The above YouTube video (in which obscenities are shouted) is called “Officer breaks window with drunks face.” But it goes by other names,
including
“BART POLICE PUT MANS HEAD THROUGH WINDOW.”
Whether or not that really happened is a matter of debate. What is clear, though, is that cellphone videos like this one, and the chance that they will spread rapidly, are a concern on the minds of law enforcement. BART officials quickly called a news conference Sunday, a day after the arrest of Michael Joseph Gibson, a 37-year-old San Leandro man, to ask the public to withhold judgment and to talk about the video itself.
BART knows all too well the power of viral video. The fatal shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III, who was unarmed at the time, by BART officer Johannes Mehserle was widely watched on YouTube and fed into a city-wide outcry that included protests and riots. An Alameda County judge recently decided to send Mr. Mehserle’s trial to Los Angeles County, because extensive pretrial publicity in the East Bay would make it unlikely for Mr. Mehserle to get a fair trial.
At the news conference on Sunday following Mr. Gibson’s arrest, BART police patrol Cmdr. Daniel Hartwig said: We are keenly aware of what YouTube brings to the public. We want to assure the public that we are moving forward. We are not waiting. We are investigating this to the fullest extent.
Since George Holliday grabbed his Sony Handycam in 1991 and captured police beating Rodney King, video has played a critical role in the national debate of law enforcement and the use of force. Now videos from cellphones with mini cameras have replaced the Camcorder and YouTube has become the quick media outlet.
Does BART’s reaction to this most recent incident mean that YouTube is playing an increasingly important role in how police agencies operate?
A cellphone video in San Jose of police arresting a student has led to calls for reform of the San Jose Police Department. In that case, the video did not get posted on YouTube, but in many cases, a video on YouTube can show evidence that counters the official police report and become a public relations bombshell.
BART officials acknowledged yesterday that the video of the arrest—and its potential to go viral—spurred the agency to react quickly. They took the unusual step of holding a news conference on Sunday, before the video had attracted substantial hits on YouTube, and distributed copies of the video to reporters themselves. The original YouTube posting was taken down on Sunday, but the video has since been posted on other websites.