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posted by on Wednesday April 08 2015, @10:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the lights-camera-action dept.

Robinson Meyer writes in The Atlantic that in the past year, after the killings of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, many police departments and police reformists have agreed on the necessity of police-worn body cameras. But the most powerful cameras aren’t those on officer’s bodies but those wielded by bystanders. We don’t yet know who shot videos of officer officer, Michael T. Slager, shooting Walter Scott eight times as he runs away but "unknown cameramen and women lived out high democratic ideals: They watched a cop kill someone, shoot recklessly at someone running away, and they kept the camera trained on the cop," writes Robinson. "They were there, on an ordinary, hazy Saturday morning, and they chose to be courageous. They bore witness, at unknown risk to themselves."

“We have been talking about police brutality for years. And now, because of videos, we are seeing just how systemic and widespread it is,” tweeted Deray McKesson, an activist in Ferguson, after the videos emerged Tuesday night. “The videos over the past seven months have empowered us to ask deeper questions, to push more forcefully in confronting the system.” The process of ascertaining the truth of the world has to start somewhere. A video is one more assertion made about what is real concludes Robinson. "Today, through some unknown hero’s stubborn internal choice to witness instead of flee, to press record and to watch something terrible unfold, we have one more such assertion of reality."

Update: NBC News has identified the cameraman as Feidin Santana.

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Snow on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:42PM

    by Snow (1601) on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:42PM (#168051) Journal
    They should shoot the murderers, not the ones running away.

    How can we afford to be paying all those police officers a Judge's salary?
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:52PM (#168058)

    Civil forfeiture - convenient, existing, and now that they only shoot murderers, fair.

  • (Score: 2) by Kell on Thursday April 09 2015, @01:01AM

    by Kell (292) on Thursday April 09 2015, @01:01AM (#168087)

    Clearly we need to make all police officers judges [wikipedia.org] too.

    --
    Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.