Why do the police get called pigs?
Police – pigs Back in 1809, Sir Robert Peel entered the House of Commons in London – he developed a passion for Sandy Back pigs found in Ireland and began to breed them in Tamworth. Soon, these pigs were known as Tamworth pigs. Pig slang was commonplace in Tamworth because of this, it was in 1829 that the relation to police came into it. Politicians were concerned about the way London was policed and Sir Robert Peel changed things – his changes resulted in the formation of the Metropolitan Police. This is why police are referred to as ‘Bobbies’ or ‘Peelers’; they were Bobby’s boys… Due to the pig nature that Tamworth had become, the police suffered the same fate as other Tamworth products did: They became related to pigs. Starting in August 1968 and for a number of years afterwards, police officers were called pigs by young people, the disenchanted and even the media. This came about when a group who called themselves the Yippies, protested near the 1968 National Democratic Conventio
