Here, Rigoberto Díaz Julián has juxtaposed two texts: written instructions for police for the use of force and images from a 2016 confrontation between police and protesters in Oaxaca, Mexico. The protesters were blocking a highway, demonstrating against President Nieto’s educational reforms, and by the end of the protest 8 people would be killed by firearms. Throughout Nochixtlán, the instructional text moves through different levels of force used by police: verbal deterrence, physical restraint, use of non-lethal weapons, and use of lethal weapons. The calm and corporate tone of the instructions contrasts with the chaos of the images of protest, revealing the ease at which police violence occurs, and is excused.
