Page 67 - Courting the Media Contemporary Perspectives on Media and Law

58 Christina Spiesel

like Rashomon [Kurosawa], produced cinemagraphic material from multiple
viewpoints ready to be assembled by viewers; it will be more like putting
together part of an ancient pot from a few shards and guessing at the rest.
Further, we should know, but do not, much more about the effect of the
source on the credibility of the video document. Does video material from
dashboard surveillance cameras have a special credibility because of its source
within police practice and not just from its seemingly detached ―eye‖? Does
video that is generated in this way, even if it records bad behavior on the part
of the officers, more often than not exonerate officers who should be
reprimanded because of the source? See for example the video from Buckley v.
Haddock, the first case to cite the Supreme Court‘s decision in Scott v. Harris.
The Buckley police dashcam tape records the use of the Taser by an officer
[Buckley police]. The Buckley tape produced no revulsion in the finders of
fact – Haddock was given qualified immunity. But I, watching this video on
the Web, cannot but feel surprise that the officer thought he needed to tase a
handcuffed man who was merely weeping. What are the effects on judgment if
members of the public post the same police video on YouTube or other similar
venues? We simply do not have empirical studies on these and related topics.

A NEW VIDEO MEDIUM

One of the newest forms of on-the-spot video recording that has legal
significance, is video made by Tasers when they are activated. For a detailed
discussion of these pieces of equipment, see a major report by Amnesty
International [Amnesty ii] [Taser International].
They are referred to as Electronic Control Devices (ECDs) and are
intended to incapacitate briefly an out of control person by disrupting their
ability to control their gross motor capacities. In December 2008, an Amnesty
International report stated that there have been 334 deaths from the use of
Taser guns in the United States [Amnesty i] [Rawstory]. As the use of these
stun guns expands, we can expect that video records of deployment will enter
both as evidence of crime and crime control and also as evidence in cases
litigating over the effects on people who have been injured or killed from
4
being tasered.

4
Being tasered is part of police and military training, so some victims of Tasers are, in fact,
members of uniformed services.[TChris] Readers interested in arguments favoring