I was just thinking about this yesterday...this is the age where everybodys' damn cell phone has a video camera - including mine.
Watching the crap the Seattle PD has been going through this year because everything they've done wrong has been caught on film by 30 different people with phone cameras, I'm kind of wondering if the age of Big Brother is reversing itself; We are watching the watchers more than vice-versa. A couple of those home-movies were directly responsible for police officers being reprimanded, fired, etc.
I don't know how many of these public vids have helped catch/lock away criminals, but I do believe the average Joe who has a sidewalk scuffle (like the two in the video) or that school kid in Australia who slammed a bully to the concrete, will come under greater scrutiny than necessary. It pouts you in the public light and forces that 15 minutes of celebrity on you, whether you were right or wrong. Thousands of people have seen the 5th and Washington clip, and they all have an opinion. The Casey-bully in Australia clip has been analyzed and argued in both directions (he was right, he was wrong) by experts across the globe. Looking ahead another 10 years, I wonder if this will influence our judicial system at all?
It all just makes me VERY uneasy when I have to teach someone knife defense and then say "Also, look around for the asshole filming you with his iphone - you may have to grease him as well."
I've mostly of the mind that trying to avoid a fight and making it clear to any witnesses (or cameras) watching that I'm not the aggressor is the smarter way to go.
The Reasonable Man Defense wherein the jury can put themselves into your shoes and nod when they do it. If they think, Yeah, I'd have punched the bastard, too, then you get to go home.
The big kid who finally, after weeks of being hassled by the little kid, fought back? Nobody with half a brain faults him. I heard that the kid's own mother said as much. And I don't expect the little bully will be hassling the big guy any more. If you get into somebody's face and he kicks your ass? Your own damn fault -- you don't want me on the jury trying the guy who did it.
Cameras are a mixed blessing, but now and then, somebody gets caught out doing stuff they shouldn't and it's harder for them to lie about it when the unblinking eye is upon them and showing it to the world. And sometime it backs them up -- yep, happened just like he said it did.
Back when I was a hippie, we had a saying about the possibility we'd be taking on bugged telephones: Never say anything over the phone you wouldn't want to hear the prosecutor playing for the jury. A lot of mobsters have been put away for forgetting that one.
Now, don't do anything in public you wouldn't want to see on YouTube ...
I laughed like a lunatic, especially with the "Young man..." at the end. Where did I see that before? Oh--appended to the end of the clip where the Vietnam Vet beats up the mouthy punk on the bus that was going around awhile back.
Here's a radio interview with the two guys involved in the fight; it's pretty humorous.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.975thefanatic.com/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10214751
Looks like both malum prohibitum and malum in se.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about this yesterday...this is the age where everybodys' damn cell phone has a video camera - including mine.
ReplyDeleteWatching the crap the Seattle PD has been going through this year because everything they've done wrong has been caught on film by 30 different people with phone cameras, I'm kind of wondering if the age of Big Brother is reversing itself; We are watching the watchers more than vice-versa. A couple of those home-movies were directly responsible for police officers being reprimanded, fired, etc.
I don't know how many of these public vids have helped catch/lock away criminals, but I do believe the average Joe who has a sidewalk scuffle (like the two in the video) or that school kid in Australia who slammed a bully to the concrete, will come under greater scrutiny than necessary. It pouts you in the public light and forces that 15 minutes of celebrity on you, whether you were right or wrong. Thousands of people have seen the 5th and Washington clip, and they all have an opinion. The Casey-bully in Australia clip has been analyzed and argued in both directions (he was right, he was wrong) by experts across the globe. Looking ahead another 10 years, I wonder if this will influence our judicial system at all?
It all just makes me VERY uneasy when I have to teach someone knife defense and then say "Also, look around for the asshole filming you with his iphone - you may have to grease him as well."
I've mostly of the mind that trying to avoid a fight and making it clear to any witnesses (or cameras) watching that I'm not the aggressor is the smarter way to go.
ReplyDeleteThe Reasonable Man Defense wherein the jury can put themselves into your shoes and nod when they do it. If they think, Yeah, I'd have punched the bastard, too, then you get to go home.
The big kid who finally, after weeks of being hassled by the little kid, fought back? Nobody with half a brain faults him. I heard that the kid's own mother said as much. And I don't expect the little bully will be hassling the big guy any more. If you get into somebody's face and he kicks your ass? Your own damn fault -- you don't want me on the jury trying the guy who did it.
Cameras are a mixed blessing, but now and then, somebody gets caught out doing stuff they shouldn't and it's harder for them to lie about it when the unblinking eye is upon them and showing it to the world. And sometime it backs them up -- yep, happened just like he said it did.
Back when I was a hippie, we had a saying about the possibility we'd be taking on bugged telephones: Never say anything over the phone you wouldn't want to hear the prosecutor playing for the jury. A lot of mobsters have been put away for forgetting that one.
Now, don't do anything in public you wouldn't want to see on YouTube ...
Great example of someone who didn't realize when a monkey dance was over...
ReplyDeleteI laughed like a lunatic, especially with the "Young man..." at the end. Where did I see that before? Oh--appended to the end of the clip where the Vietnam Vet beats up the mouthy punk on the bus that was going around awhile back.
ReplyDelete