“When we use the term pig, for example, we are referring to the people who systematically violate the peoples' constitutional rights- whether they be monopoly capitalists or police. The term is now being adopted by radicals, hippies, and minority peoples. Even the workers, when the pigs supported strike-breakers like they did as Union Oil where 100 local police came in a cracked strikers' heads, began to call them by their true name.”

— Bobby Seale

Interview with The Guardian (February 1970)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When we use the term pig, for example, we are referring to the people who systematically violate the peoples' constitut…" by Bobby Seale?

Bobby Seale 6

American activist 1936

Related quotes

“When you use the term minority or minorities
in reference to people, you're telling them that
they're less than somebody else.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

“…even the police discussed this violence as possibly coming within the scope of their terms of reference.”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Fiction, Beds in the East (1959)

“We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when police remove them they say no. We can’t have that. That is a revolt to the system. Some are crying that they were beaten. Yes you will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move you move. If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force.”

Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe

Addressing delegates at the Zimbabwe embassy in Cairo, Egypt, on the arrest, torture and mistreatment of 15 trade union activists in Zimbabwe, 23 September 2006.
2000s, 2005 - 2009

“When the police enforce the law, they do so unevenly, in ways that give disproportionate attention to the activities of poor people, people of color, and others near the bottom of the social pyramid. And when the police violate the law, these same people are their most frequent victims.”

Kristian Williams (1974) American historian

at the bottom. Put differently, we might say that the police act to defend the interests and standing of those with power—those at the top. So long as they serve in this role, they are likely to be given a free hand in pursuing these ends and a great deal of leeway in pursuing other ends that they identify for themselves. The laws may say otherwise, but laws can be ignored.
Rights, riots and police brutality, 2020