The nations premier journal of poverty and social reform discourse

Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy

Articles Child Support-Shifting the Financial Burden in Low-Income Families Stacy Brustin Tenant Purchase as a Means of Creating and Preserving Affordable Homeownership Julie D. Lawton Notes Using Compliance Transparency to Combat Wage Theft Jeremy Blasi A Thin Line Between Inpatient and Outpatient: Observation Status and Its Impact on the Elderly Onyinyechi Jeremiah Our Duty in Light of the Laws Irrelevance: Police Brutality and Civilian Recordings Andrew Rosado Shaw Stronger Together: Worker Cooperatives as a Community Economic Development Strategy Sara Tonnesen

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FALL 2012

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Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy

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Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy Volume XX, Number 1, Fall 2012

Our Duty in Light of the Laws Irrelevance: Police Brutality and Civilian Recordings
Andrew Rosado Shaw* INTRODUCTION In the 1960s, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense sent armed and uniformed citizen patrols through the ghettos of Oakland, California.1 These brazen young men, belts of bullets across their chests and shotguns in hand, marched to end the brutal abuse of the poor and minorities by the Oakland police.2 The same call to action was heard across the nation. Civil rights activists protested police brutality throughout the United States, demanding an end to hundreds of years of police culture that had willfully ignored, and even encouraged, widespread abuse.3 Despite these protests, police violence persists. Decades later, in August of 1997, Haitian immigrant Abner Louima was brutally beaten and sodomized in the restroom of a Brooklyn police station by ofcers of the NYPD.4 He was hospitalized with numerous injuries, including a punctured bladder and severed colon.5 Shortly afterward, the perpetrating ofcer paraded through the station with the blood- and feces-stained instrument of his abuse, bragging of how he took a man down tonight.6 In blatant disregard for these inhuman acts, fellow ofcers not only failed to report the incident for weeks afterward, but only eventually did so under the pressure of a highly publicized investigation.7
* J.D. Candidate, Georgetown University Law Center (2013); B.A., Rutgers University (2010). The author would like to thank his younger brother, whose victimization by the police inspired this Note; his grandfather, Rev. Dr. Josue Rosado, who spent much of his life combating similar abuses as a pastor of the United Methodist Church in the Bronx and Spanish Harlem; and the members of the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, whose tireless efforts contributed enormously to this Note and allowed for its publication. 2012, Andrew Rosado Shaw. 1. James A. Tyner, Defend the Ghetto: Space and the Urban Politics of the Black Panther Party, 96 ANNALS ASSN OF AM. GEOGRAPHERS 105, 111 (2006). 2. History of the Black Panther Party, BLACK PANTHER RES. PROJECT, http://www.stanford.edu/group/ blackpanthers/index.shtml (last visited Oct. 7, 2012). 3. See infra Part I.A; MARILYNN S. JOHNSON, STREET JUSTICE: A HISTORY OF POLICE VIOLENCE IN NEW YORK CITY 13 (2003) (stating that citizens complained of violence since the founding of the NYPD in the 1840s). 4. Marie Brenner, Incident in the 70th Precinct, VANITY FAIR (Dec. 1997), available at http://www. vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1997/12/louima199712. 5. Id. 6. Jack E. White, The White Wall of Silence, TIME MAG. (June 6, 1999), http://www.time.com/time/ magazine/article/0,9171,26382,00.html. 7. Id.

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Fortunately, a new weapon has emergedover 280 million U.S. citizens now carry cell phones.8 Most of these mobile phones are capable of producing video at a moments notice9video that has proven invaluable in prosecuting police misconduct.10 The report of the Independent Commission of the Los Angeles Police Department investigating the vicious beating of Rodney King in 1991 explicitly acknowledged, Even if there had been an investigation, our case-bycase review of the handling of over 700 complaints indicates that without the Holliday videotape the complaint might have been adjudged to be not sustained, because the ofcers version conicted with the account by King and his two passengers.11 The ofcers conicting account was, of course, a lie. The disturbing truth is that falsication is perhaps the most common form of police corruption, and the link between perjury and misconduct may be inevitable.12 The willingness of some police ofcers to completely disregard the law does not end with falsied reports. Even as courts recognize that video surveillance of on-duty ofcers is unambiguously protected by basic rst amendment principles,13 police have continued blatant attempts to prevent, suppress, or destroy video evidence.14 Because ofcers who disregard the law have already evinced their willingness to engage in the most savage brutality, it should come as no surprise that those ofcers are willing to engage in violence to prevent citizens from recording police brutality.15 This Note hopes to reframe the conversation regarding the recording of police misconduct from its traditional focus on courtroom battles to the reality of the situation on the ground. It will rst detail the history and development of police brutality in the United States, including traditional citizen oversight and the more radical responses prompted by pervasive abuse. It will then examine the effect of

8. Joel Rose, This Is the Police: Put Down Your Camera, NPR (May 13, 2011), http://www.npr.org/ 2011/05/13/136171366/this-is-the-police-put-down-your-camera. 9. See Amy Gahran, Survey Says Most U.S. Cell Phone Owners Have Smartphones; So What?, CNN TECH (Mar. 2, 2012), http://articles.cnn.com/2012-03-02/tech/tech_mobile_smartphones-majority-pewgahran_1_smartphone-cell-phone-android-phone?_s PM:TECH. 10. Dina Mishra, Undermining Excessive Privacy for Police: Citizen Tape Recording to Check Police OfcersPower, 117 YALE L. J. 1549, 1152-54 (2008) (stating that video evidence can powerfully rebut jury bias in favor of ofcer testimony); Allison L. Patton, The Endless Cycle of Abuse: Why 42 U.S.C. 1983 Is Ineffective in Deterring Police Brutality, 44 HASTINGS L.J. 753, 764-66 (calling 1983 suits credibility contests and describing the great difculty of overcoming jury bias). 11. INDEP. COMMN ON THE L.A. POLICE DEPT, REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COMMISSION ON THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT, at ii (1991), available at http://www.parc.info/client_les/ Special%20Reports/1%20-%20Chistopher%20Commision.pdf. 12. Jennifer E. Koepke, The Failure to Breach the Blue Wall of Silence: The Circling of the Wagons to Protect Police Perjury, 39 WASHBURN L. J. 211, 221 (2000), available at http://washburnlaw.edu/wlj/ 39-2/articles/koepke-jennifer.pdf. 13. Glik v. Cuniffe, 655 F.3d 78, 82 (1st Cir. 2011). 14. See infra Part II.C. 15. Mike Masnick, Yet Another Story of A Guy Arrested for Filming Police, TECHDIRT (Mar. 29, 2012, 2:51 PM), http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120328/04442118275/yet-another-story-guy-arrestedlming-police.shtml; Steve Silverman, 7 Rules for Recording Police, FLEX YOUR RIGHTS (May 21, 2012), http://www.exyourrights.org/7-rules-for-recording-police/.

