The local and national importance of #filmthepolice
Our social media posts with the most spirited community conversations this week, especially on our Instagram, were about a man at Reno’s Pride who ended up being aggressively taken down by police, and then surrounded by a good chunk of the entire Reno PD force, before being strapped in, and carted away by REMSA, his face all scratched and bloodied.
We’ve gotten note of his identity and will try to reach out to him if he’s interested in sharing his side of the story. We tried to cover up his face with words on our reshared videos (below), and posted only videos and photos where we thought he’s unrecognizable. We believe it’s important to share this type of content and to embolden others to #filmthepolice.
This citizen right which holds taxpayer-funded law enforcement officers accountable is increasingly under threat though. For example, a new Arizona law scheduled to take effect in September will make it “illegal to film law enforcement encounters from closer than 8 feet away except in certain circumstances, such as when the person recording is the one being questioned by the authorities,” according to the Washington Post. Recording police activity from a closer range after a verbal warning will make it a misdemeanor. We hope this new Arizona law gets challenged and overruled in court as a violation of First Amendment rights.
Police are often trying to limit this right, but it’s essential as detailed below in snippets from other publications.
From the MIT Technology Review: Filming the police has become a popular tool of accountability that is simultaneously essential and dangerous. Because of a video filmed by a bystander, we know that Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, a Black man in his 40s, by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Without the video that 17-year-old Darnella Frazier took, it’s very possible Chauvin would not have been convicted: when police first described Floyd’s death in a press statement, they claimed that it had occurred “after [a] medical incident during police interaction.”
People film the police because they know that officers hurt or kill people and lie about it; because it is generally within their First Amendment rights to do so; and because recording an encounter with the cops might make them feel a little bit safer. Police departments cannot simply be taken at their word, and independent video of possible misconduct or violence can sometimes be the only thing with the power to make a false police narrative give way to the truth.
In many states, federal appeals courts have recognized the First Amendment right to record police officers while they are working in public.
From the y-stop website: “Recording helps to improve police behavior as nobody wants to be on film doing something badly. “
There are also laws being worked on to protect these rights further.
The Campaign Zero initiative wants to “ban police officers from taking cell phones or other recording devices without a person's consent or warrant and give people the right to sue police departments if they take or destroy these devices.”
Police abuse has been taking place since police work began but it’s citizen cell phone videos and social media which have brought it to much wider awareness and occasionally indictments. We thank and applaud those who had the courage to film, and otherwise document and share what happened at Pride.
Our Other Reporting Highlights this Week
Our Last Motels Standing series went to the Reno Royal Motor Lodge.
Our Reno recommended read is a bar and restaurant travel guide with plenty more.