I was watcing SNL last week, and a bit on Weekend Update mentioned how the New York City Police Department is introducing the use of cell phone cameras to use as evidence for crime scenes.
Why not use such useful technology if it's handy like a cell phone?
This article reminds me of the recent case at UCLA where a Middle Eastern students was harassed by campus police officers for not having proper ID. When he refused to show his ID to the officers, they dragged him out of the campus library and tazered him.
Here is the YouTube clip of the incident. The recording is not the best, but at least it somewhat captures the incident. It can be a little disturbing at times if you're going to watch it; I warn you.
The Middle Eastern college student used cell phone video recordings from other college students who witnessed the event to help convict the police officers. Such evidence will be useful in the future for other cases.
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3 comments:
Hey Jami,
I saw this clip awhile ago and almost could not finish watching it because it sounded so violent. Whoever got all of this on their camera did some great and quick thinking because as you said, it will be great evidence. It almost seems as though these technological tools are becoming a liability...I guess I need to get used to this because in this case, it was extremly useful. Good post!
This is a great post. I also saw on the news how some of the V Tech massacre was captured using a cell phone camera.
just another example of citizen journalism in the ever changing world.
Cell phones as evidence. It really is interesting how cell phone use has taken over our society. Practically everyone has one and practically everyone has a camera on their phone. I guess this means that no one is safe from having their photo taken! In this case though, using it for evidence is helpful for the student - it kind of reminds me of the Rodney King incident from several years ago. He was beaten by police officers as well. There were plenty of witnesses, but no cell phone photos/videos. We've come quite a ways since then.
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