NYPD Accidentally Paints ACAB on Their Pride Cop Cars

You are likely familiar with the innumerable heinous actions of the New York City Police Department, including the raid on the Stonewall Inn in June 1969, which led to a six-day uprising that changed the shape of the LGBTQ rights movement and launched what we now know as Pride. In fact, beginning in 2021, Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit organization that runs the official parade in NYC, banned cops from marching in their uniforms or recruiting at the event, until at least 2025 “This action was a step in the path of transformative justice affirming our commitment to eliminating violence, harm, and abuse at NYC Pride events,” the group said in its policy, despite pushback from police pal Mayor Eric Adams.

That hasn’t stopped the NYPD from pretending to be good friends to the queer and trans community; they’ve even been rolling out rainbow cop cars over the past few years. This year’s cars are something special — whomstever designed them sneaked ACAB onto them. Under the rainbow it says All Colors Are Beautiful, which is not a Pride slogan that makes any kind of sense other than to use the exact same letters for the acronym All Cops Are Bastards.

Labor activist Jorts the Cat alerted us to this magnificence last night on Twitter.

Some people think this is an “innocent” “mistake” but I think it is a stroke of subversive artistic genius. I look forward, once again, to a cop-free Pride here in NYC and would like to plug my personal favorite ACAB art: These All Cats Are Beautiful cat rescue tees. I’ve also got a thread going here of indie creators making cool things from Pride, including a trans raccoon named Egg that’s the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life.

Happy Pride, friends! Sending you love and joy and my lil southern voice in your head telling you to stay hydrated!

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

14 Comments

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