The power of a YouTube video should be obvious. The authorities fear exposure of their own illegal activities. They also fear public embarrassment. Why? Because this can cause voters to pressure town councils to impose an outside board to run the internal affairs of a bureaucracy. More than anything else, a bureaucracy faces budget cuts and control by an outside board.
Video recorders are now cheap. A cell phone can produce a video suitable for YouTube. That’s all it takes to produce a nightmare for the police.
Don’t surrender your cell phone. Let the police as you are shooting the video and verbally protesting. Have a backup video if possible: a second person making a record of your arrest. A group of people armed with pocket camcorders is a powerful force for justice.
Here are a dozen reasons to “carry” a pocket camcorder or cell phone.
1. You are exercising a civil right to “film” police.
2. The fear of being on YouTube or in court or both may restrain police violence.
3. A video record may keep you from going to prison.
4. Others may imitate you.
5. A video is hierarchical. He who has a video is on top.
6. A video is non-violent, which is always better than violence.
7. Police should always assume that what they are doing will wind up on YouTube. “All citizens are armed . . . with a cell phone.”
8. It is a way to resist. Resistance is good.
9. You are decreasing the supply of tyranny by increasing its cost.
10. Each new YouTube video increases the public’s suspicion that we are moving closer toward a police state.
11. A fired cop is a warning to other cops.
12. You may get a video of a black helicopter. That will help silence the skeptics.