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recent technological developments on prosecution, the settling of current law regulating civilian recordings in favor of First Amendment rights, and the utter disregard of these laws displayed by some police ofcers. Finally, it will look to social science to identify and understand the clear disparity between the law on the books and the law as applied. Oppression of those who use video cameras to challenge the prevailing power structure is rampant. We must view surveillance as a necessary exercise in civil disobedience and be prepared to endure its consequences; moreover, we must encourage and enable others to join the ght. I. POLICE BRUTALITY AND CITIZEN OVERSIGHT To properly understand the sweeping developments in citizen oversight that have occurred in recent decades, it is useful to understand the storied history of police brutality that produced them. Police departments have been plagued by a culture which not only supports, but actively facilitates the inhumane treatment of suspects.16 The roots of police brutality in the United States span across centuries17 and have continually targeted poor and minority populations.18 Well-documented and rampant brutality throughout the 19th and 20th centuries eventually led to the emergence of citizen oversight in two forms: statesanctioned complaint review boards19 and the considerably more radical approach of militant community organizations.20 A. An Entrenched Culture The depraved abuse of Abner Louima spotlighted a culture which government authority gures have refused to recognize.21 Nonetheless, police brutality has long remained a reality for the poor and minorities. The primary targets of police violence in nineteenth century New York City were young, working-class citizens from poorer ethnic neighborhoods . . . as they still are today.22 An 1881

16. See infra Part I.A. 17. JOHNSON, supra note 3, at 18; SAMUEL WALKER, POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY: THE ROLE OF CITIZEN OVERSIGHT 20 (2001). 18. JOHNSON, supra note 3, at 18. 19. JUSTINA CINTRON PERINO, CITIZEN OVERSIGHT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT 2-6 (2006). 20. See, e.g., Panther Patrols: Publicity and Performance, BLACK PANTHER, http://xroads.virginia.edu/ UG01/barillari/pantherchap1.html (last visited Oct. 21, 2012). 21. DON LOREE, CORRUPTION IN POLICING: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES 14 (2009), available at http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/PS64-27-2006E.pdf (The notion of what has come to be known as the bad apple paradigm has often been used, especially by senior police ofcers, as an easy way out when they are called upon to explain corruption within their organization. It is a simplistic explanation that permits the organization and senior management to blame corruption on individuals and individual faultsbehavioural [sic], psychological, background factors, and so on, rather than addressing systemic factors. Given this premise, the remedy is also simplistic and individualistic, usually focusing on psychological tests and other screening, lie detector tests, and so on. Corporate and systemic issues can thus be either ignored or downplayed.). 22. JOHNSON, supra note 3, at 13.

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New York Times article, A Brute in Police Uniform, provides an account of an ofcer approaching John McDonald as he sat outside his home on a hot night.23 When McDonald understandably refused the ofcers arbitrary order to return inside his home, he was brutally beaten with a heavy club.24 Like Rodney King and many other victims of police brutality, McDonald was subsequently arrested and incarcerated after enduring this injustice.25 The next day in court, McDonalds clothes were covered in blood and his face was one mass of cuts and bruises.26 This incident was by no means isolated. The New York Times alone reported more than 270 cases of police brutality between 1865 and 1894.27 It apparently required very little to warrant a beating, as seventy-ve percent or more of those cases involved misdemeanors, and numerous cases resulted in no charges at all.28 In fact, only three percent involved major felonies.29 Over ninety percent of these cases occurred in public, primarily in poor immigrant neighborhoods.30 Some of the brutality proved fatal; nine percent of victims died during or shortly after the incident.31 These statistics indicate that physical violence was an accepted police practice that did not require an arrest or cover charge to legitimize it. The public nature of most of these incidents likewise suggests that clubbing was a common and accepted tactic among police.32 This situation was largely the product of close ties between police and corrupt political administrations of the time.33 The relationship tended to produce a self-perpetuating culture of violence.34 Strong-arm tactics employed to combat rampant crime even won approval from some segments of the public, because they found considerable success in dispersing gangs by beating senseless every known gang member in the area.35 Further, New Yorks government did not appear to be an exception to the rule. Government ofcials from nearly every American city employed similar tactics, operating in conjunction with powerful neighborhood bosses to create state-sanctioned monopolies on violence.36 Circumstances in the South were even worse. The Civil War left wide

23. A Brute in Police Uniform, N.Y. TIMES (June 28, 1881), available at http://query.nytimes.com/mem/ archive-free/pdf?res F10B13FC385A11738DDDA10A94DE405B8184F0D3. 24. Id. 25. Id. 26. Id. 27. JOHNSON, supra note 3, at 18. 28. Id. at 19. 29. Id. at 19. 30. Id. 31. Id. 32. Id. 33. Id. at 15. 34. Id. 35. Id. 36. KRISTIAN WILLIAMS, OUR ENEMIES IN BLUE 66 (2004).

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disparities between the landowning upper class and newly freed slaves.37 The Republican Party aligned itself with Black voters and relied on the occupying Union military to quell dissent.38 The Democratic Party fed on the negative sentiment this created and ingratiated itself with the old guard of the South, including disenfranchised Confederate soldiers, plantation owners, and other former slaveholders.39 This tendency lent political legitimacy to prevailing xenophobic sentiments, and, as a result, police in the southern U.S. became entwined with racist vigilante movements like the Ku Klux Klan.40 The line between state action and the actions of vigilante squads quickly blurred. Local police forces often sympathized, were complicit, or actively participated in the atrocities.41 Both the police and the Ku Klux Klan have deep roots in an entrenched Southern tradition, the slave patrol.42 In the Reconstruction era:
Southern whites were forced to adopt laws and policing methods that appeared racially unbiased, but [that] relied upon practices derived from slave patrols . . . [T]he more random and ruthless aspects of slave patrolling passed into the hands of vigilante groups like the Klan . . . [M]eanwhile, policemen in Southern towns continued to carry out those aspects of urban slave patrolling that appeared race-neutral.43

Racial tensions mounted in northern cities as well.44 A series of riots, beginning with the Tenderloin riot in 1900, fanned the ames of racial prejudices between the primarily Irish police force and the rapidly expanding black community in New York City.45 Ofcers during this period openly assaulted black civilians; the police chief even gave the men a night off to teach the niggers a lesson. According to the chief, [t]he men appreciate[d] it.46 Other growing communities of racial minorities were targeted as well, including Jewish, Italian, and Chinese residents.47 Increased persecution gave rise to dissatisfaction with the police administration,48 and organizations like the Citizens Protective League (CPL) sprang up in response.49 These organizations demanded that corrupt police ofcials be held accountable for their actions:50
37. See generally Harold D. Woodman, Post-Civil War Southern Agriculture and the Law, 53 AGRICULTURAL HIST. 319 (1979). 38. WILLIAMS, supra note 36, at 87. 39. Id. 40. Id. 41. Id. at 87-91. 42. Id. at 91. 43. Id. 44. JOHNSON, supra note 3, at 57-86. 45. Id. 46. Id. at 61. 47. Id. at 59, 69-70. 48. Id. at 61-62. 49. Id. at 63. 50. Id.

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[a]ny attempt by the [politically]-dominated police department to investigate itself, [reformers] argued, was doomed to failure.51 Although they were short-lived, these organizations laid the groundwork for permanent entities like the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).52 The defense leagues found success in quelling the riots, but they failed to address the commonplace police brutality aficting poor and minority civilians.53 B. Traditional Citizen Oversight Over the next several decades, progressive reformers fought corrupt political establishments like New Yorks Tammany Hall throughout the country.54 Nevertheless, police brutality remained a serious and pervasive problem.55 Ofcers continued to freely beat citizens on the streets, knowing they would rarely if ever be punished for doing so.56 In the 1920s, the seeds of change were sown when the idea of government-sanctioned citizen oversight of law enforcement took hold.57 It was initially a radical idea and found support only among a small group of civil liberties activists.58 Nonetheless, in 1948, the rst ofcial civilian review board sprang into existence in Washington, D.C.the Complaint Review Board.59 Unfortunately, it was a weak and ineffective organization, more notable for its historical signicance than for its accomplishments.60 It would be followed by the Police Advisory Board (PAB) in Philadelphia in 1958.61 Philadelphias PAB was a more effective agency, but still handled few cases and had minimal impact on police-community relations.62 The effort demanding citizen oversight did not gain real traction until the 1960s, during which it found an ideological home alongside the civil rights movement.63 Civil rights activists protested police misconduct in nearly every city in the United States, frequently demanding the hiring of more AfricanAmerican ofcers and the creation of civilian review boards.64 The most signicant response was generated in New York City in 1966, when the mayor of the city of New York added four non-ofcer members to the existing all-police

51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64.

