Cop-Out [Alleged Socialist Police Journal]

Sydney, Australia: Cop-Out: 1984. 9 x 11 ½ in. Offset. Saddle stapled in photo-illustrated wraps. 23 pp.

“We recognise that ultimately the function of the policeman is to protect the ruling class and its property. But we believe that it is too simple for policemen who realize this to quit the force and leave it to the racists and other bigots.”

The authors of the journal, presenting themselves as police, demand the right to withdraw labor, community control of the police, the right to abstain from policing demonstrations, improvements in pay and decrease in hours, “abolition of police uniforms and weapons” and “the replacement of police numbers with name plates.”

Topics covered include radical feminist movements in Australia, evictions in Syndey, police violence in Australia, Greece, and apartheid South Africa, strikes in the United States and Chile, and political prisoners in China. One section notes the food coops in Australia, another details how young burglars used CB radios to avoid arrest, and yet another defends graffiti as protected free speech.

Production quality and writing demonstrate a playfulness and absurdity, as in the comic entitled “The Times They Are Remaining” by R. ‘Bobby’ Zimmerman. Along with repeated reference to and depiction of police as “pigs” and the police precinct as a “pig farm”, the general structure and context suggest this publication may in fact be a prank by Situationist-inspired Queensland anarchists, though we are unable to confirm this suspicion. Regardless, the publication remains an impressive indictment of policing internationally. Though the cover dates the magazine to both 1978 and 1984, events referenced date the publication to 1984. Stated “Volume 2, Number 3.”

One copy found in OCLC as of March 2021, and none in North America. Very good.