Empire on the Seine: The Policing of North Africans in Paris, 1925-1975 (Oxford Studies in Modern European History)

Why are relations between minorities and the police in France so fraught? Stripping away the myth that this tension is a sudden and recent disruption of its universalist republican tradition brought on by the presence of North African immigrants, Amit Prakash locates the origins of contemporary conflicts in race and empire in France's history. In Empire on the Seine , Prakash argues that the m�tropole and the colony dynamically co-developed a policing regime over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to manage colonial and racial difference. With the North African community emerging as a sizable and durable presence in Paris after World War I, this policing became a key state practice in imagining and administering the immigrant population. Prakash shows that despite the French state's current reluctance to use race as an official category, racial thought and racial targets animated police services, social services, and urban planning schemes from the 1920s until the 1970s. Using police archival records, reports from colonial officials, urban planning and housing studies, and the records of French social workers and immigrant associations, Prakash shows that colonial racism was integrated into the policing of Paris and that architecture, urbanism, and social housing assumed police functions for colonial and postcolonial migrants. In light of this history, contemporary social and racial segregation, periodic protests and rioting against police violence, and the aggressive posture of the Parisian police emerge as the material traces of French colonialism in the m�tropole. The city of Paris was the capital of an empire and its imperial shadows are long. Cover Empire on the Seine: The Policing of North Africans in Paris, 1925–1975 Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures List of Abbreviations Introduction: Policing Imperial Paris Ghosts of Empire Imperial Paris The Colonizer and the Colonized: Useful Categories of Historical Analysis? Policing, Race, and Empire in Paris 1: The Police Conception of North Africans Hey, you there! War/Knowledge, or Pacification Being and Behaving: The Prefecture of Police and Suspect Populations North Africans in the Prefecture of Police Imaginary Police Ethnography 2: The Police Production of Space Mapping as Police Power The North African Brigade from the Popular Front to Vichy The Fall of the North African Brigade? Algerian Nationalism, or Politics as Crime The Police Production of Space: La Goutte d’Or 3: The Coming of the Algerian Revolution Colonial Reform and Algerian Nationalism Jean Baylot, Imperial Policeman Policing Paris to Keep Algeria French 4: Imperial Sentinels: Policing the Algerian Revolution The Imperial Ramparts of Paris The 7th Wilaya 1958: The Coming of Maurice Papon to the Prefecture of Police The Origins of the “Papon System” Scylla and Charybdis: North African Paris between the “Papon System” and the “FLN System” “Winning the Battle of Hearts and Minds”: The Police Charm Offensive Escalations: The FPA, the Battle of La Goutte d’Or, and October 17, 1961 5: Droit de Cité(s): Policing and Space Mobilizing Space Haussmann’s Policing of Space, 1860–1970 Social Housing in France: Social Justice and Social Control The Unintended Cities of Paris Segregation for Integration: The SONACOTRA Approach An Afterlife of the Civilizing Mission: The Cités de Transit 6: The Quest for “Autonomy” The Grounds of Postcolonial Resistance Murder in La Goutte d’Or: The Limits of Autonomy Conclusion: Imperial Shadows “France is profoundly anti-racist Imperial Shadows Notes Introduction: Policing Imperial Paris 1. The Police Conception of North Africans 2. The Police Production of Space 3. The Coming of the Algerian Revolution 4. Imperial Sentinels: Policing the Algerian Revolution 5. Droit de Cité(s): Policing and Space 6. The Quest for “Autonomy” Conclusion: Imperial Shadows Bibliography Index Why are relations between minorities and the police in France so fraught? Stripping away the myth that this tension is a sudden and recent disruption of its universalist republican tradition brought on by the presence of North African immigrants, Amit Prakash locates the origins of contemporary conflicts in race and empire in France's history. In Empire on the Seine, Prakash argues that the métropole and the colony dynamically co-developed a policing regime over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to manage colonial and racial difference. With the North African community emerging as a sizable and durable presence in Paris after World War I, this policing became a key state practice in imagining and administering the immigrant population. Prakash shows that despite the French state's current reluctance to use race as an official category, racial thought and racial targets animated police services, social services, and urban planning schemes from the 1920s until the 1970s. Using police archival records, reports from colonial officials, urban planning and housing studies, and the records of French social workers and immigrant associations, Prakash shows that colonial racism was integrated into the policing of Paris and that architecture, urbanism, and social housing assumed police functions for colonial and postcolonial migrants. In light of this history, contemporary social and racial segregation, periodic protests and rioting against police violence, and the aggressive posture of the Parisian police emerge as the material traces of French colonialism in the métropole. The city of Paris was the capital of an empire and its imperial shadows are long. The origins of contemporary tensions between police and minorities in France lie in the history of race and empire. The metropole and the colony dynamically co-developed a policing regime over the course of the nineteenth and through the late twentieth century to manage colonial and racial difference. With the North African community emerging as a sizable and durable presence in Paris after World War I, this policing became a key state practice in imagining and administering the immigrant population. Despite the French state’s current reluctance to use race as an official category, racial thought and racial targets animated police services, social services, and urban planning schemes from the 1920s until the 1970s. Police archival records, reports from colonial officials, urban planning and housing studies, and the records of French social workers and immigrant associations reveal that colonial racism was integrated into the policing of Paris and that architecture, urbanism, and social housing assumed police functions for colonial and postcolonial migrants. In light of this history, contemporary social and racial segregation, periodic protests and rioting against police violence, and the aggressive posture of the Parisian police emerge as the material traces of French colonialism in the metropole. Why are relations between minorities and the police in France so fraught? Stripping away the myth that this tension is a sudden and recent disruption of its universalist republican tradition brought on by the presence of North African immigrants, Amit Prakash locates the origins of contemporary conflicts in race and empire in France's history. In 'Empire on the Seine,' Prakash argues that the mâetropole and the colony dynamically co-developed a policing regime over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries to manage colonial and racial difference Why are relations between minorities and the police in France so fraught? Stripping away the myth that this tension is a sudden and recent disruption of its universalist republican tradition brought on by the presence of North African immigrants, Amit Prakash locates the origins of contemporary conflicts in race and empire in France's history. In 'Empire on the Seine,' Prakash argues that the m etropole and the colony dynamically co-developed a policing regime over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries to manage colonial and racial difference "Amit Prakash draws on extensive archival materials to understand the colonial legacy of how minority populations have been policed in twentieth century Paris, showing how colonial racism was integrated into the policing of Paris, and that architecture, urbanism, and social housing contributed to this legacy."