Id. at 62. Id. at 86. See id. at 87. WALKER, supra note 17, at 20. Id. Id. PERINO, supra note 19, at 2. Id. Id. at 3. Id. Id. Id. Id. at 3-4. Id.

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Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), giving the board a four to three civilian majority.65 Reaction from police rank-and-le was swift. They sponsored a referendum in November of that same year which abolished the CCRB entirely.66 Similar setbacks were experienced in Philadelphia, where the mayor allowed the PAB to lapse into nonexistence.67 Despite earlier fervent advocacy, citizen oversight was in dire straits by the end of the decade.68 Civilian review boards experienced a resurgence in the 1970s, which saw the establishment of boards in Kansas City, Missouri; Berkeley, California; and Detroit, Michigan.69 By 1980, there were roughly thirteen agencies, and by 2000, there were over one hundred.70 Some of these boards were met with considerable hostility in their early years.71 For example, the San Francisco Ofce of Citizen Complaints was established in 1982, but faced a combination of bitter opposition from the police union and indifferent support from the mayors ofce for many years. It nally established an effective program of activities in the mid-1990s.72 From the 1990s through the present day, citizen oversight has continued to rapidly develop. Numerous cities have established independent civilian review boards and police auditors, some of which are given broad license to investigate any and all aspects of police operations.73 C. A Radical Approach Despite these recent advances, many were not content with the slow progress of state-sanctioned citizen oversight. In the 1960s, as the cacophony of calls for traditional civilian review boards met with political intransigence, radical groups found a more immediate solution.74 One of the more famous, or perhaps infamous, of these groups is the Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers instituted a program in which armed and uniformed members took to the streets of Oakland, California to monitor police activities.75 Co-founder of the Black Panther Party, Huey Newton, explained, We hoped that by raising encounters to a higher level, by patrolling the police with arms, we would see a change in their behavior.76 The primary goal of these patrols was to counter police brutality in black communities through surveillance and confrontation.77 Bobby Seale, who

65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77.

Id. Id. Id. at 4. Id. Id. Id. Id. Id. at 4-5. Id. at 5-6. See infra text accompanying notes 75-84. Tyner, supra note 1, at 111. Id. Id.

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co-founded the Black Panther Party with Newton, stated:

We have to defend ourselves against [the police] because they are breaking down our doors, shooting black brothers on the streets, and brutalizing sisters on the head [sic]. [They] are wearing guns mostly to intimidate the people from forming organizations to really get our basic political desires and needs answered. The power structures use the fascist police against people moving for freedom and liberation. It keeps our people divided, but the [armed patrol] program will be what we unite the people around and [use] to teach our people self-defense.78

The Black Panthers were not alone in radical action. Militant Puerto Rican civil rights activists formed the Young Lords Party of East Harlem79 in New York City.80 This group was motivated by police brutality, dilapidated housing, and inequality of access and engaged in attention grabbing acts of protest throughout East Harlem.81 Active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Young Lords Party piled garbage across Third Avenue and set it on re to block trafc.82 They occupied the First Spanish Methodist Church,83 established a free breakfast program, seized hospital equipment and transported it to impoverished areas, and traveled through neighborhoods testing for lead paint poisoning and tuberculosis.84 Although both of these organizations have long since disbanded, in no small part due to internal discord fostered by the FBI program COINTELPRO,85 a comparable movement known as the Nation of Islam survives and continues

78. Id. 79. Often referred to as El Barrio, which translates to the neighborhood. 80. David Gonzales, Young Lords: Vital in 60s, A Model Now, N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 16, 1996), http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/16/nyregion/young-lords-vital-in-60-s-a-model-now.html. 81. Id. 82. Jennifer Lee, The Young Lords Legacy of Puerto Rican Activism, N.Y. TIMES CITY ROOM BLOG (Aug. 24, 2009, 11:04 AM), http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/the-young-lords-legacy-ofpuerto-rican-activism/. 83. The authors grandfather, Rev. Dr. Josue Rosado, then thirty-seven years old and a minister of the United Methodist Church in the South Bronx, became the chief mediator between the Young Lords and the Church administration. Puerto Rican and a graduate of NYU and the New York Theological Seminary, Rev. Dr. Rosado was chosen because of his leadership in driving the activism of inner city religious institutions against poverty, hunger, and injustice. 84. Lee, supra note 82. 85. COINTELPRO: THE FBIS COVERT ACTION PROGRAMS AGAINST AMERICAN CITIZENS, S. REP. NO. 94-755, at 3 (1976), available at http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94755_III.pdf (COINTELPRO is the FBI acronym for a series of covert action programs directed against domestic groups. In these programs, the Bureau went beyond the collection of intelligence to secret action designed to disrupt and neutralize target groups and individuals. The techniques were adopted wholesale from wartime counterintelligence, and ranged from the trivial (mailing reprints of Readers Digest articles to college administrators) to the degrading (sending anonymous poison-pen letters intended to break up marriages) and dangerous (encouraging gang warfare and falsely labeling members of a violent group as police informers).).

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similar practices to this day.86 The Nation of Islam is a controversial militant black Islamic group founded in 1930 and most famous for the thoughts and actions of its civil rights era leaders, Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Under its current leader, Louis Farrakhan, the Nation dispatched hundreds of unarmed black men in suits and bow ties to quell gun violence on the streets of Chicago in July 2012.87 Ignoring Farrakhans history of anti-Semitic remarks, Chicagos rst Jewish mayor and former Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, welcomed the actions of the Nation.88 Alderman Carrie Austin appealed to the organization to patrol her ward as well.89 The organization has been active in other cities too; street patrols by a group with close ties to the Nation of Islam were part of a 2008 crime-ghting initiative organized by the city of Miami.90 While these patrols are justied broadly as attempts to neutralize gun violence,91 an inspection of Farrakhans recent speeches indicates the strong possibility that the targeted gun violence originates not only from civilians, but from police:
I want Black youth to hear this message, because police authorities are the same today as they were during slavery. In fact, this is how policing began. Police were formed to catch runaway slaves, bring them back to their masters and make examples of them to throw fear into other slaves. Its the same today. Police authorities are trained to kill, as well as to protect. But where Black people are concerned, police legitimize their mob attacks under the name of back up. Police back up is often no different than the lynch mobs 100 years ago. The killing of our people, shooting them with many bullets when one would have done the job. And then, that deliberative body which is to discuss the brutal murder of our people by looking into the facts, comes away calling it justiable homicide.92

II. THROUGH THE MODERN DAY The recent progress of technology has provided a means of protecting our

86. See Mary Mitchell, Farrakhan, Nation of Islam, Step In to Help Stop Shootings, CHI. SUN-TIMES (July 19, 2012), http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/13858185-452/the-nation-steps-in.html. 87. Id. 88. Fran Spielman, Rahm Welcomes Help From Farrakhan, Ignores Anti-Semitic Remarks, CHI. SUN-TIMES (July 25, 2012), http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/13996951-418/rahm-welcomes-helpfrom-farrakahn-ignores-anti-semitic-remarks.html. 89. Fran Spielman, Ald. Austin: I Want Nation of Islam to Patrol My Ward, Too, CHI. SUN-TIMES (July 24, 2012), http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/13973835-418/ald-austin-i-want-nation-of-islam-topatrol-my-ward-too.html. 90. Julienne Gage, Plan for Group Tied to Nation of Islam to Patrol Miami Streets Meets With Protest, FOXNEWS.COM (June 4, 2008), http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361903,00.html. 91. See Mitchell, supra note 86. 92. See Louis Farrakhan, Justiable Homicide: Black Youth in PerilPt. 1, FINAL CALL (Mar. 20, 2012, 11:44 AM), http://www.nalcall.com/artman/publish/Minister_Louis_Farrakhan_9/article_8679. shtml.

