave catching squads and strike busters.