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This chapter examines the rise of the paramilitary organization Garde Nationale Mobile, or Mobile National Guard, as the most important armed force in Paris between February 24 and May 16, 1848. The Mobile National Guard was created by the Provisional Government to operate as a full-time armed force that would supplement both police and army. The Mobile Guard was comprised of unemployed Parisian youths aged sixteen to thirty, many of whom had fought on the barricades in the February Revolution. This chapter first considers how the Mobile Guard was formed and its recruitment of young activists who took part in the February Revolution. It then discusses some of the problems of divided command suffered by the Mobile Guard, along with its use of regular army cadres to train volunteers. It also assesses the issue of discipline in the Mobile Guard and concludes with an analysis of the organizational, disciplinary, and supply problems of the Mobile Guard as well as the group's politics and motivations.

This chapter examines the civil disorders that erupted in Paris from May 17 to June 22, 1848 and the government tactics used to control the attroupements (mobs) that disturbed the capital. It analyzes the events that transpired during the period between the dissolution of paramilitary units on May 16 and the National Workshops on June 23, along with their significance with respect to the French Revolution of 1848. The chapter first considers the reappearance of a large regular army garrison in Paris that allowed the government to face the June insurrection and address the problem of political reliability in the armed forces, particularly the National Guard and the Mobile Guard. It then turns to the constant street disorders and the problems they posed in terms of tactics and communications and goes on to discuss the reorganization of the Republican Guard, the gathering of large and aggressive crowds in Paris, and how the Commission of Executive Power and its military subordinates went about controlling the mobs.

This chapter analyses the behaviour of the police during violent confrontations. The democratic Third Republic strove to control the behaviour of the forces of order, hoping to inculcate a respect for citizens’ democratic rights in the policeman. However, in the heat of the moment, officers frequently lashed out at political activists and innocent bystanders. They thus earned a deserved reputation for gratuitous brutality. As political conflict worsened during the 1930s, the Mobile Guard riot police were increasingly called to maintain law and order, sometimes with fatal consequences. While the authorities deplored such killings they nevertheless recognised that lethal force was sometimes necessary to defend the regime.