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communities that is much safer and arguably more effective than armed civilian patrolsthe cell phone. We now have a tool that produces the strongest possible evidence of police brutality and is available at a moments notice to the majority of the U.S. population. Some might expect that those most at risk of police brutalitythe poorcannot afford this modern convenience. However, studies have shown that households below the poverty line rely exclusively on cell phones at a much higher rate than their more wealthy counterparts.93 Cellular phones have become more affordable. And the barrier to owning one is lower with pay-as-you-go plans.94 In the face of video evidence, it is likely signicantly more difcult for complaint review boards and juries to exonerate ofcers from meritorious claims. Unfortunately, as with the advent of complaint review boards, the backlash against this development has been strong and swift. Police departments have taken to arresting and charging citizen activists under clearly misapplied wiretapping statutes.95 Even in jurisdictions that unequivocally provide for legal surveillance of police, ofcers have displayed a willingness to prevent or destroy the resulting evidence and to arrest the civilians behind cameras on other frivolous charges.96 This has occurred even in violation of direct orders from superior ofcers.97 A. Technological Advances Technology has advanced at an exponential rate in recent years, and these advancements have had a substantial effect on the ability of the citizenry to effectively monitor and control the type of police misconduct protested by the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and Nation of Islam. There are now more than 280 million cell phone users in the United States,98 the majority of whom can use their phones to record video quickly and easily.99 This video evidence bolsters civilian ability to successfully prosecute police misconduct.100 Consequently, the populations most vulnerable to police brutality have found themselves newly empowered. Even in countries in which individuals experience far greater levels of poverty than individuals in the U.S., cell phone use and

93. See Sabrina Tavernise, Youth, Mobility and Poverty Help Drive Cellphone-Only Status, N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 20, 2011), http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/us/21wireless.html?_r 1. 94. Id. 95. Police Fight Cellphone Recordings, NEW ENG. CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING, http:// necir-bu.org/investigations/police-ght-cellphone-recordings-2/police-ght-cellphone-recordings/ (last visited Aug. 29, 2012). 96. Rose, supra note 8. 97. Carlos Miller, D.C. Cops Conscate Phone, Steal Memory Card, Day After New Photo Policy Implemented, PIXIQ (July 26, 2012, 10:02 AM), http://www.pixiq.com/article/dc-cops-conscate-phonesteal-memory-card. 98. Rose, supra note 8. 99. Gahran, supra note 9. 100. See Mishra, supra note 10, at 1152-54.

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technology as a whole has thrived.101 The Hmong villagers in Northwest Vietnam have access to internet cafes, but live in medieval farmhouses.102 Nearly thirty percent of Haitians own cell phones;103 reporters spoke with a farmer there whose list of possessions included a shack, a hard-dirt eld, two mango trees, and a mobile phone.104 According to Amanda Girdner, program manager of a New York-based non-prot that helps to bring mobile phones to Africas rural poor, [y]ou can walk in the middle of a rural village in Rwanda and use a mobile phone to pay at a recharging station to recharge LED lights.105 In the United States, a study by the National Center for Health Statistics found that adults living in poverty use cell phones at a roughly nineteen percent greater rate than those with higher incomes.106 In this new ght against police brutality, the poor nd themselves, for once, well-armed. Predictably, video sharing websites like YouTube now host tens of thousands of videos alleging police misconduct.107 Footage posted of excessive force by ofcers in response to the Occupy Wall Street protests has been reported on by numerous major news organizations including The Atlantic, The New York Times, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC.108 Although these videos are some of the most famous, they are far from the worst. A thirty-minute video emerged in 2011 showing the killing of Kelly Thomas, a homeless and mentally ill man suspected of breaking into cars.109 In the truly disturbing video, six ofcers threaten and then beat Thomas with sts, a baton, and the butt of a stun gun while he repeatedly apologizes, insists that he cannot breathe, and pleads for his absent

101. See M.S., Democracy in America: Consumer Electronics Do Not Cure Poverty, ECONOMIST (June 1, 2010, 3:24 PM), http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/06/poverty_and_cell_ phones. 102. Id. 103. Id. 104. Id. 105. Kevin Voigt, Mobile Phone: Weapon Against Global Poverty, CNN TECH (Oct. 9, 2011), http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-09/tech/tech_mobile_mobile-phone-poverty_1_mobile-phone-cell-phonerural-villages?_s PM:TECH. 106. Tavernise, supra note 93. 107. YOUTUBE, https://www.youtube.com (search Police Brutality) (last visited Nov. 1, 2012) (returning 117,000 results). 108. See Conor Friedersdorf, 14 Specic Allegations of NYPD Brutality During Occupy Wall Street, ATLANTIC (July 25, 2012, 10:00 AM), http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/14-specicallegations-of-nypd-brutality-during-occupy-wall-street/260295/; Ed Payne, Wall Street Protests Enter 11th Day, CNN (Sep. 27, 2011), http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/27/business/wall-street-protests/ index.html; Katherine Q. Seelye, Pepper Sprays Fallout, From Crowd Control to Mocking Images, N.Y. TIMES (Nov. 22, 2011), http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/us/pepper-sprays-fallout-from-crowd-controlto-mocking-images.html; Alain Sherter, In Day of Protests, Occupy Wall Street Faces Police Violence, CBS MONEY WATCH (Nov. 17, 2011, 6:00 PM), http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57326876/ in-day-of-protests-occupy-wall-street-faces-police-violence/; TheSecretStore, MSNBC Reporter SLAMS NYC Police Brutality!Occupy Wall Street, YOUTUBE (Sep. 27, 2011), http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v meT8CJgEBQw. 109. 32walter79, Kelly Thomas Beat to Death by Police [Full Video], YOUTUBE (May 8, 2012), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v e6yaeD-E_MY.

