Justice Through a Lens
Sadly, the Walter Scott case proves just how necessary these apps are. The police have to know that people aren’t just watching, they’re recording, taking pictures, and bearing witness.
About 10 times a day, Darren Baptiste gets an email informing him that footage of police brutality may have been posted to YouTube through software he developed. Baptiste is the creator of CopWatch, an iPhone app that helps people record police-citizen interactions, upload them directly to the Internet, then alert Toronto-based activist group the Network for the Elimination of Police Violence to the material’s existence.
Until there is real police oversight, not just in the US, but in Canada, indeed, world wide, it’s up to “citizen journalists” to provide real justice.