Where/when/why did the term "pig" come about as a slang for police officer?

Answer 1

Not the 60s. It was already slang long before, but came only above ground in the 60s.

"The use of pig to mean a contemptible person dates to the mid-16th century. From John Heywood’s 1546 A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue: "

"What byd me welcom pyg."

"The sense meaning a gluttonous or greedy person is surprisingly recent, not appearing until the 19th century. From the cartoon caption in the March 1858 Harper’s Magazine depicting a boy who has eaten too much and whose shadow has taken the shape of a pig: "

"A greedy pig."

"The derogatory sense meaning a police officer dates to the early 19th century. The 1811 Lexicon Balatronicum glosses it thusly: "

"Pig. A police officer. A China street pig; a Bow-street officer. Floor the pig and bolt; knock down the officer and run away."

"Various false explanations have been offered for the police officer sense, most stemming from the mistaken idea that term’s origins were in the 1960s. One is that the term derives from the gas masks worn by riot police in the 1960s that made the officers look like pigs. Another is that the term is from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where the pigs ran the farm and took away the other animals’ liberties. As we have seen, both of these, as well as any other explanation rooted in the 20th century is incorrect."

"pig" : http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/pig/

"The OED2 has pig being used as a term for a contemptuous person as early as 1546. The earliest cite for a police officer in particular is from the Lexicon Balatronicum of 1811, which defines pig as "a China Street Pig, a Bow Street officer." The Bow Street Runners were an early police force of London, named after the street that housed their headquarters. The Lexicon Balatronicum also offers "floor the pig and bolt," meaning to knock the policeman down and run. According to Partridge, by 1873 the term’s usage was restricted to plain clothes officers. The term was as underground term, part of the criminal argot, until it emerged into the mainstream in the 1960’s."

"- pig n. 3 1. [early 19C+] a policeman; thus pigs, the police as a group 2. [mid-19C-1910s] an informer. 3 [1960s+] any conventional person, member of the Establishment or authorities. (Green)"

"- slang. b. A police officer. Now usu. disparaging. (OED) "

"- pig n. an officer; a police officer or a military officer. (Used mostly for a police officer. Widely known since the 1960s.) (Spears) "

"- 1874 HOTTEN Slang Dict. 253 Pig, a policeman; an informer. The word is now almost exclusively applied by London thieves to a plain-clothes man, or a ‘nose’. (OED)"

"PIG", Rhetoric of Race Dictionary Project : http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/pig.htm

Answer 2

The derogatory slang meaning "police officer" has been in underworld slang since at least 1811; pig out "eat like a pig" is 1979; pig-headed is 1620;

Answer 3

The teens in the 1960's started using it when the police were breaking up race riots because of integration.

Answer 4

It came from the social upheaval of the late sixties and early seventies. Read "Do It" by Jerry Reuben.

Answer 5

maybe because we envision them drinking coffee & eating donuts..

actually I don't really know