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father.110 Thomas subsequently died of a crushed windpipe.111 Spectators at trial left the courtroom in disgust and the judge paused the video to warn those who could not stomach its content to leave.112 The video formed the key evidence in charging one of the ofcers with second degree murder.113 Another widely circulated video shows an NYPD ofcer, Patrick Pogan, violently shoving a bicyclist, Christopher Long, to the ground apparently without provocation during a Critical Mass bike ride in 2008.114 The incident is signicant because Pogan was subsequently convicted of felony charges of ling a false criminal complaint against Long.115 The complaint included the assertion that Long knocked Ofcer Pogan to the ground by intentionally running into him with his bicycle, an assertion blatantly contradicted by the video.116 If Rodney Kings beating can be considered instructive, legal recourse would have been nearly impossible in the absence of a bystanders video.117 Due to the he said, she said nature of prosecuting police misconduct, video evidence can be dispositive in pursuing complaints.118 In Los Angeles, [t]he Christopher Commission found that only forty-two of 2152 allegations of excessive force [against the LAPD] were sustained between 1986 and 1990, or less than two percent.119 Without corroborating evidence, juries heavily favor police testimony over that of a suspected criminal.120 This truth is unfortunate for the prospective plaintiff because, as exemplied by the charges led against Ofcer Pogan, some ofcers are quite willing to lie to cover their illegal actions, even under oath and penalty of criminal sanctions.121 Regarding the unrecorded February 2012 shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, local police chief Billy Lee stated that there is no

110. Id. 111. Richard Winton, Video Portrays Violent Death of Kelly Thomas, L.A. TIMES (May 8, 2012), http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/08/local/la-me-kelly-thomas-20120508. 112. Id. 113. Id. 114. John Del Signore, Video of Cop Assaulting Cyclist at Critical Mass Ride, GOTHAMIST (July 28, 2008, 5:00 PM), http://gothamist.com/2008/07/28/cop_caught_on_video_assaulting_cycl.php. 115. John Eligon, Ex-Ofcer Convicted of Lying About Confrontation With Cyclist, N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 29, 2010), http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/nyregion/30pogan.html. 116. Id. 117. INDEP. COMMN ON THE L.A. POLICE DEPT, supra note 11, at ii (stating that prosecution would have been highly unlikely without video of the beating). 118. See id.; Howard M. Wasserman, Video Evidence and Summary Judgment: The Procedure of Scott v. Harris, 91 JUDICATURE 180, 180-84 (2008) (discussing the effect of Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372 (2007), which holds that uncontested video evidence may denitively decide factual issues raised by conicting accounts of ofcer and plaintiff). 119. Los Angeles: Internal Investigations, HUM. RTS. WATCH, http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/ cases/katrina/Human%20Rights%20Watch/uspohtml/uspo80.htm (last visited Oct. 19, 2012). 120. See Mishra, supra note 10, at 1554. 121. See Eligon, supra note 115.

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evidence to contradict Zimmermans claim of self-defense.122 In the absence of video, he is likely correct. Fortunately for the disaffected, cases against law enforcement ofcers for use of excessive force or other tactics which violate civil rights have increased twenty-ve percent between 2001 and 2007, compared to the preceding seven years.123 During the same time period, the Department of Justice has won fty-three percent more convictions.124 These statistics correlate with an increase of over 100 million cell phone subscribers,125 a fact which is likely not coincidental. The phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by police; a number of departments have requested that Google remove videos alleging police brutality from its website YouTube.126 B. The Misuse of Wiretapping Statutes Wiretapping statutes, often called eavesdropping or surveillance statutes, have erroneously been used in some states to prosecute those who record police ofcers, resulting in felony charges carrying potential prison sentences of over a decade.127 Essentially, the existing divide between states boils down to whether all parties or only one party to a conversation must consent to being recorded for it to be permitted by law.128 Worse yet, surreptitious recording of police misconduct by an uninvolved third party (like George Hollidays video of Rodney King) is most likely to be considered illegal, as no party has given prior consent.129 The federal government and the vast majority of states require only one partys consent, but twelve all-party states buck this trend.130 Nevertheless, ten of those twelve all-party states have an expectation of privacy provision to their laws which courts have ruled prevent them from applying to on-duty police

122. Trymaine Lee, Trayvon Martin Case Sent to State Attorneys Ofce Amid Growing Tension, Questions About Police Probe, HUFFINGTON POST (Mar. 13, 2012, 9:02 PM), http://www.hufngtonpost. com/2012/03/13/trayvon-martin-sanford-state-attorney_n_1343223.html. 123. Kevin Johnson, Police Brutality Cases on Rise Since 9/11, USA TODAY (Dec. 12, 2007, 7:39 AM), http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-17-Copmisconduct_N.htm. 124. Id. 125. Cell Phone Subscribers in the U.S., 19852010, INFOPLEASE (2007), http://www.infoplease.com/ ipa/A0933563.html. 126. Rebecca J. Rosen, Google Refuses to Remove Police-Brutality Videos, ATLANTIC (Oct. 27, 2011), http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/google-refuses-to-remove-police-brutalityvideos/247462/. 127. See, e.g., Radley Balko, Chicago States Attorney Lets Bad Cops Slide, Prosecutes Citizens Who Record Them, HUFFINGTON POST (June 8, 2011, 2:09 PM), http://www.hufngtonpost.com/2011/06/08/ chicago-district-attorney-recording-bad-cops_n_872921.html; Eric W. Dolan, Man Faced 15 Years in Prison for Recording Police Ofcer, RAWREPLAY (Sep. 28, 2011), http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/ 2011/09/man-faces-15-years-in-prison-for-lming-police-ofcer/; Journalist Faces 21 Years in Jail for Recording Police, RT (Aug. 8, 2012), http://rt.com/usa/news/copblock-wiretap-police-mueller-096/. 128. Tape Recording Laws at a Glance, REPS. COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM PRESS (Aug. 1, 2012), http://www.rcfp.org/reporters-recording-guide/tape-recording-laws-glance. 129. It falls entirely outside the previously stated one-party/two-party dichotomy that has developed during regulation of so-called wiretapping. 130. Id.

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ofcers. Massachusetts and Illinois stand alone in maintaining the illegality of recording on-duty ofcers by rejecting the expectation of privacy requirement.131 At rst blush, wiretapping statutes might seem irrelevant to recording police misconduct. The vast majority of this recording is being done on personal cell phones, which falls outside the traditional denition of wiretapping entirely.132 However, these statutes have, in some circumstances, been broadly interpreted to include any kind of recording, including those generated by a mobile phone.133 Video recording by itself rarely falls within the purview of these statutes, but because cell phones almost always make a corresponding audio recording, ofcers have distorted the law in an attempt to prevent surveillance in general.134 In states which require both parties to consent to recording, a police ofcer must therefore specically permit you to record her actions. This circumstance is exceedingly unlikely if that ofcer is in the process of violating a civilians civil rights. Numerous cases concerning all-party states have now concluded in favor of the First Amendment right to record police.135 Christopher Drew, a sixty-year-old artist and teacher, and Tiawanda Moore, a twenty-year-old who was sexually assaulted by an ofcer during questioning, were both arrested in Illinois under an eavesdropping statute for recording on-duty police ofcers.136 They faced up to fteen years on Class-1 felony charges.137 Drew used a digital recorder to capture his 2009 arrest for selling art without a permit.138 Moore used her Blackberry to record Internal Affairs investigators who allegedly discouraged her from ling a sexual assault complaint.139 Both were eventually acquitted,140 and a juror in the Moore trial called it, a waste of time.141 Simon Glik, an attorney in Massachusetts, recorded three ofcers in the Boston Commons as they arrested a young man.142 The ofcers asked if Gliks mobile phone was recording audio, and when he answered that it was, they arrested him for violating the states

131. Silverman, supra note 15. 132. Compare Wiretap, MERRIAM-WEBSTER, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wire tapping (last visited Oct. 7, 2012), with 18 U.S.C. 2510 (2006). 133. Radley Balko, The War on Cameras, REASON (Jan. 2011), http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/07/ the-war-on-cameras/singlepage. 134. Id. 135. See, e.g., Ryan Haggerty, Christopher Drew, 19502012, CHI. TRIB. (May 10, 2012), http://articles. chicagotribune.com/2012-05-10/news/ct-met-drew-obit-20120510_1_eavesdropping-case-eavesdroppinglaw-separate-case; Illinois Eavesdropping Act: Tiawanda Moore Sues City Amid Multiple Challenges of Law (VIDEO), HUFFINGTON POST CHI. (Jan. 16, 2012, 11:39 AM), http://www.hufngtonpost.com/2012/ 01/16/illinois-eavesdropping-la_n_1208770.html [hereinafter Illinois Eavesdropping Act]. 136. Id. 137. Id. 138. Haggerty, supra note 135. 139. Illinois Eavesdropping Act, supra note 135. 140. See Haggerty, supra note 135; Illinois Eavesdropping Act, supra note 135. 141. Illinois Eavesdropping Act, supra note 135. 142. Police Fights Cell Phone Recordings, supra note 95.

