Shoutout for YouTube for Keeping Us Posted on Police Misconduct
Sep 18, 2007
Bravo to YouTube for making videos of police brutality, such as
occurred with Andrew Meyer in Florida, more accessible than ever to
the general public.
In 1991, video allowed the public to see the Rodney King beating -
nothing the police said in its aftermath could contradict what the
public was able to see with its own eyes. YouTube has taken this
once step further - allowing us to see such videos without having
to wait for television to show them to us. The iPhone is helping as
well, by allowing people to see such videos when they are away from
their desktops and laptops. All of this is by no means stopping
police from trampling on First Amendment rights - but it is making
it harder than ever for them to get away with it.
On the one side, we have retrograde forces like the commissioners
of the FCC, and incompetent out-of-control police, who each in
their ways imperil our freedom. On the other hand, we have miracles
of technology, which speed us news of the FCC's misdoings, which
provide immediate, irrefutable images of policy brutality and
misconduct.
These technologies have made freedom-loving people more equal to
the task of combating these threats to our democracy.
They are, in effect, media-philosophic partners of Ron Paul's
run for the White House, and the respect he urges for the First
Amendment.
