“Every legitimate power always rests, as does any kind of power, on the symbol. And the police, like all powers, also rest on the symbol. In troubled times, as you have found out, you would let yourselves be arrested like sheep if some guy had said Police to you and shown you a card, otherwise you would have started beating him up as soon as he laid a hand on you. Except there’s a small difference between police and power, namely that the police have been persuaded that their efficacity rests on force – not so as to put trust in them, but on the contrary to curb their functions. And thanks to the fact that the police think that they are able to exercise their functions through force, they are as powerless as one could wish.”