ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I juxtapose research conducted in Los Angeles and São Paulo in order to illustrate effects of policing, in the context of the carceral state, in the lives of non-White residents of low-income communities in Los Angeles, California, USA and São Paulo, Brazil. I argue that the deployment of these new policing methods has produced an erosion in the quality of democracy in both cities. While police violence and abuse continues to take place across the United States and Latin America, one of the effects produced by the development of the carceral state has been the rationalization and legalization of police violation of rights. Much of the negative experiences residents of south Los Angeles and São Paulo’s periphery have with the police are not produced through violent encounters, but rather by legal and seemingly benign police practices. By examining these policing practices, we can appreciate the ways in which authoritarian enclaves have developed in different democratic contexts and how the police produces and reproduces these authoritarian practices. Focusing on the experiences of local residents allows us to learn how the police, which has been at the center of the development of the carceral state, has had a strong influence in the construction of racial identities among residents of south Los Angeles and São Paulo’s periphery, and, in turn, how they develop a sense of second-class citizenship. By understanding this process through the experiences of those who suffer the most by it, we attempt to promote the necessary dialogue that can bring change and enhance justice.
