Didier Fassin

Policing the City is an ethnographic written by Didier Fassin. Originally published in French in 2020, it has now been translated into English. The novel is dedicated "to all those who undergo daily the harassment, the humiliations, the baiting, and sometimes the violence and racism of the police, and who are finally succeeding in making their voices heard."

The publisher's summary:

Adapted from the landmark essay Enforcing Order, this striking graphic novel offers an accessible inside look at policing and how it leads to discrimination and violence. What we know about the forces of law and order often comes from tragic episodes that make the headlines, or from sensationalized versions for film and television. These gripping accounts obscure two crucial aspects of police work: the tedium of everyday patrols under constant pressure to meet quotas, and the banality of racial discrimination and ordinary violence. Around the time of the 2005 French riots, anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin spent fifteen months observing up close the daily life of an anticrime squad in one of the largest precincts in the Paris region. His unprecedented study, which sparked intense discussion about policing in the largely working-class, immigrant suburbs, remains acutely relevant in light of all-too-common incidents of police brutality against minorities. This new, powerfully illustrated adaptation clearly presents the insights of Fassin’s investigation, and draws connections to the challenges we face today in the United States as in France.

While described as a graphic novel, it is not a novel but rather a graphic memoir. Everything in the book actually happened. I dispute some of the author's conclusions, such as that French police officers copied bullying tactics from American law enforcement. I also do not believe that the anti-crime efforts of the French police are as black and white as they author shows us. Fassin says that almost all of the police rely on their political beliefs when dealing with so-called crime. He also says that the victims of police brutality are 100% innocent. Nothing is really this black and white and I think that Fassin has done a disservice to the problem of police brutality. I believe that he has a prejudice against the police because, as he stated early in the book, his own son had a run-in with the law.

3 out of 5 stars.… (meer)

This graphic "novel" is not fiction. It is a graphic version of a sociological ethnography of policing in France. The author embedded himself in police units that patrolled the ring suburbs of Paris that are home to largely minority populations. Americans will see great similarities in both the law enforcement practices (focused largely on harassing non-white youth and provoking unnecessary arrests and violence) and culture (apparently many of these bored cops admire the crooked cops portrayed on The Shield and model their swagger on it). Also, as in many American cities, police come from rural and white-suburban areas and bring to the job a host of prejudices and assumptions about the people they are supposed to serve and protect.

I often wish academic studies about social issues received a wider audience. This is a fascinating approach for distilling key findings to major themes and presenting them in a highly accessible and compelling way. I would love to see more "ethnographics" in future.… (meer)

Ce livre, court, précis, pédagogique... est absolument TERRIBLE ! Didier Fassin montre combien la sévérité du système policier et judiciaire renforce l'injustice et les inégalités. Que les justifications morales de la punition ne produisent qu'une répression sélective... Le terrible réquisitoire que dresse Didier Fassin donnerait presque envie de se prononcer pour une justice algorithmique, qui appliquerait les peines automatiquement, tant l'injustice d'un tel système serait encore préférable à l'inégalité du nôtre... Il pointe également combien l'individualisation des peines exonère notre société de toute responsabilité dans la production des inégalités et comment cet ensemble, sous couvert de paix sociale construit une société moins sûre et plus divisée.

A l'heure où la criminalité n'a jamais été aussi basse, nous n'avons jamais autant puni... mais en différenciant plus que jamais ceux qu'on punit les uns des autres. Un constat amer et terrible.… (meer)