ACAB includes:
- The goth chick from NCIS.
- The fuckable bunny from Zootopia.
- The cyborg lady from Ghost in the Shell.
- That cool cyborg cop from Robocop.
And many more…
It feels like Robocop spent more time fighting other law enforcement than anybody else
Even Rin Tin Tin.
NCIS is propaganda.
All cop shows are propaganda!
Yep… copaganda.
Even CHiPs?
yes, genuinely. California Highway Patrol didn’t collaborate with the producers for nothing
Can I still enjoy the cheesy theme song?
I feel like ACAB is just like the “all men are rapists”. Yes, there are nice men and nice cops. ACAB does not mean that every single one of them is a fascist, but due the the systematic issues surrounding these groups and their behaviour, you as a citizen/woman just can’t trust that that this specific cop/man isn’t a bad one. Thus, all cops are bastards and all men are rapists, just to be safe.
Sounds more like justifying reasons to hate without having reasons.
Well the ACAB thing is actually justifiable, people try to keep their ingroup save, even if they don’t like specific individuals in that ingroup and understandable people outside that group really really don’t like that bullshit which is fair. add to that that Murica’s culture is pretty cancerous and voilà.
While on the other hand you have sexist incel rhetoric.
Maybe they’re both absolutist, misleading, and fairly unhelpful?
Does ACAB include police dogs?
No, the good bois are being forced to act as bad bois :(
Bad Bois bad Bois, what you want, what you want, whatcha gonna do?
ACAB includes Captain Raymond Holt from Brooklyn 99.
How dare you
He is a character meant to uphold the idea that the system can be changed from within while making the police force out to be a kookie fun place.
A fun show, at least until season 5 started explaining the punchlines, but it’s not without issue.
They’re out of line, but they are correct.
Does ACAB include judge Dred?
He is technically a judge…
AJAB
Imma be pedantic about this one: judges are not in the same part of the three separate parts of power as the police (at least commonly in democracies). Technically they are supposed to keep the cops in check and be a neutral independent instance.
In reality: most judges are bastards too if you have any qualm with the police, because that often translates to problems with state authority which includes them as well, which more often than not makes them allies to the cops.
In Dredd’s universe a “Judge” is a cop, judge and executioner.
So they are kind of ACAB+ or ACAB allys
ACJAB
Acab doesn’t cover judges. Doesn’t mean they can’t be bastards, just means they aren’t cops.
A lot of a judges job is making sure procedure is followed. Police and DAs are generally pretty good at the paperwork, and working with them regularly means they have a relationship, which they don’t with defence.
I’d say all judges are complicit.
ACAB includes the two pairs of shoes walking towards the camera in the intro to The Bill in the 90s.
All Cops Are Bastards
Or
Assigned Cunt At Birth
All Capybaras Are Best.
Even the cops in Superbad
Don’t spit in that cops burger
Those are the super troopers
Correct
acab includes paw patrol
Does ACAB include former-detective Monk and Shawn Spencer?
self-indulgent answer
First of all, a police force hiring a former member as a contractor who’s now on medical disability for having a mental break and severe regression in his OCD is super problematic but also the lousy portrayal of what OCD is definitely pushed back public understanding of OCD by at least a decade
Shawn Spencer is an even worse example. He literally was trained by his detective dad to be an amazing detective, he then ends up contracting with the police force to do detective work while actively damaging evidence in his wacky “psychic visions” he causes members of the police force to believe in mystic pseudoscience because “this psychic detective is amazing, obviously other mystical workers are just as incredible at what they do!”, he causes the police force to directly pay a psychic contractor. And let’s be real, his motive is primarily trying to get with Detective Lassator’s partner who at worst puts up with his antics and at best is vaguely amused by him
In regards to paw patrol, I feel that
- The cop dog is constantly saving the day even by doing other dogs’ jobs even when he shouldn’t be stepping in
- There are no clever stories in that universe
- Every single problem they face could be permanently solved by a Belgian Malinois with a Barret 50cal
The entire show is written so lazily it’s just another form of slop. I have a paw patrol book we got at a garage sale where one windmill at a windmill farm stops spinning because one of the blades broke causing a power outage, so they use a surf board as a replacement blade and the day is saved. Literally not how any of this works and they could’ve spent 5 minutes researching windmills and made an actually educational story but instead they went for slop.
