Police Brutality in the Cell Phone/Internet Video Age

[Nat]

I ran across a photo of a little girl being maced by a cop in Brazil - couldn't tell if maybe it was photoshopped because it was so weird. Started googling - found news stories from Brazil saying it did happen and naming the cops.

Went to youtube and searched - ran across videos of police being what appears to be violent and unreasonable. I think of cameras as being one of our safeguards against the police - at least in court - but I think I've read lately that cops are increasingly aggressive toward the people with the camera.

It's really crazy what you find on youtube. It's hard to know what's real and what's not. Anybody can edit a video or photo now who has access to basic software - thanks to technology. Still - I don't see how editing could explain some of the stuff out there. I don't want to live in a world where this stuff happens.

I remember how powerful and terrible the images of the Rodney King beating were when they came out. But now a simple search on youtube shows some pretty disturbing stuff and nobody bats an eye. And juries side with the cops, even with video evidence - in the case of Rodney King and more recently with the guy who was shot by BART officers. I think in the BART shooting, a cop did try to take the camera away from one of the people who filmed it, but thankfully she was on the subway and she escaped the cop with her cellphone of truth.