ABSTRACT
In this chapter, order maintenance will be considered via three main cases New York, London, and Paris. Such order maintenance in contentious circumstances is ‘an immense challenge’ for the police (Metropolitan Police Service, 2012: 116). The police apply the law but they also articulate states’ desire and interests in order maintenance. ‘Policing of general order is a . . . conservative activityone bound to the past’. It is also ‘a temporally contingent activity-tied to and shaped by the circumstances of a particular time’ (Loader & Walker, 2007: 102-4). Policemen are enemies for some and for others (and sometimes the same) saviours. After the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, a citizen spontaneously kissed a police officer, while bystanders gave him an ovation.
