Comments on: Jacks

By: Magpieranger

Magpieranger — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:26:41 +0000

“Jacks” comes from Cockney rhyming slang.

Old Bill = Jack ‘n’ Jill.

By: Lady

Lady — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:03:28 +0000

@ Mr historically Inccurate –
Lad isnt bein used in the way the English use it as for young men or replacing ‘mate’ which incedentally (sic?) is more often used for people one doesnt like than ones actual mates. Lad is a term used by what is best described as Australia’s version of chavs. Lads for boys and lasses for girls. Although I believe even though there would be a similar sub culture in each state that the ‘Lads & Lasses’ are a NSW thing and may be called something else elsewhere.

By: MrHistoricallyInaccurate

MrHistoricallyInaccurate — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:23:20 +0000

Jack is a pretty common term here. Jack Boots doesn’t fit as the term has been used since the jacks wore standard shoes, not the GP boots some of the units wear now (particularly the Dogs and Soggies). I grew up using the term Jack to refer to Coppers (named for the copper buttons worn by the lower ranks, the Top Brass had brass buttons) and am most definitely not a criminal. At a party as s youngster we would often hear someone yell “JACKS!!!” to let anyone under 18 to hide their grog as the cops had arrived.

@James – Lad is being used in Austrslia more and more these days, in part due to our older generations using it and in part through the popularity of UK films such as Snatch, Lock Stock, Layer Cake & others. In these films the tough guy usually greets his mates with “Orright lads?”.

Lad never went out in London and it’s made its way back into the Aussie (esp Mrlbourne) vernacular.

By: bob

bob — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 05:53:48 +0000

Jacks, I learnt it in inner Melbourne as a young lad as a reference to the cops
@Steve, jumping jacks = a nasty little ant that packs a wallop of a sting in Oz, from the same family as Bull ants. I never really thought about were that little buggers common name came from but now, perhaps there is a connection between the two.. lol

By: prawna

prawna — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:42:16 +0000

I’ve been using the term since i was in primary school and I am now 40. I also come from S.E Victoria like one of the earlier posts. I originally thought it was just Australians rebellious nature and used because we didn’t want to copy the UK and use “the old bill”. After a little bit of searching and thinking the “Jackboot theory” seemed the most plausible to me imho.

By: James

James — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:20:22 +0000

to add to that^
…its also a term im only starting to here more of along with stuff like ‘lad’ but it may just be stupid slang that other kids have started saying randomly

By: James

James — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:14:37 +0000

Okay, so im 16 and live in the south east suburbs of Victoria, and the main terms ive heard for cops lately are ‘pigs’ and ‘the jacks’, i dont know where it originated, but its a term to put down the police really, about 2 weeks back i was at a festival in warryndyte and a fight between two girls broke out and they were really getting violent, there was a massive crowd edging them on aswell, well when the cops came people yelled ‘the jacks!’ and everyone split, my mates and all the ‘rats’ in our area refer to the cops as ‘the jacks’ so its actually a very widely known term in the south eastern suburbs of Vic from my experience most notably the Maroondah and Knox areas.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:26:54 +0000

Police officers in Merseyside (Liverpool, England) describe the CID as “Jacks”, it’s neither derogatory (unless prefixed with fat or lazy of course) nor a compliment but simply a label. I’ve heard several explanations such as “jack of all trades” based on multi-skills, “jack the lads” based on drinking culture, and even “jumping jacks” which didn’t have an explanation. I don’t buy into any of those and find the reference in the article to plain clothes officers drinking in a pub being exposed as an interesting and likely theory. I’ve given up hope on getting to the bottom of this question and like otherEnglish references on here, it’s not common in England, it only appears to be Merseyside that uses it and it’s the officers that use the term internally, not the public (criminal or otherwise).

By: Grill Gambit

Grill Gambit — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:36:33 +0000

Thanks for your most informative article on the use of the term Jack to refer to coppers. It is, I can assure you, the term of choice of evildoers within this wide brown land. Coppers is #2.

John Darme. LOL. A scream.

And Jack as an STI is short for Jack in the Box = Pox. Jack is sometimes used to mean jack Dancer = Cancer but I prefer Spanish = Spanish Dancer. Spanish, btw is used in the car game to mean Rust. Rust = Cancer = Spanish Dancer.

BTW Jack as Copper is popular not only with crooks but with the poor in general. West Heidelberg is a perfect place to find it in use.

By: Clem

Clem — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:21:58 +0000

Its certainly used in melbourne. I’m a criminal lawyer and all our clients use this term. I’d never heard it before. Don’t think it’s common outside crim circles!

By: Evan

Evan — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 16:17:39 +0000

In the U.S., one frequently hears the term ‘Jake’ used to refer to a police officer, especially in the speech of urban minorities. One could find a million examples in the albums of rappers from across the country. Similarly, the word ‘Johnnies’ is used by some, especially in the Midwest.

By: poll

poll — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:15:31 +0000

“Jacques” the French equivalent of “James” (Jacob)? Isn’t “Jean” the French equivalent of “John” , No i don’t think so , but would be interesting to think about it