A Balancing Force to Mass Surveilance?

moerty asks: "The advent and application of video surveillance by governments on its peoples has been a worrying trend in western society. The recent incident with the use of tasers on a UCLA student has highlighted a shift of power where surveillance in the hands of civilians can be used as an equalizing tool against government oppression. What are the best optic/sound capture devices for such a situation? A plus is having a device that is inconspicuous, since photographers are usually targeted due to the visibility of their cameras. What about off-site storage and the hosting of such videos? As a follow-up, what organizations exist that encourage the use of the camera as an equalizing tool?"

Witness.org

[daigu]

I think http://www.witness.org/ [witness.org] is worth mentioning. They have articles and guides like Effective Strategies for Video Advocacy [witness.org], "Tips & Techniques" Training Video and Manual [witness.org] and so forth that might help you get some ideas.

The Panopticon Flourishes

[MuChild]

Michel Foucault came up with the idea that our society is based on a series of "social engines" that rely on the possiblity that any one person could be watched at any time. Which is why most drivers stop at a stop sign in the middle of nowhere at three in the morning when they know that there aren't any other drivers on the road: because someone might see them and punish them. He called this effect the panopticon after an 18th or 19th century prison design which allows one guard in a central tower to see into any of the cells arrainged in a ring around it (think the prison in Silent Hill: The Room).

He predicted that, as technology increased, the panopticon would become ever more pervasive and ever more invasive. That was a few decades ago. Sure enough!

The trick is, as others have mentioned,that as technology becomes more and more advanced, that people who were traditionally in the position of "guards" are now safely monitored in their own panopticon. Case in point, the nanny-cam.

I say let it roll! I say let's get every politician, police officer, judge, corporate CEO, etc. wired for audio and video and have it stream to the internet 24/7! If we can't hide, then neither can they.

Brin

[Metasquares]

One of my favorite authors, David Brin, discusses precisely this in one of his books, The Transparent Society [wikipedia.org].

Re:Carry a taser

[gamlidek]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tazer#Controversies [wikipedia.org]

'nuff said.

/gam/

Re:Carry a taser

[An Onerous Coward]

You are wrong about pretty much every specific of the case you bring up.

1) The student didn't forget his ID. He refused to show it, because it's a stupid rule and because he felt he was being singled out for his ethnicity.

2) The police didn't ask to see his ID. A librarian did. By the time the police got there, the student was heading out the door, but the cop couldn't resist putting a hand on him. That's no way to treat someone who is already complying with your requests, because it escalates the situation. The cops escalated the situation repeatedly.

3) The students surrounding the cops seemed far less concerned about their term papers than about the flagrant abuse the cops were inflicting on an unresisting student who posed no threat to them.

4) You say that after the first tazering, he still didn't "grow up." In fact, the problem was that he didn't *get* up, which is hard to do after being hit with a stun gun, and even harder after three or four blasts. Of course, at this point he was already handcuffed, and couldn't pose any threat to anything except for the ... sniff... fragile egos of those brave men in blue.

5) The cop in question was actually the reason the UCLA cops were carrying tasers in the first place. He'd previously been suspended for three months after fatally shooting a homeless man. I'm sure the guy gave the cop lip, though. So he obviously deserved it.

I'm amazed that you're more concerned with a student being "a whiny bitch" than a cop denigrating his own profession and abusing a citizen. But given how you recount the events with such utter relish, my amazement is tempered by the realization that you're basically an idiot, and your opinion doesn't count for much.