This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MorsInvictaEst on 2024-07-19 16:14:47+00:00.

While talking to a friend an old story came up that fits this sub perfectly, so I thought I’d share it with you. The whole thing happened 20-25 years ago, if I remember correctly.

The whole thing took place in the city of Aachen, also known under its French name Aix-la-Chapelle in the English speaking world*. The city’s police department had ordered a new batch of police vans** and handed in the neccessary paperwork with the city’s department of motor-vehicles. Unfortunately for the police the city clerk who processed the paperwork decided to play a little prank on them.

To understand the prank you have to understand German license plates. They are separated into three blocks: A regional identifier of 1-3 letters, a letter block of 1-2 letters and a number block ranging vom 1 to 9999. A typical license plate from Berlin would look like this: “B - MP 165”. You can select the second and third block yourself if the combination is still available, but if you don’t give a preference they will just randomly assign a free combination.

The prank: The regional identifier for Aachen is “AC” and just as you might guess right now, the clerk opted to insert a preference for the letter block “AB” into the paperwork. Thus the police department received new sets of license plates that all started with “AC - AB”, the well known acronym for “All Cops Are Bastards”.

The story subsequently made the headlines as a funny anecdote, but they didn’t say what happened to the clerk afterwards. As a government official they could not be fired, but the German administration isn’t exactly known for tolerance or a sense of humour. They probably got off with a warning and a secret thumbs-up from their department, unless the police pressed charges under our strict libel laws. The police requested new registrations and while the media didn’t say what came of that, the DMV probably agreed just to avoid interdepartmental trouble.

* The imperial city of Aachen holds great historical significance for both countries as the main residence of Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, first Holy Roman Emperor (technically Carolingian Emperor, but he started the line) and King of the Franks and a whole lot of other peoples.

** Also known as “six-packs” in German after the popular pack of beverages, because our word for bottle, Flasche, also means loser or useless person, of which the vehicles in question can usually carry six in full gear.