CNN 'The 1991 viral video that set a city on fire' (2017)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1zLA2gzQQ0g
Quote: "In the spring of 1991, one man https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rodney_King#Holliday's_video holding a small Sony camcorder captured video that seemed to prove exactly what African-Americans had been protesting throughout the 20th century. Millions watched their television screens as four white Los Angeles police officers viciously beat a 25-year-old African-American man named Rodney King, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King over and over again. The video promised to be transformative. Civil rights leaders hoped that the power of those images would be enough to change the way that race influences the US criminal justice system. ... The Rodney King video – which today we would say went 'viral' – circulated with the kind of speed that nobody had seen before. As one media critic recalled at the time of King’s arrest in 1991, 'the internet was barely more than a curiosity at colleges … Cell phones were the size of concrete bricks, and nearly as heavy. Video-sharing websites, portable telephones with cameras and digital video were still mostly dreams in science fiction stories'" (Zelizer, J., 2017). Quote: "the video proved ineffective as a means of reining in police violence. When it was introduced as evidence in the criminal trial, the seemingly damning video proved nothing. Footage was presented at varying speeds or selectively frozen at key moments, and the court’s rules about what the jury could conclude from physical evidence effectively created a visual context that rendered the reality of what the police had done to King invisible. The jury had no choice but to find that the police patrol involved had acted reasonably in subduing King. The public interpretation sharply contradicted the legal one: The police acquittal triggered an uprising that left Los Angeles in flames" (Schwartz, L.-G., 2016). Simon: Fast-forward to the 6 January U.S. Capitol Attack when people such as Nicholas Rodean stormed the US Capitol building still wearing their staff ID card i.e. http://trigg.gr/tag/IRLInsurrectionistNicholasRodean#52457B503427;C1 where presumably, the prospect of being identified was the last thing on his mind. Simon: The use of networked, AI-enabled cameras have the potential to create a mass surveillance system - as Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez explain in the context of those installed by Flock Safety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_Safety (21 July 2026). https://newpractices.co.uk/AI/#oaro56lbLyQ Similar criticism has been made about [Amazon] Ring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(company) https://newpractices.co.uk/horizons/#OheUzrXsKrY cameras in relation to their 'Search Party' feature https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/1qzrts8/ring_search_party/ Context: "credible witness video and testimony. If you want a street-level role that’s legal, non-violent, and useful, don’t just shoot video — become a trained witness. More impact. More accountability" (Phillips, L., 2026). Bibliography: Zelizer, J. (2017, 19 July 2017). 'Did the Rodney King video change anything?' CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/19/opinions/zelizer-nineties-rodney-king-video/index.html Schwartz, L.-G. (2016). 'In Plain View: Video Evidence'. Artforum, (Summer 2016). https://www.artforum.com/features/in-plain-view-video-evidence-229250/ Phillips, L. (2026, January 17). 'Become a Trained Witness: When ICE Shows Up, Document It Right'. Medium. https://medium.com/@leephillips.sr/become-a-trained-witness-when-ice-shows-up-document-it-right-08d90617a8a3
