Submitted by TheNerdyAnarchist in AskRaddle (edited )

So I'm reading an article from Kontrapolis about a banner drop, and they seem to keep using "die Bullen" when talking about police.

Do Germans call cops "bulls" like we call them "pigs" in the US? Is there a particular background reasoning why that's what's used?

...or is the translator I'm using not catching some nuance in the language and it means something other than the direct translation?


Edit: I also asked in a Matrix room for an open source software I use where the devs are almost all German. Here's what they said:

Person 1: "Bulle" is a swear word for the police in Germany

Person 2: Bulle is not has harsh as pig though. Not nice, but not as insulty

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subrosa wrote

"Pigs" seems more derogatory, "Bullen" almost neutral in comparison. Can't intuit the origin to it. Internet says it was used for Gendarmerie more generally.

At least that's my Austro-Bavarian understanding, people here don't use the term. We call em things like Kapeständer/Kapperlständer (translates to something like hat stand) or Kiwara/Kieberer (no idea.)

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ChaosAnarchy wrote

Bulle is probably less derogatary because Bulle depicts a strong, but irrational animal, meanwhile pigs are just dirty.

Of course I wouldn't argue like that.

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kano wrote

Something like: Of course we say the bulls are pigs, we say the type in the uniform is a pig, is not human and we have to deal with him. That means we don't have to talk to him, and it's false in general to speak to these people and naturally they can be shot

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