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wiretapping law.143 The charges were dismissed, and Glik eventually led a lawsuit claiming his First Amendment rights were violated.144 The resulting settlement required the city to pay Glik $170,000 for his damages and legal fees.145 The Federal Courts of Appeals have uniformly resolved this discrepancy in favor of First Amendment rights, holding that such applications of state wiretapping laws are unconstitutional.146 In ACLU v. Alvarez, the Seventh Circuit explained, Even under the more lenient intermediate standard of scrutiny applicable to content-neutral burdens on speech, this application of the statute very likely unks.147 The First Circuit used more forceful language in ruling on Gliks case: [I]s there a constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public? Basic First Amendment principles, along with case law from this and other circuits, answer that question unambiguously in the afrmative.148 Even law enforcement agencies have joined the chorus of voices denouncing the misapplication of wiretapping laws. The United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) has recently issued a statement recognizing the conclusions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals.149 With regard to Christopher Sharp v. Baltimore City Police Department, the USDOJs Civil Rights Division sent a letter to the Baltimore Police Departments Ofce of Legal Affairs which stated:
[I]t is the United States position that any resolution to Mr. Sharps claims for injunctive relief should include policy and training requirements that are consistent with the important First, Fourth[,] and Fourteenth Amendment rights at stake when individuals record police ofcers in the public discharge of their duties. . . . Policies should afrmatively set forth the contours of individuals First Amendment right to observe and record police ofcers engaged in the public discharge of their duties. Recording governmental ofcers engaged in public duties is a form of speech through which private individuals may gather

Id. Id. Id. See, e.g., Eugene Volokh, First Amendment Right to Openly Record Police Ofcers in Public, VOLOKH CONSPIRACY (Aug. 29, 2011, 6:49 PM), http://www.volokh.com/2011/08/29/rst-amendmentright-to-openly-record-police-ofcers-in-public/; Eugene Volokh, Seventh Circuit: Ban on Audio Recording of Police Ofcers Likely Unconstitutional, VOLOKH CONSPIRACY (May 8, 2012, 12:35 PM), http://www.volokh.com/2012/05/08/seventh-circuit-ban-on-audio-recording-of-police-ofcers-likelyunconstitutional/. 147. ACLU v. Alvarez, 679 F.3d 583, 586 (7th Cir. 2012). 148. Glik v. Cunniffe, 655 F.3d 78, 82 (1st Cir. 2011). 149. See, e.g., Letter from Jonathan M. Smith, Chief, Special Litig. Section, Civil Rights Div., U.S. Dept of Justice to Mark H. Grimes, Ofce of Legal Affairs, Baltimore Police Dept (May 14, 2012), available at http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/Sharp_ltr_5-14-12.pdf [hereinafter Smith Letter]; see also Timothy B. Lee, D.C. Police Chief Announces Shockingly Reasonable Cell Camera Policy, ARS TECHNICA (July 24, 2012, 2:34 PM), http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/dc-policechief-announces-shockingly-reasonable-cell-camera-policy/.

143. 144. 145. 146.

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and disseminate information of public concern, including the conduct of law enforcement ofcers.150

Additionally, Police Chief Cathy Lanier of Washington, D.C.s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) recently issued a strikingly similar order which said, in part:
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) recognizes that members of the general public have a First Amendment right to video record, photograph, and/or audio record MPD members while MPD members are conducting ofcial business or while acting in an ofcial capacity in any public space, unless such recordings interfere with police activity.151

The tide of legal scholarship is strongly in favor of First Amendment rights, and the few advocates in favor of using state wiretapping laws to curb surveillance of on-duty ofcers have essentially lost what was always a losing battle. C. The Laws Irrelevance If were going to catch these guys, fuck the Constitution, fuck the Bill of Rights, fuck them, fuck you, fuck everybody.152 - Anonymous Ofcer The key oversight in the current legal discourse regarding surveillance of police is that very few ofcers who are willing to engage in brutality actually care about the current legal discourse regarding surveillance of police. The signicance of the strong tide of legal decisions in favor of First Amendment rights is therefore vastly overstated. As if to highlight the disregard for the rule of law displayed by some ofcers, just one day after Chief Laniers order was issued, an ofcer of the Metropolitan Police Department conscated a mans cell phone for recording an investigation in public.153 The phone was eventually returned, but without its memory card.154 Harassment and intimidation occur even in one-party states which have no legal issue with the legality of recording police.155 Ofcers

150. Smith Letter, supra note 149, at 1-2. 151. METROPOLITAN POLICE, GO-OPS-304.19, Gen. Order on Video Recording, Photographing and Audio Recording of Metropolitan Police Department Members by the Public (July 19, 2012), available at https://go.mpdconline.com/GO/GO_304_19.pdf. 152. MARK BAKER, COPS: THEIR LIVES IN THEIR OWN WORDS 301 (1986). 153. Miller, supra note 97. 154. Id. 155. See Carlos Miller, New Jersey Man Arrested for Videotaping Police Ofcers on a Public Street, PIXIQ (May 15, 2010, 1:52 PM), http://www.pixiq.com/article/new-jersey-man-arrested-for-videotapingpolice-ofcers-on-a-public-street.

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who brutalize civilians have already displayed their total disregard for the law, and civilians are hardly in a position to argue legality in the face of potential or actual violence. The Mollen Commission Report, produced to investigate corruption in the New York City police force in the early 1990s, highlights the culture of outright disrespect for the law which continues to pervade police departments in the United States and hints at what ofcers might be willing to do to those who interfere:
[There is] a deep-rooted perception among many ofcers of all ranks within the Department that nothing is really wrong with compromising facts to ght crime in the real world. Simply put, despite the devastating consequences of police falsications, there is a persistent belief among many ofcers that it is necessary and justied, even if unlawful. As one dedicated ofcer put it, police ofcers often view falsication as, to use his words, doing Gods work doing whatever it takes to get a suspected criminal off the streets. This attitude is so entrenched, especially in high-crime precincts, that when investigators confronted one recently arrested ofcer with evidence of perjury, he asked in disbelief, Whats wrong with that? Theyre guilty.156

An ofcer willing to falsify documents to support an illegal arrest or excessive violence is not likely to be deterred from the considerably less serious crime of conscating a cell phone. A YouTube video of a Mississippi ofcer illustrates the difculty a civilian faces when refusing a direct order, even with full knowledge that the ofcer is grossly overstepping his bounds.157 The video depicts an ofcer exiting his vehicle, rushing toward the amateur videographer, and ordering him to turn it off!158 When the civilian refuses, the ofcer says, Well, youre going to jail, before snatching the camera out of the civilians hand.159 Any response other than submission would likely have led to violence. The problem is evident in many jurisdictions. Khaliah Fitchette, a high school student, had a similar experience in New Jersey when she was arrested for attempting to record police ofcers removing a man from a bus.160 No charges were led.161 Mitchell Crooks of Nevada was beaten by Las Vegas police ofcers when he refused to stop

156. MILTON MOLLEN ET AL., REPORT OF THE COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATIONS OF POLICE CORRUPTION AND THE ANTI-CORRUPTION PROCEDURES OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT 41 (1994), available at http://www.parc.info/client_les/Special%20Reports/4%20-%20Mollen%20Commission%20-%20NYPD. pdf. 157. TheCopBlock, Raw Video Motorhome Diaries Arrest in Jones County, MS, YOUTUBE (Dec. 3, 2010), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v QUk37Kq96KQ&feature youtu.be&t 10m9s. 158. Id. 159. Id. 160. Levon Putney, Lawsuit: Newark Cops Illegally Detained High School Student, CBS NEW YORK (Mar. 29, 2011, 9:02 AM), http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/03/29/newark-cops-allegedly-detain-teenillegally/. 161. Id.

