ABSTRACT
The link between action and identity has particular meaning for individuals who assume identities as state agents. Scholars of policing have taken note of the weight of state actors' identity. This chapter examines stories told by workers from each of the two state agencies for their combination of identity and moral content. Michel Foucault suggests that power, right and truth form a triangle. Where there is power, there is the right to determine what is true. The historical experience of 'rights' has been different depending on one's social position and visibility before law. Scholars and activists do not share a single understanding of rights and their value for social justice. In a study of discretionary moments of police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Steve Herbert draws attention to the significance of 'the spatial embeddedness of social action'. Rather than deviation from law, discretion is a point of constituting law and making the state real for people.
