Bill O'Reilly and the tragic fate of pigs

A brief history of demonization and deniability: What the Fox News talker has in common with Kathy Boudin, Bernadine Dohrn, and the radical left

I wonder how many times Kathy Boudin said and heard the word "pig" before she and her rebel cohorts offed a pair of them in 1981. My guess is quite a few. Among '70s radicals like Boudin, and even among less violent leftists, "pig" was a common term for police officers—especially after the street battles outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, during which Chicago police beat up a slew of protesters. Of course, the expression wasn’t limited to cops; it encompassed vast numbers of people and professions. Capitalist pigs. Fascist pigs. Unfortunate pigs. Former Weather Underground leader Bernadine Dohrn famously expressed delight in 1969 over the mutilations of the Hollywood "pigs" killed by Charles Manson and his followers.

Many left-wing zealots considered pigs, however defined, an undesirable class. Some police officers and others died as a result of their antipathy. A Brink's security guard was shot dead by Boudin’s gang minutes before it killed two police officers in a hail of bullets. Bystanders were sacrificed to the war on pigs, as well. Robert Fassnacht, a postdoctoral student, was killed when radicals bombed the University of Wisconsin in 1970. Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four, was reduced to collateral damage in a bank heist by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

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Francis Wilkinson is executive editor of The Week.