The increase in undocumented migration into South Africa has been met with conserted , if non-uniform, efforts by the state to regulate it. What happens when undocumented migrants routinely interact with state officials responsible for policing them? Do officials eventually forget to enforce the law and begin to befriend their foe? Rather than present a state that has been cannibalized by society, the findings from ethnographic research done in Johannesburg paint a complex picture. This narrative is a journey into the world of police culture, the monopolistic violence of the state,...