Abstract
The Military Police represents an armed extension of the State. It presents itself to the population (and to itself) in an overwhelming, ostensive and sometimes brutal way. Through the Institutional Analyses of Discourse, this research aims at studying the effects of recognition and ignorance of work relationships that permeate the discourse of military police soldiers: how they talk about their work and how they position themselves and position the customers, the hierarchy and the object of their work (the criminals). We also looked into the place violence occupied in this discourse. Ten soldiers from the military police in Sao Paulo were interviewed and these were transcribed and analyzed. From the analyses, it is possible to reflect upon the ambiguity of the true object of police work, and on how it falls easily from the care of the population in need of protection to the soldiers’ own protection, helpless under the uniform’s pressure.
Police; Institution; Discourse; Individual