Social media sleuths believe an artist hired to decorate an NYPD vehicle to celebrate Pride Month snuck an anti-police acronym into the design.
The buzz began after NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell’s Twitter page posted a photo of an agency cruiser decked out in a rainbow design for Pride Month.
The patrol car featured the phrase “PRIDE MONTH” with the phrase “All Colors are Beautiful” underneath.
“Over the years, @GOALny [Gay Officers Action League NY] has demonstrated unwavering commitment to promoting universal acceptance and inclusion for all members of the LGBTQIA+ community,” Sewell’s account wrote Friday. “Their remarkable contributions to this city and the department defines New York’s Finest.”
However, social media users were quick to note that “All Colors are Beautiful” can be abbreviated to ACAB, an anti-cop acronym that stands for ‘All Cops are Bastards.”
“All Cops are Bastards” dates back to at least to the 1940s and most recently came into the nation spotlight during the mass protests that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.
The post as of early Saturday had been viewed more than 10 million times on Twitter. It was unclear Saturday who decorated the cruiser and what their intentions were.
“What’s the deal with the ACAB subheading,” one questioned.
“Lmao ACAB,” another wrote.
Others also found it amusing that the acronym made its way on to a police car, and one accounted called “Classical Liberal Caucus” joked: “All Colors Are Beautiful is an excellent slogan. It should be a hashtag, or maybe an acronym.”
“Congrats to the artist who managed to get the NYPD to put ACAB on their own vehicles,” another user wrote.
‘It’s reminiscent of some other possible examples of graphic design worker sabotage.”
The NYPD did not immediately return messages, but one police officer who identifies as gay said it’s no surprise the department failed to catch the anti-cop acronym.
“That’s the NYPD,” the police officer said. “’Let’s rush and decorate a car because it’s pride month.’ And now you get someone who puts ACAB on there. What idiots.
“The NYPD pretends to care so much about its LGBTQIA+ members, yet the LGBTQIA+ community is barely offered equal treatment and opportunities as everyone else.
“We barely see any LGBTQIA+ officers receiving discretionary promotions or offered prestigious positions within the NYPD as everyone else. The NYPD every year rushes to decorate precincts and police cars with rainbow flags and colors to show the public that they care for the LGBTQIA+ community but this time it backfired.”