Y’know how they could’ve written it to be more educational? Maybe one of the windmills had a motor issue and the power flickered due to the frequency being off, so they first go to the substation and switch off the power flow from the wind farm to just pull in from other sources, then they repair the windmill motor then restore the connection from the wind farm. Its still lazy, it doesn’t teach much but it at least doesn’t teach kids that if they see a stopped windmill to panic that there will be a power outage.
There’s also literally an episode where the paw patrol gang influences an election. The villain was set to win the local election so the paw patrol gang goes into an advertising blitz to drown out the bad guy’s underdog (hehe) campaign but it’s all okay because the Right Person won the election! I saw this one while my kids were spending time with their trump voting grandparents
Every time my daughter asks for Paw Patrol I say “nope we’re not watching copaganda” and I look forward to whenever she repeats that to people. When the kids are older I’ll probably explain to them about slop vs quality shows. Like, I’ve learned things from the kids watching Curious George, like what should and shouldn’t go into compost bin or to just use a pair of pliers when driving a nail so you don’t risk hitting your fingers. I want my kids watching shows that actually help them understand the real world, not just slop that’s made to mesmerize them with pretty colors and catchy lines then turns around to sell them a line of merch
ACAB includes the Zootopia rabbit
Dude, if you look at Zootopia objectively, remove all the personal connections and relationships to the characters… (spoilers ahead)
Judy was hired through a DEI-type program (assistant mayor Bellweather mentioned something about a “mammal inclusion initiative” that got her hired), which is normally a good thing, but they kind of play it like that’s the only reason she got a shot at being a cop. Bunnies aren’t cops in this world. The police academy was specifically designed for larger, more powerful mammals. Judy had to circumvent traditional training protocol and use her cadets’ power and size to assist her in order to graduate.
She goes off-book on her first day. Chases a supposed criminal, causing all sorts of mayhem and damage across town. Insubordination against her boss. But she doesn’t get fired, thanks to her political connections.
When she’s given a high-profile case to work (again, thanks to connections with the assistant mayor), with no resources to access, she partners with a known shifty scam artist off the street. Blackmails him with tax fraud to cooperate (instead of turning him in). Coerces him to climb a fence so she’d have “probable cause” to investigate the area without a warrant. Basically finding loopholes to circumvent official processes.
She also manages to become part of the family in the local mafia. After a single visit to the mafia, she becomes the godmother of the mob boss’ granddaughter. She even uses them later to intimidate a witness to make him talk. Literally threatens to murder the suspect if he doesn’t talk!
Then there’s the fact that she single-handedly caused the fall of two separate regimes! First, she takes down the mayor for kidnapping predators, then she takes out the next mayor for causing predators to “go savage.”
Then she gets the shifty scam artist hired into the police force as her new partner!
From an outside perspective, she’s an extremely crooked cop that abuses her position, uses political connections to get her way, makes exceptions for criminals to gain access to police resources, and violates the rights of citizens. ACAB definitely applies to Judy.
Yeah but when do we have sex with her?
What about rule 34 Zootopia rabbit?
Especially her
How bad?
Including Paw Patrol?
Especially Paw Patrol.
Seriously if anyone has kids, have them watch some of the shows on PBS Kids. Most are far less annoying than the slop Disney’s been producing for the 2-6 age group, and all are far more educational.
Like, Daniel tiger is annoying but at least teaches good stuff (I’ve literally referenced it while teaching my kids something to help reinforce), but there’s some really good shows on there like Molly from Denali, Alma’s Way, Hero Elementary, Wild Krats, and Carl the Collector. Better paced, better animation and a million times better writing, plus they all happen to be shows from different human perspectives than just a random talking mouse or talking dog teaching a corporate-approved malaise
And lots of them have little jokes or nods to the adults too!
