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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.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Pherenikos on Thursday April 09 2015, @12:23AM
While this video seems very clear cut, what strikes me was the apparent planting of evidence by the officer. Without this damning piece of evidence it might have been a case of "he said, she said ..."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday April 09 2015, @01:09AM
Without this damning piece of evidence it might have been a case of "he said, she said ..."
Which brings us right back to the question at hand.
A lone witness with a camera still puts them-self as serious risk by taking video. At the very least your phone could be seized, wiped, or smashed. Cops still do this in spite of getting in serious trouble, and costing their department hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Probably two or three cameras phones and you are ok. But the lone witness with a camera does take a risk.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @03:53AM
There is a fence between the black man filming and the event that occurred. I wonder if that serendipitous fence saved him from a trip to the hospital, jail, or morgue.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hamsterdan on Thursday April 09 2015, @04:38AM
That's why you use something that uploads the video in real time. Might not prevent a cop from beating you up, but evidence won't be destroyed...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @03:48PM
That takes preparation.
Regular people don't go around expecting to film am episode of violence and perfidy. They just happen to be at the right place at the right time with a phone that happens to also be a camera. Most of these people probably have cell phones with data plans that would make live-streaming prohibitive too, so it isn't a tool they would actively seek out and install for other purposes.
Until google makes live-streaming a standard part of android such that it only takes single button click to switch it on it is unrealistic to say people in these situations should use live-streaming.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday April 09 2015, @06:41PM
I've actually tried that, and even on LTE, it takes a long time to upload a video.
I suspect its much safer to have several people with cameras.
I also noted in one of the first frames, you can clearly see the wires of a spent tazer dangling from the cops arms.
There might be some truth in the cops statement that the victim grabbed at the tazer, and then ran away, or maybe the cop just missed with the tazer and claimed it was grabbed.
Newer press stories indicate that this is not the first excessive force charge against that cop.
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