the field scene: I’m full of confidence with the members of my family. We
know each other enough to maintain relaxed relations in a spirit of trust;
I’m sure that each member of my family is glad to spend time with me
this, however, does not spare us from some tensions.
But this is to underestimate the social representations of the police that
each and every individual has developed, of: “common knowledge about
the police results from the mix of these different inputs [works of fiction,
newspapers or documentaries], bringing together the affective, media sensa-
tionalism, and an increasingly political discourse where real problems and
electoral strategies are intertwined. It goes back and forth between admira-
tion and repulsion, between excessive expectations and resignation, between
fear and a desire for revenge. Of course, depending on the position each
of us occupies, depending on his appearance, this or that trait will be rein-
forced” (Mouhanna, 2011,p. 6). This had a definite impact on my conversa-
tions in the family scene, as will be discussed below.
During this period, my friends and relatives often shared with me their
personal experience of the police and their expectations of them. This is
where the troubles begin: in the family scene, I am the recipient of the
individual stories of my family and of my friends. Those around me express
different positions. Some feel a lot of hostility toward the police based on
at least one personal experience of police practices experienced as abusive.
Others are definitely wary of police officers because of negative experiences
they have heard from people around them. Others yet are worried about
the general quality of police interventions. My discomfort thus arises from
the scenes that overlap. In the family scene, I cannot shed my role as a
researcher who, once more, cannot allow herself an overflowing of personal
feelings. Furthermore, aside from my position as researcher studying the
police, and from the knowledge I am gathering from the experience of
the police field, I am also simply myself, a person who, like most people,
has built herself an image of the police based on her social situation, her
personal experience of police services, media, and works of fiction. I am
therefore sensitive to the discourses conveyed by those around me.
Like some of them, I also could remember instances of obvious (in my
opinion) abusive police practices. But I could no longer act or think in my
social life without also being this social researcher with some experience of
police practices. During my observation I saw that not all police officers
are like those who beat up a young boy, in front of me and my partner, in
downtown one New Year’s Eve. During my observation I saw that some
police officers are careful about practices regarding civilities, respect of the
law, and the procedures. But I also saw that in public space, police officers
56 CAROLINE DE MAN