The Civic Duty to Denounce: The Romanian Middle Class and its Demands for Security

Abstract

This article deals with denunciations from people in the city of Timişoara, Romania. It focuses on Cristian Brâncovan, a so-called national champion of justice and the author of an online campaign against pickpockets that started in 2016. He has photographed suspects, published their photographs on his Facebook page, and occasionally harassed them in the street. Most, if not all, of his suspects were of Roma origins. The article also examines denunciations made anonymously to the Timişoara Local Police that the police then use to legitimize the arrests, evictions, and harassment of marginalized groups. Denouncing is regarded as a civic act, one by which the denouncer fulfills his/her/their duty as a citizen and contributes to public order and security. As such, the article highlights the active role of the population at the grassroots level to articulate the discourses and practices of moral panic. I argue that such practices are an instrument through which the Romanian middle class upholds its need for an ethical form of politics. The middle class in Romania uses denunciation as a way to enact, speak, and solicit security during episodes of moral panic. By demanding security, the Romanian middle class enforces a set of “civilized” principles against two distinct, yet related, “others”—the communist past and the underprivileged precariat. In this way, denunciations reinforce the state’s repression against marginal groups.