Page 66 - Courting the Media Contemporary Perspectives on Media and Law

The Fate of the Iconic Sign: Taser Video 57

and interpretation, not just viewing. Some surveillance footage can only be
specifically interpreted using other first person accounts, other footage, and
technological enhancement, because it is low resolution and shot at some
distance from the relevant actions being recorded. See, for instance, footage
from more than one fixed camera in the 95th Street Red Line station in
Chicago where Officer Alvin Weems shot Michael Pleasance on Saturday,
March 8, 2003. Without the voice-over explanation of what we are seeing,
very little is clearly understandable. [Chicago Reader]
Other video may offer clear visual signals but be opaque about the
narrative and motives of people represented. This is true of most such video
posted, for example, a very recent clip posted on the front page of Huffington
Post for May 13, 2009 [Huffington] .The video clip is shot from above and so
steady that it must have been made with professional equipment; the logo tells
us that it is material copyrighted by NBCLA. The clip is now hosted on a news
website (NBC) in Chicago but the episode depicted unfolds in El Monte,
California. We see the end of a not very fast car chase brought to a conclusion
by police cars surrounding a vehicle by the side of a boulevard. The driver
jumps out and takes off, the overhead camera following him as he runs across
a parking lot, between houses, and is eventually trapped in a fenced backyard.
He sees that he is cornered and so lies face down spread-eagled on the grass
before any police arrive near him. The video then shows an officer arriving
with a drawn gun who kicks the young man in the head. Another officer
arrives, also with gun drawn, knees the young man in the back, and both
officers keep him down using only one hand each as their guns are still drawn.
The tape shows us the same kick to the head three times, twice zoomed in. The
young man appears to be white; so do the officers. The young man, unarmed,
appears to be slender and constituting no physical threat compared to the
bulked up police officers. The clip ends with more officers at the scene with
the young man and his two subduers still in a pile. We know nothing of the
events that provoked the chase. We do not know whether the police had any
reason to suspect that the young man was armed and dangerous. We are
treated to a close up view of the kick to the head. That piece of editing must
have been done in the camera. Why? Was the NBC News just gratifying their
audience or are they attempting to editorialize about police practices? Were
they following because they picked up a police radio call or were they just
trolling in the neighborhood?
So, far from giving us direct access to reality, if we pay close attention to
what is recorded, we may find instead an abyss of questions – who, what,
when, what happened before and what does any of it mean? This will not be