“…2 Moreover, Villeneuve is on the list of the French government’s priority security zones and, as a result, neighborhood policing is carried out by a specialized brigade rather than by the local police force. Indeed, public space in Villeneuve, as with other marginalized social housing neighborhoods in France, has become the object of everyday tensions and competition: tension between the police and youth in relation to the drug trade (see, e.g., Marlière, 2007), tension due to boundary marking and the imaginary borders that draw lines between territories and identities (see, e.g., Sauvadet, 2006), and finally tension due to belonging and the visibility of “otherness.” Halal butchers and the hijab are the subject of heated debate around what is “normal” in public space, and who has the right to impose their norms (Del Grosso, 2015). The example with which this article opens illustrates the tense relationship in Villeneuve between those who claim the right to occupy publicly accessible space, and others who claim the right to security, tranquility, and the enjoyment of a clean and nondegraded public space.…”