aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Monday, October 10, 2005

We all have cameras now

In a room of 4 students here in rural Georgia I asked how many had video cameras in their phones. One did.

Police departments everywhere had better wake up. This was AP but it could have been your phone or mine:

Two New Orleans police officers repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another city officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations.

How about a law that makes it illegal to interfere with a citizen photographing a newsworthy event?

The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the man at least four times in the head Saturday night as he stood outside a bar near Bourbon Street. The suspect, Robert Davis, appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers. Another of the four officers then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter.

Meanwhile, a fifth officer ordered APTN producer Rich Matthews and the cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials and explained he was working, the officer grabbed the producer, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade.

Katrina aside, the department is “long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption.” The video (via CNN) is profoundly disturbing.

Terrance asks: “Maybe it’s me, but is being publicly intoxicated on Bourbon Street really that much of a big deal?”