Abstract
The study of the repression of resistance to the police in Brussels during the period between 1945 and 1975 invalidates the hypothesis of a phenomenon of rebellion among young people. The analysis of legal cases suggests that this resistance is the result of police interference in private conflicts. Men in their thirties who are most often from a disadvantaged background, frequent the public and semi-public spaces (street and pubs) of the urbanised municipalities of Brussels during their free time. Their involvement in violent interactions with their friends or wives – an assertion of their male identity or a release of physical energy – displeases authority figures, who convey middle-class standards of behaviour and intervene in an attempt to re-establish order. People with different ways of behaving clash in public as they try to impose their way of being. Police activity contributes to the criminalisation of working-class forms of social life and leisure.
Highlights
The person concerned rebelled against me, but I was not hurt and will not report sick.’. Another special police officer declared: ‘I was on patrol when I passed Quai à la Houille and noticed that some colleagues were having difficulty separating two individuals who were fighting. (...) [We] helped them take away the man named Simon F., who was clearly drunk, struggling, letting himself by dragged on the ground, and acting like a man who had lost control of himself. (...) The wife of the person concerned, Georgette L., whom we had not yet noticed, came up to us and said to her husband, “I’ve got the car keys and I’m going home.”
This contribution to research on rebellion is aimed at supporting the hypothesis that – due to their presence in public space – the police meet with resistance when they intervene in the matters of a disadvantaged population
If we add to this significant share the cases in which the police officers were on duty at the police station (6%) or engaged in traffic control (5%) and in transporting accused persons (2%), no less than 63% of resistance to the police or gendarmerie occurred in places which the police officers went to on their initiative and for reasons related to their duties
Summary
The person concerned rebelled against me, but I was not hurt and will not report sick.’ Another special police officer declared: ‘I was on patrol when I passed Quai à la Houille and noticed that some colleagues were having difficulty separating two individuals who were fighting. Abs [1985: 9], a large part of the political and economic activity took place along the River Senne and a significant share of conflicts were likely to arise between the working population and the representatives of the police During this period, the territory of Brussels experienced many socioeconomic transformations.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
