Notes on the police and the banlieues
[Publié initialement par Carbure, le 17 février 2017. Traduit en anglais par feu ediciones inéditos devenues depuis prolewave.noblogs.org].
One could say of the police what has been said about the army, that is a much too serious thing to be confided to the police; but we must not forget that capitalism has also allowed the military to wage war as they wished for as long as it has been necessary for capitalism to go to war.
Like any institution, the police enjoy a certain amount of relative autonomy in relation to its internal and external authorities: the State has its own hierarchy. This autonomy exists at all its levels: in the streets, at the police station and at the regional level the police defend their own interests as a corporation and as an institution. As a corporation, it depends on the material and legal means which the State accords it and as an institution, it depends on ideological justification from the State, by what is known as its security doctrine.
This doctrine bases itself on a general appreciation for the situation of the State, from its point of view. This is a theoretical and strategic form, based on the presuppositions of the State, taking into consideration its own legitimacy, and on the other hand its specificity in bringing into form, according to its operative categories, class relations under the dominant class. At its level the police, with its legitimized violence, is entrusted with the maintenance of these class relation in a form determined by the State. Lire la suite…

Minneapolis…























