I'm convinced most people still don't understand what "all cops are bastards" actually means.
"bUt My UnClE/dAd/BrOtHeR/fRiEnD iS a CoP" Yeah, now imagine how many situations where they had to bite their tongue and look away because interfering would lose their job.
Even the "good" cops aren't really good because even if they try to stop other cops from being bad they'll be punished. Being a cop is just being in a govt sanctioned gang.
Society. And more than just the police. It's not the people in the police, it's the society that makes them like that. ACAB makes it sound like the police exist in a vacuum where the politicians and businesses and media and vitersthat create this situation don't exist.
It's no secret that the system is shit. We all are victims of capitalism. And it IS traumatizing. However, if half of all retail workers started engaging in corruption and race based violence, we'd say ARWAB. It's already been established in legalese that police are "agents of the state" and that their only purpose is to protect capital and capital owners. Anyone who thinks that joining the police force is going to help them give back to their community are naive idiots. ACAB.
If retail workers started engaging in violence I wouldn't imagine that all retail workers had suddenly become bastards, I would ask wtf is going on systemically to create that outcome.
All cops use violence to enforce unjust laws. They do it willingly. It's not that some are violent - ACAB is a reference to bastardry being a necessary trait of someone that becomes a cop.
“the system is shit” doesn’t really convey much meaning. it isn’t clear.
describing why the system is shit, especially to those who watched their beloved family member become “one of the good guys” in the force can be more helpful.
I called it circlejerking because we (the circle) all know what you mean by “the system is shit”, and it feels good to say because it is true. but to someone outside the circle, we look like a bunch of degenerates, criminal appologists, reverse-racists, etc..
IMO, at best, it identifies a symptom of the issue that requires change.
Look, i don't agree with you about the optics and helpfulness of ACAB but I agree with you that police are a major problem in the US and I'd welcome reform.