Geneva has a "Rodney King" racial brutality scandal on their hands

The Geneva Police Department has a "Rodney King" racial brutality scandal on their hands, documented by an a eye-witness with a camera phone. The video has been broadcasted on all the TV news stations. Last week two policemen brutaly arrested a 33 year-old South African school teacher who was crossing the street. She was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, they didn't even smooth down her skirt and left her on the sidewalk with her underwear exposed. The policemen claimed she "looked like an illegal immigrant because of the color of her skin and the way she was dressed". The two policemen have been suspended. [via Le Matin and JRS.net] Similar racial incidents captured by citizen reporters which made headline news: -- Cell Phone Video At Center Of Police Controversy - Bringing to mind the Rodney King beating videotaped by an amateur, an incident in Chicago involving police brutality of a traffic violator was recorded by a witness through the video of a camera phone. -- Citizen captures police act of racism on camera phone - A blatant act of racism by the Portland police was snapped by a "citizen reporter" armed with a camera phone. The story and the photos were published in the Portland Tribune and broadcasted on television. permalink (November 30th, 2005)

Web videos of Oakland shooting fuel protests

More than 100 people were arrested in downtown Oakland on Wednesday night when a protest turned violent, fueled at least in part by videos that quickly spread online of a subway policeman fatally shooting an unarmed man while he was lying on the ground restrained by another officer. cnet news reports.

The case--and the overall intense community response to it--highlights the impact technology can have on news events. The devices people carry in their pockets give them the ability to turn what would normally be a case played out in the courtroom into one in which anyone with an Internet connection can serve as virtual judge and jury. BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, allegedly shot Oscar Grant, 22, early on New Year's Day after Grant was pulled off a BART train following a scuffle among riders. Outrage over the incident spread quickly after videos--taken by onlookers with their cell phone cameras--started appearing on TV and the Internet. Links to videos of the incident quickly circulated via e-mail. One of the first videos posted on YYouTube was a KTVU Channel 2 news broadcast, which includes live video clips and an interview with a woman who took some of the video. (Note: We included YouTube links because of compatibility issues.) This video, also from a KTVU broadcast, was later posted on YouTube. It appears to show the gun. Another video shows the scene from a different angle.

Read full article. Links to Related "Rodney King" incidents permalink (January 10th, 2009)

Camera phones focus on police use of force in L.A

Once regarded as a toy for rich teens, the ubiquitous camera cell phone is becoming a powerful community tool in the debate about police (mis)conduct, according to Reuters who reports on three police brutality events captured on cameraphones in the last few weeks. -- "One cell phone video shows Los Angeles police beating a man repeatedly in the face. -- Another shows a handcuffed, homeless man being blasted with pepper spray in Atlanta. -- A third grainy video has campus police using a Taser stun gun on a student who refused to leave a Los Angeles university library. ... The images recall the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King by four police officers, which was caught by on home video by an Argentine plumber." Other incidents captured by citizen reporters which made headline news: -- Amateur Videos Are Putting Official Abuse in New Light - Malaysian Police misconduct captured on tape with a cameraphone - of the humiliating and degrading treatment of Hemy Hamisa Abu Hassan Saari, an innocent woman - circulated to other phones, was posted online and ended up on national television news. High-level government inquiries into the scandal extended as far as China. -- Police brutality captured on cameraphone in Italy (?) -A video of of purported police brutality where three strong police officers show undue force against someone wearing only his undwear. -- Geneva has a "Rodney King" racial brutality scandal on their hands - The Geneva Police Department has a "Rodney King" racial brutality scandal on their hands, documented by an a eye-witness with a camera phone. The video has been broadcasted on all the TV news stations. -- Cell Phone Video At Center Of Police Controversy - Bringing to mind the Rodney King beating videotaped by an amateur, an incident in Chicago involving police brutality of a traffic violator was recorded by a witness through the video of a camera phone. -- Citizen captures police act of racism on camera phone - A blatant act of racism by the Portland police was snapped by a "citizen reporter" armed with a camera phone. The story and the photos were published in the Portland Tribune and broadcasted on television. permalink (November 16th, 2006)

Police brutality captured on cameraphone in Italy (?)

Régine sent me this link to Gazzeta di Modena and Kataweb while blogging from LA. I hate to bother her Max for a translation. Does anyone understand Italian? It's a video of purported police brutality. But without understanding the content of the article and just viewing the clip, something seems off to me, or staged. The exagerated erratic movements of the person filming, the bad framing. I don't know, maybe this is what's its' really like, and you're not stable when you witness something like this. But it seems to me that these three strong police officers are showing undue force against someone wearing only his undwear. Many thanks for further insight! Other incidents captured by citizen reporters which made headline news: -- Geneva has a "Rodney King" racial brutality scandal on their hands - The Geneva Police Department has a "Rodney King" racial brutality scandal on their hands, documented by an a eye-witness with a camera phone. The video has been broadcasted on all the TV news stations. -- Cell Phone Video At Center Of Police Controversy - Bringing to mind the Rodney King beating videotaped by an amateur, an incident in Chicago involving police brutality of a traffic violator was recorded by a witness through the video of a camera phone. -- Citizen captures police act of racism on camera phone - A blatant act of racism by the Portland police was snapped by a "citizen reporter" armed with a camera phone. The story and the photos were published in the Portland Tribune and broadcasted on television. permalink (March 1st, 2006)

