"National is the party of law and order, [and] in government, will back police by giving them a range of ... powers to disrupt and crack down on ... crime," a party policy statement from the last election said. Photo / NZME
"National is the party of law and order, [and] in government, will back police by giving them a range of ... powers to disrupt and crack down on ... crime," a party policy statement from the last election said. Photo / NZME
The National Party has hastily deleted a social media post that included the anti-police slogan “ACAB” on a wall in the background of the photo.
Social media users were quick to notice the slogan, an acronym standing for “all cops are bastards”.
The photo was posted to Instagramearlier today.
Stuff said it was captioned with the party’s plans to “up the game on major events so New Zealand can host more concerts, sports, festivals and gigs”.
The photo was a self-portrait taken by pop star Dua Lipa.
It had been doctored so the singer-songwriter’s T-shirt read, “More concerts are coming to New Zealand”.
“National is the party of law and order, [and] in government, will back police by giving them a range of ... powers to disrupt and crack down on ... crime,” a party policy statement from the last election said.
The Herald has approached the National Party for comment.
An Instagram post on the National Party page about changing rules for concerts and sports games. The post features singer Dua Lipa and the phrase ACAB on the wall, standing for "all cops are bastards".
Writing for GQ magazine, writer Colin Groundwater said the acronym first appeared in England early in the 1900s.
It was abbreviated to “ACAB” by striking workers in the 1940s, he said.
After being used in a headline in the Daily Mirror in 1970, the phrase found a home in punk music and its subcultures.
The Mirror’s story was about a teenager who had it embroidered on his jacket after copying it from a Hells Angel member he had seen, Groundwater said.
The term was then taken up by anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements around the world.
He said the term had found renewed prominence in the US movements against anti-police brutality, such as Black Lives Matter.
The United States-based Anti-Defamation League lists “ACAB” as a hate slogan “of long standing” in the skinhead subculture.
The organisation says the phrase should be “carefully judged in the context in which it appears”.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from Tāmaki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
