> If someone actually thinks that, then where do you go from there.

People who believe in ACAB for the most part do not believe the current system can be reformed and are police abolitionists:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_abolition_movement

I don't think that's true at all, most people I've come across use it in an off-handed way to express solidarity with victims of police violence, or their general distaste for racialised and/or militarised policing. Full-fledged abolitionism is rare.

They really say it because they hung around in left-wing spaces for a few months in 2016, and it's vaguely anti-authoritarian. It's the same place they got "tankie" from, although they think it has something to do with Tienanmen Square.

My point exactly. I think the concept of police abolition is detached from reality toxic. It aims to delegitimize the police in hopes that up better system will arise, without having a workable better system.

All of the proposed alternatives are delusions and fantasy.

It's like jumping off a cliff because you think you can learn how to fly on the way down.

It's a lazy and petulant acronym. I think it's okay to dislike it.