Thanks for the question Dav! My quick answer to the “Hey what about my uncle?” objection is that I do not contend that each individual police officer is individually a bastard (which seems somewhat absurd) rather the phrase ACAB (and I honestly think that this is the sort of logic that a protestor would go in for) is to say that policing makes for bastardly action. I.E. people don’t necessarily become police because they’re bastards, rather they become bastards because a successful police officer is by the nature of the job, a bastard. The job requires bastardy, so a successful cop is a bastardly cop.

Thanks for the question Dav! My quick answer to the “Hey what about my uncle?” objection is that I do not contend that each individual police officer is individually a bastard (which seems somewhat absurd) rather the phrase ACAB (and I honestly think that this is the sort of logic that a protestor would go in for) is to say that policing makes for bastardly action. I.E. people don’t necessarily become police because they’re bastards, rather they become bastards because a successful police officer is by the nature of the job, a bastard. The job requires bastardy, so a successful cop is a bastardly cop.