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recording as they investigated a burglary across the street from his home.162 Ofcers in Miami smashed Narces Benoits cell phone for recording police ring dozens of bullets into a car driven by Raymond Herisse, a suspect who hit a police ofcer and other vehicles while driving recklessly.163 Even in the absence of wiretapping statutes, police have turned to a variety of other laws to suppress civilian recordings. The law in 38 states plainly allows citizens to record police, as long as you dont physically interfere with their work. Police might still unfairly harass you, detain you, or conscate your camera. They might even arrest you for some catchall misdemeanor such as obstruction of justice or disorderly conduct.164 Pearl Police in Mississippi slammed two teens to the ground and arrested them on charges of disorderly conduct when they attempted to record a shootout with police in their apartment complex.165 Given the history of police culture in the United States, behavior of this sort should be expected. If NYPD ofcer Justice Volpe can sodomize Abner Louima and make a spectacle of himself in the police department with the instrument of his crime, and still not be reported for his actions,166 what is to prevent a cop from perpetrating the comparatively benign act of conscating a cell phone or turning off a camera? Sometimes nothing, as evidenced by the off-camera beating of a woman in Shreveport, Louisiana.167 After her arrest and detention on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, Angela Garbarino became belligerent and attempted to ee the police station.168 Ofcer Wiley Willis slams her repeatedly into a nearby chair then turns off the police stations camera recording the confrontation.169 When the video resumes, Garbarino is lying on her back in a pool of her own blood.170 She has two black eyes, a broken nose, two broken teeth, and numerous lacerations and bruises.171 Although the letter of the law technically stands with victims like Angela Garbarino, the law enforcement system does not. The ofcer insists that Garbarino sustained her injuries from a fall.172 He was red and no

162. Brian Haynes, Las Vegas Police Agree to Pay $100,000 to Beaten Videographer, LAS VEGAS REV.-J. (Mar. 21, 2012), http://www.lvrj.com/news/las-vegas-police-agree-to-pay-100-000-to-beatenvideographer-143726156.html. 163. Chris Arsenault, U.S. Police Smash Camera for Recording Killing, AL JAZEERA (June 21, 2011), http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/06/201162114131825860.html. 164. Silverman, supra note 15. 165. Roslyn Anderson, Twins Allegedly Arrested for Recording Police Shooting, WLBT (May 2, 2012 11:06 PM), http://www.wlbt.com/story/18074344/twins-allegedly-arrested-for-recording-policeshooting. 166. See White, supra note 6 (And the ofcers who testied against him waited days and weeks to come forwardand did so then only under the pressure of a highly publicized investigation.). 167. GerbilHumper, Police Brutality: Woman Beaten Off Camera (Graphic), YOUTUBE (Mar. 3, 2008), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v 7KM1ukwBGv4. 168. Id. 169. Id. 170. Id. 171. Id. 172. Id.

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charges were led.173 III. OUR DUTY MOVING FORWARD Police ofcers overstep their legal boundaries because they exist within a culture of abuse. That culture employs an us and them dichotomy to justify its existence and the behavior it supports.174 The ability of this mentality to produce seemingly inhuman behavior has been documented elsewhere. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, college students screened for normality and divided into groups of guards and prisoners rapidly developed a shockingly brutal culture even in the connes of a temporary experiment.175 The abuse of captives at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq committed by U.S. soldiers serves as another example of what happens when human beings are viewed as somehow other.176 Fortunately, video surveillance is the perfect means of preventing this type of misconduct. It has been repeatedly shown, and it is intuitively true, that people alter their behavior for the better when they believe they are being watched.177 As a result, this Note argues that it is the moral duty of every civilian, irrespective of the state of the law, to combat police brutality through video surveillance. The history of civil disobedience in this country is strong, and it should be continued. The days of Black Panthers marching the streets with shotguns have passed, but we remain capable of patrolling the streets. Law students are in a unique position to facilitate this ght. Students across the country must take up the work that members of the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy will engage in this year,178 informing the people that not only is surveillance the most effective means at our disposal of combating police misconduct, but that it is our right and duty to record police on public duty whenever possible. A. The Root and Solution, Claried Surely, the ofcers who witnessed Justin Volpes perversely triumphant parade would be shocked and disgusted under normal circumstances. Police ofcers are human beings, complete with emotions and internal dialogues every bit as rich and complex as any others. How, then, does such a twisted culture come into existence? And how is it maintained? The Stanford Prison Experiment,179 a

173. Id. 174. See infra text accompanying note 199-200. 175. See infra Part III.A. 176. See infra Part III.A. 177. See supra Part II.A. 178. See infra Part III.C. 179. Kathleen OToole, The Stanford Prison Experiment: Still Powerful After All These Years, STAN. U. NEWS (Jan. 8, 1997), http://news.stanford.edu/pr/97/970108prisonexp.html.

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controversial simulation conducted at Stanford University in 1971, may shed light. Two dozen middle-class college students, selected from a larger pool after screening for the most normal, average, and healthy of the bunch, were randomly assigned to act as either prisoner or guard in a mock-prison scenario.180 The prisoners were arrested at their homes by Palo Alto police and brought, blindfolded, to a makeshift prison in the basement of Stanfords Jordan Hall.181 On the second day, the prisoners revolted.182 Once the guards had the rebellion under control, they steadily increased their coercive aggression tactics, humiliation and dehumanization of the prisoners.183 By the sixth day, several prisoners had experienced mental breakdowns and the guards behavior had escalated to the point that the experiment was shut down.184 The guards:
repeatedly stripped their prisoners naked, hooded them, chained them, denied them food or bedding privileges, put them into solitary connement, and made them clean toilet bowls with their bare hands . . . . They began using the prisoners as their playthings, devising ever more humiliating and degrading games for them to play. Over time, these amusements took a sexual turn, such as having the prisoners simulate sodomy on each other.185

Unsurprisingly, the worst abuses occurred at night when the guards believed the experiment staff was not watching.186 The Jekyll and Hyde transformations of some guards stunned observers,187 and may help to explain the behavior of the police ofcers who led otherwise normal lives, but still managed to ignore Volpes sadistic display or the cries of Thomas as he was beaten and suffocated to death. The good guards who did not personally debase the prisoners [of the Stanford Prison Experiment] failed to confront the worst of their comrades, allowing evil to ripen without challenge.188 Linking the inhuman conditions imposed by U.S. soldiers on Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 to the Stanford Prison Experiment, Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo, who orchestrated the original experiment and has spent decades studying the phenomenon, stated, Human behavior is much more under the control of situational forces than most of us recognize or want to

180. Id. 181. Id. 182. Id. 183. Id. 184. Philip G. Zimbardo, Power Turns Good Soldiers Into Bad Apples, BOS. GLOBE (May 9, 2004), http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/05/09/power_turns_good_ soldiers_into_bad_apples/. 185. Id. 186. OToole, supra note 179. 187. Id. 188. Zimbardo, supra note 184.

