Marshall Brain's Blog

There is something interesting going on, culturally, with YouTube. To see what I am talking about, watch this video. Also, be sure read the text description of the incident given on the right (click the "more" link):

Power-hungry cop takes over Walter's

After watching the video, read some of the 1,000+ comments that people have left to share their opinions.

Then watch this:

Aggressive HPD officer at Walter's on Washington

And this:

Houston Police Officer, Tazer, Two Gallants

We have three different views of the same incident, all filmed at the scene and posted within a few hours of it happening.

Now think back to the "Rodney King incident" of 1991. No one would have believed what happened to Rodney King had there not been video tape of the event. And the tape had a powerful effect on how people interpretted the event. That was one of the first cases of "inverse surveillance" -- citizens watching the police with cameras.

With YouTube, the same thing happens, but now there are many people taking video and all of the video is available world-wide an hour later.

The same thing happened when 50 cent was arrested this year in NYC (look at how many people have cameras):

50 cent

50 cent arrested

Then there are day-to-day incidents like this:

This is illegal!

Because of places like YouTube, combined with ubiquitous camera phones, we eventually arrive at the point where everything you do in public is filmed. If you do anything that has even a whiff of being "interesting" or "controversial" or "confrontational", it gets filmed by someone.

Police, to some extent, are used to this. In some places all traffic stops get filmed by cameras in police cars. Celebrities are also familiar with it because of the paparazzi.

But I don't think the rest of us are used to it. It changes the entire meaning of "going out in public." ANYTHING you do has the potential to be filmed and broadcast worldwide, often to your detriment. That's a pretty big (potential) price to pay for going out in public.

Something I also wonder -- why on YouTube do we see less video of people doing good things? For example, paramedics saving a person's life on the street?