Drinking lime juice to throw up, and the right way to beat an old lady

This chapter analyzes the space between the offensive and the illegal as a way to inquire into late dictatorial practices of legality. Specifically, I consider how Brazilian punk in the late 1970s and early 1980 danced with the obnoxious as a way to criticize an emerging neoliberal and democratic ethos of consumption, cleanliness, and order. I consider three moments in which punks were policed by the state in order to suppress their poetics of embodiment, dress, sound, and language. I conclude by considering the durability of punk’s critique for contemporary policing in Brazil, and around the world.