A french perspective on London Bombings' and Citizen Reporters

Guillaume Fraissard et Michel Guerrin in French daily Le Monde, write about the live pictures/videos captured by citizens' cameraphones at the scene of the London bombings and remind us that this is not the first time citizens have provided the media with pictures or video coverage from a scene of an event or major trajedy. Air catastrophes have often been documented by amateur videos. But probably the most famous citizen reporting was the amateur video of JFK's assassination in 1966, taken by by Abraham Zapruder and the 90 second video clip of white cops beating up Rodney King in 1991, taken by onlooker Michael Crooks from his patio. What's really new here, is how images and videos can be uploaded to the Internet in real time, and how with the pervasiveness of cameraphones, anyone will have the potential to become a citizen reporters. [via Gilles Klein's blog Le Phare] permalink (July 17th, 2005)

Cell Phone Video At Center Of Police Controversy

Bringing to mind the Rodney King beating videotaped by an amateur, an incident in Chicago involving police brutality of a traffic violator was recorded by a witness through the video of a camera phone, reports NBC5.com. "Through the camera, Chicago police officers appear to strike and kick an uncooperative suspect, and through the video, it appears that the people in the car disregarded police instructions not to get out of the car and do appear to resist arrest. One attorney said the force was unjustified and said he is filing a lawsuit next week on behalf of what he calls victims of police brutality. The man who recorded the video said tensions between the police and residents in his community are common. "We know the police have had a history of doing things like this," said the man, who also requested anonymity. "So, I just record every time." Related article: -- Citizen captures police act of racism on camera phone permalink (April 23rd, 2005)

Citizen captures police act of racism on camera phone

A blatant act of racism by the Portland police was snapped by a "citizen reporter" armed with a camera phone. The story and the photos were published in the Portland Tribune and broadcasted on television. "Police offers parked their car outside Ringlers restaurant with a stuffed gorilla attached to the car's grill last Tuesday night, - where a largely black crowd had gathered for a weekly hip-hop show hosted by disc jockey Mello Cee. "This is the kind of thing you expect to see in the South, like a Confederate flag. They might as well paint their faces black with white lips,” said Mello Cee. "Resident Calvin Washington who said he took the photos around 1 a.m. last Tuesday morning outside Ringlers restaurant at 1332 W. Burnside St. Washington said when he realized what was happening, he grabbed his cell phone camera and walked outside to take pictures. “I went out and flicked a few pics. The police couldn't tell what I was doing because I had the phone in my hand. They couldn't tell what it was,” he said." The Portland Tribune published a follow-up article on Friday, questioning whether the "incident may have launched the age of technological vigilantism in Portland". For anyone following the social impact of camera phones, this was a story just waiting to happen and brings to mind the Rodney King beating, videotaped by an amateur. Citizens as camera phone reporters are sure to play an increasing role in news reporting. Or as Jeff Jarvis so aptly put it a while back;  "Mobile cameras will be extraordinary tools for witnesses to capture events with more immediacy than news organizations can provide". permalink (November 29th, 2003)

Phonecam Culture

Dont miss Xeni Jardin's essay in Wired relayed by Howard Rheingold on Smart Mobs, on a global phonecam revolution which has begun to emerge, in which everyone is an embedded reporter thanks to camera phones.

"As phonecams proliferate - more than 13 million were sold in Japan in 2002, and US buyers will snap up 2 million this year - you'll never know when someone out there might snap your photo, then upload it for the world to see. The cams will instantly capture and disseminate scenes of crimes in progress or police brutality as it happens (think Rodney King or Lizzie Grubman slamming into her four-wheeled prey). Like TV's addictive, blurry-jerky live videophone footage from Mideast war zones, device portability makes up for image quality."

permalink (June 11th, 2003)

A visual revolution

In a thought provoking piece published in Editor & Publisher, Steve Outing writes about how the emerging trend of picture phones will likely influence news media in major ways. Already, several news organizations are asking their readers to contribute in a novel way, by sending in their pictures.

He predicts it will be common for newspapers to publish images of significant news events where professional photojournalists weren't present but picture phone users were. And though Photojournalism experts agree that in general this is a good thing -- it's not without its challenges.

It is likely to have even much bigger consquences than videos taken with popular camcorders, not always in arm's reach unlike cell phones, always near by. One can only wonder, if I may add, at the magnitude of the consequences, when you think of the most famous amateur video, the one documenting the brutal beating by the LA police of Rodney King, which led to riots in the city following the verdict of the trial.

It could potentially create a logistical nightmare for picture editors, flooding the news photo department with a wave of images sent in from the public. Such a scenario is perfectly likely in the event for instance of a terrorist attack in a major city, according to Kenny Irby, a visual journalism faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg. Irbi recommends news photo departments have a disaster plan in place for such situations.

Another fear is authenticity, how can you tell if a picture has been retouched? With the wide spread use of powerful photo design and production tool, Photoshop, editors need to be very careful about what they accept from the public and publish.

Steve Outing closes his column, with a lighter side, suggesting news feature editors match the creativity of one of the most popular UK web sites, Dogs in Cars, which publishes online user-submitted photos of ... dogs in cars. Great fun.

permalink (March 16th, 2003)