That too! I honestly enjoyed all 6 of the Curious George movies! The Molly from Denali movie was pretty cool too (at one point the mom who flies a small plane professionally has to explain that she isn’t qualified to fly the helicopter into the blizzard to save a friend who’s trapped on the mountain!)
friends don’t let friends raise their kids on the police state
All dogs go to heaven. Except the class traitors of paw patrol
Rin Tin Tin? :(
Paw Patrol is Copaganda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwhUpu9MfZ0
It includes my cat, when she seizes control of her cardboard house and polices it so the other cat stays away. She’s a cute bastard, but still a bastard!
Oh wait she’s always a bastard, even when not being a cop. Because she can’t stop being a cat. So I guess it’s more “ACAB” for “all cats are bastards” in her case.
Cats are also bastards, but not as sick or sadistic as pigs.
Idk you should see how they treat any mice they get their paws on…
Yeah i grew up with cats.
You’ve never had a serious police encounter, or had to out a survivor back together.
Oh yeah I’ve put some mice out of their misery after getting mortally maimed by my cats.
But I’m thankful that the worst police encounter I’ve had was some idiot officer investigating my house because I have playground equipment in my yard and they found a nonverbal toddler unaccompanied across town (smallish town) so therefore I must be connected in some way because I’m clearly a parent? Idk what their thought process was but when the town’s elementary school has about 300 students (I did a rough count at the last event they ran out of curiosity), spending an hour investigating the first parent you see seems like a very inefficient use of police resources
They are not allowed to be smart.
All cats are bobbies
ACAB includes B99
(Except Rosa, she quit)
Jake quit to be a stay at home dad.
I heard (don’t remember where, could be true, could be right out of someone’s ass) that the reason the show ended is many of them started feeling bad about doing a light-hearted fun show about cops. Basically the actors all started feeling like Rosa.
- The writing staff literally threw out their scripts and rewrote the final season to try addressing the climate surrounding police violence.
- Stephanie Beatriz tweeted that any actor who makes high number residuals from producing copaganda should donate part of their checks to organizations combating police violence and corruption—she included a screenshot of her $11,000 donation to a couple of charities.
- On the show, her character, Rosa, literally stated that George Floyd was the reason she couldn’t continue working as a cop and instead became a PI who investigates corruption on behalf of civilian victims.
- The cast and crew collectively donated $100,000 to combat police corruption and violence.
- The main villain of the final season was lawyer or union leader or whatever who enabled and encouraged police corruption, citing anti-white hate and how it’s racist to call someone racist.
- I think it was Terry Crews who said in an interview that the show considered how it could possibly evolve into less problematic first responders or something, but that anything other than pointing out their issues and ending the show felt wrong. I can’t remember exactly what was said, and I’d already spent far too much time reading interviews to refresh my memory.
- Andre Braugher reflected on his career of copaganda and how he himself had fallen into the trap of how the media sweeps the police problem under the rug.
I’m sure there’s other stuff, but I’ve already spent an inappropriate amount of time on this comment.
Fin.
I think the final season had some nods to that.
Who’s Rosa?
One of the characters in the show. I think she quit to become a P.I. because she didn’t want to be a part of a bigoted system anymore.
She quit to be a P.I. that specifically investigated police misconduct. There was a great episode where she got water tight evidence to nail a cop and brought it to the police commissioner, who thanked her and destroyed it.
The commissioner believed that prosecuting the cop would have gotten her removed from office and “someone worse” would take over, and she considered herself “one of the good ones.”
it was a captain working towards commissioner, but yeah, that’s the episode summary. it ends with jake, the writer’s room’s go to self insert character, saying “i guess i am part of the problem and figuring out how to fix that is harder than i thought”
the final episodes leave the impression that jakes decision to retire is driven solely by fatherhood, but the overall season implies that jake both wants to be a present father and to raise a son who has a dad who’s a former cop rather than a cop. obviously he still supports his cop wife, amy, but i think there’s a lot of meat there to that jake views her work reforming the nypd and their sexist biggoted ways that he’s spent the last 2 years finally seeing as important to making new york a meaningfully better place.
i also think it’s important to note that one of jake’s last acts as a police detective is slipping a pen into his non-violent criminal friend’s pocket so he can escape from prison.
