“ACAB” (All Cops Are Bastards) is sprayed on walls and etched into public toilet cubicles from Camden to Cairo. It’s an internationally understood symbol that undermines the idea that the police are all incorruptible heroes.
Over the past couple of years, messages bearing a similar sentiment have been surreptitiously plastered on billboards and phone-boxes across London, as artists have nicked advertising space to make public service announcements of their own.
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Now, all that art is being committed to print with the publication of ACAB, a 32-page pamphlet of anti-police “subvertising”. Publishers Dog Section Press say they funded the project from the proceeds of suing the police for unlawful arrest and assault. So, in a way, the police are paying for people to publish mean things about them.
VICE got a sneak preview, which you can see below.
“ACAB” is launched with an exhibition at Flaxon Ptootch in Kentish Town on Thursday.
