Being, Moving, and Enforcing Justice in the City

Abstract

In the metropolitan environment, marginalized spaces – and the people inhabiting them – are often associated with unproductivity, incompatibility, immorality, or even criminality. The ways in which certain agents (superheroes, for example) traverse the city can act against this practice of socio-spatial Othering, for they have the personal mobility required to experience the city’s marginalized spaces and peoples on an intimate level. However, while mobility by itself can allow one to access these spaces/peoples, it does not always allow them to truly understand them. The line between intimate engagement and total objectification is quite thin, and it often comes down to the individual superhero to determine which side of this line their enhanced access and perspectives will lead them. If they belong to one or more marginalized communities, then they are likely in a position to resist the notion that the city’s fragments and citizens need to be alienated in order to be understood – and combatted. Diversity and mobility, therefore, in the context of law enforcement, are crucial for resisting practices that lead to spaces and communities being overlooked, or worse. Pluralizing the possible approaches to the enforcement of justice – in terms of who does the enforcing and the methods by which they do it – is ultimately beneficial for all of society, for longstanding prejudices can be exposed and the harm that follows them reduced.