look. brooklyn 99 is copaganda but it’s the one piece of copaganda i recommend people check out because there’s very much eras to it and as a piece of media it reveals an interesting shift in american politics. it’s a unique relic for this reason, and it’s probably the safest piece of copaganda to expose someone to without risking them leaving thinking the police stats is good. but anyway the eras of brooklyn 99 are:
- uncritical celebration of the television staples of workplace comedy and cop show
- cop show as social critique of racial injustice with an undercritical view of the role of copaganda in racial injustice
- hopeful projection of what would be possible if community policing was focused on care rather than punishment
- exhausted and frustrated deconstruction of copaganda, seemingly from the perspective of that the making of this show that they had loved working on, and loved working on together, was from the beginning a naive mistake
and remember kids: problematic media from a prior age should be celebrated for having become problematic. problematic media from a prior age means the overall narrative has shifted. brooklyn 99 was once beloved by liberal audiences and now leaves them uncomfortable. brooklyn 99 hasn’t changed. it can’t. it’s over. but the culture’s relationship to it has because our shared understanding of ourselves and eachother has. now we can get our detective show fix from something like Poker Face where the detective is a drifter on the run from the mafia and the fbi, and all the cops are in the pocket of a powerful rich man.
It was so obviously propaganda and dumb especially the Halloween episodes. It was liked by people who think America is the good guy and Iraq really had weapons of mass destruction. Ah man did you see they are making a top gun 3!
Mike Schur is a fucking genius, and yeah you can definitely see his opinions shift over the course of B99
does it include lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium?
I’d say that’s a unique case. The Revachol Citizens’ Militia sold out to the Moralintern in exchange for legitimacy and vested authority, but by the end of the game they’re about to betray the Moralintern and side with a workers’ uprising. Afterwards they’ll probably still be a police force, but they’ll get their legitimacy from an independent Revachol rather than an occupying force, which is at least better.
Both Kim and the protagonist.
I’m on record saying that DE is one of the best reflections on the nature of investigative police work in any medium, but just look at it. Is anyone’s life actually better by the end?
Sooooort of. Look at what the revachol citizens militia actually is
But also yes, look at the shit he lets you get away with while being the only obe empowered to stop you.
Please. Delete this. I’ll pretend I didn’t see it
my playthrough of disco elysium involved my dubois committing a ton of time to useless shit specifically because ACAB, even if me and this delightful man are those cops. so some simple sabotage is in order. we’re just gonna waste a bunch of time doing nothing
Does ACAB include Ghost in the Shell’s Major Motoko Kusanagi?
Tell me you haven’t read the manga without telling me you haven’t read the manga by asking that question…
Yes, it applies to her, like a hundred times over! Coming from someone who disagrees with ACAB. But that woman is just flat out a murderous criminal. The animes really play it down, but
The Ghost in the Shell (original manga)
She literally ends up taking a hostage with the plan of faking her own death in the following hostage rescue to escape murder charges after comparing her work killing some guy (who didn’t really do anything besides sitting on a chair) that she spotted a mere second earlier (her correction to the prosecutor: “0.82 seconds”) to that of a “waste treatment plant” in trial.
Her biggest smile in the entire manga is in the recollection of when she was setting things up so that a known terrorist will shoot his own underage son through a door. (“The kid was like sixteen, but he was bragging about how he killed two of our men.”)
Lol, I’ve read It’s great btw, I love the footnotes in the margins. And as someone that agrees with ACAB and is pro-abolishment, I knew that the answer was yes before posting.
yes, though I hesitate to call GITS copoganda as a whole. There’s definitely some iterations of it that are, but there’s also some that show that the ruling class controlling Section 9 are corrupt, and Kusanagi has to leave the force to pursue justice because the cops can’t provide it.
does it include the tatchkomas? (forgive spelling, old lazy stoned guy)
Sadly, yes. Tatchkomas don’t have fathers.
I guess that depends on whether you consider lab technicians cops.
It includes Keanu Reeves in Point Break
You mean the guy who recklessly fires his gun in random directions because he can’t control his emotions?
Yeah… ACAB
And speed. And Sandra Bullock in Heat!
And all of Miss congeniality.
They predicted AI nudify apps…