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acknowledge. In a situation that implicitly gives permission for suspending moral values, many of us can be morphed into creatures alien to our usual natures.189 United States soldiers at Abu Ghraib punched and kicked detainees, videotaped and photographed them naked, arranged them in sexually explicit positions, and forced male detainees to masturbate while on camera, among other offenses.190 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that unreleased footage depicts children being sodomized in front of women in the prison.191 He also wrote that Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, author of an internal U.S. Army report on the atrocities, informed him of a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee.192 Lt. Gen. Anthony Jones described the abuses as intentional violent or sexual abuses not believed to be permitted by any policy.193 Of course, this type of abuse might not have been permitted by any ofcial policy, but other investigators concluded that the worst abuses arose from an atmosphere of permissiveness,194 much like the one present in U.S. police departments. A report by Maj. Gen. George Fay attributed the more severe abuses at Abu Ghraib to an escalating dehumanization of detainees.195 Dehumanization is the root of much of this disturbing behavior because it is frequently the most important precursor to moral exclusion, the process by which stigmatized groups are placed outside the boundary in which moral values, rules, and considerations of fairness apply.196 Professor Philip Zimbardo called dehumanization one of the central processes in the transformation of ordinary, normal people into indifferent or even wanton perpetrators of evil,197and dened it as the process by which certain other people or collectives of them, are depicted as less than human, as non-comparable in humanity or personal dignity to those who do the labeling.198 Dehumanization was present in the Stanford Prison Experiment and at Abu Ghraib, and it is present in police departments throughout the United

189. Id. 190. MAJ. GEN. ANTONIO TAGUBA, ARTICLE 15-6 INVESTIGATION OF THE 800TH MILITARY POLICE BRIGADE 16 (2004), available at http://www.npr.org/iraq/2004/prison_abuse_report.pdf. 191. Geraldine Sealey, Hersh: Children Sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on Tape, SALON (July 15, 2004, 12:26 PM), http://www.salon.com/2004/07/15/hersh_7/; see also Statement of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, Sworn Statements by Abu Ghraib Detainees, WASH. POST (2004), http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/world/iraq/abughraib/swornstatements042104.html. 192. Seymour M. Hersh, The Generals Report, NEW YORKER (June 25, 2007), http://www.newyorker. com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh. 193. Michael Scherer & Mark Benjamin, Dehumanization, SALON (Mar. 14, 2006, 5:12 AM), http://www.salon.com/2006/03/14/chapter_2/. 194. Id. 195. Id. 196. Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Phillip Atiba Goff, Matthew Christian Jackson & Melissa J. Williams, Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization, and Contemporary Consequences, 94 J. PERSONALITY & SOC. PSYCHOL. 292, 293 (2008). 197. Philip Zimbardo, Dehumanization, LUCIFER EFFECT, http://www.lucifereffect.com/dehumaniza tion.htm (last visited Aug. 30, 2012). 198. Id.

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States when ofcers employ the idea of the other to justify vicious attacks on civilians. Professor John P. Crank described the way police have used the military metaphor to dehumanize criminals: It provided a way to view the police as protectors of society . . . and to view criminals as amoral enemiesless than human. It promoted a perspective . . . with enormous staying power, that criminals are enemies of the state, and, therefore, not worthy of state legal protections.199 Others have noted the phenomenon as well. Robert Benson of Loyola Law School stated:
Police departments have always been organized as military-style hierarchies, but in recent decades they have gone beyond organization to mimic military tactics in the streets. This means, among other things, a maximum use of force even in minor situations, use of heavy, sophisticated gear and equipment, a threatening and hostile demeanor toward the public, and a siege mentality in which the police dehumanize the citizens into enemies in a war which must be won at all costs.200

Social psychology has provided insight into the process of dehumanization.201 Research suggests that complex emotions like jealousy, sympathy, and hope are not applied to out-groups and are preferentially attributed to in-groups.202 This preferential assignment can effect change in altruism and empathy.203 These research ndings are reinforced by a neurological component.204 A 2006 study established that when participants viewed targets from highly stigmatized social groups (e.g., homeless people and drug addicts), who elicit disgust, the region of the brain typically recruited for social perception (the medial prefrontal cortex) was not recruited.205 Fortunately, the knowledge of being recorded can deter acts of misconduct.206 Thomas Jefferson once said, Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.207 In making that statement, Thomas Jefferson understood the intuitive truth that observation promotes ethical behavior. George Orwell recognized this same truth in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, where ever-present government observation through telescreens

199. JOHN P. CRANK, UNDERSTANDING POLICE CULTURE 118 (1998). 200. Robert W. Benson, Changing Police Culture: The Sine Qua Non of Reform, 34 LOY. L.A. L. REV. 681, 687 (2001), available at http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr/vol34/iss2/7. 201. Eberhardt et al. supra note 196, at 293. 202. Id. 203. Id. 204. Id. 205. Id. at 294. 206. See infra text accompanying notes 207-21. 207. Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr (Aug. 19, 1785), in AVALON PROJECT: THE LETTERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, available at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/let31.asp (last visited Oct. 23, 2012).

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was used to control a persons thoughts and actions.208 Researchers from a number of disciplines have documented this effect. In a 2011 study, researchers concluded even very subtle cues that one is being observed can affect cooperative behaviors.209 Participants in the study read brief accounts of two moral violations and rated the moral acceptability of each. According to the study, [v]iolations were more strongly condemned in a condition where participants were exposed to surveillance cues . . . than in a control condition.210 Laboratory studies and experiments have shown that even the image of human eyes can cause participants to behave more cooperatively in economic games and to increase their level of contributions to an honesty box.211 Moreover, in a 2011 study, researchers hung posters featuring either eyes or owers exhorting cafeteria patrons to clear their litter.212 During periods where the posters featured eyes, patrons were twice as likely to clean up after themselves.213 Even in the absence of actual observation, the subjective perception that one might be observed was enough to generate behavior more in line with social expectations. Although this was a negative inuence on the protagonists of Nineteen-Eighty Four, it is a positive inuence concerning police ofcers in the U.S. Some studies have directly evaluated the effect of surveillance on police misconduct.214 In a 2003 study, Benjamin Goold of Niigata University and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, interviewed British ofcers being monitored by close-circuit televisions (CCTV) regarding the cameras effects on their behavior.215 Initially, the majority of ofcers responded that the presence of cameras had no effect on their behavior or work.216 However, when pressed on the issue, over two-thirds of the ofcers conceded that the introduction of cameras had forced them to be more careful when out on patrol.217 Some ofcers had heard stories about police ofcers being successfully prosecuted for unlawful arrests or assaults resulting from CCTV evidence.218 Many came to the conclusion that the introduction of CCTV made it essential for them to go by

208. GEORGE ORWELL, NINETEEN-EIGHTY FOUR 9 (1st World Library 2004). 209. Pierrick Bourrat, Nicolas Baurnard & Ryan McKay, Surveillance Cues Enhance Moral Condemnation, 9 EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOL. 193, 193 (2011). 210. Id. at 193. 211. Max Ernest-Jones, Daniel Nettle & Melissa Bateson, Effect of Eye Images on Everyday Cooperative Behavior: A Field Experiment, 32 EVOLUTION & HUM. BEHAV. 172, 172 (2011). 212. Id. 213. Id. 214. Benjamin J. Goold, Public Area Surveillance and Police Work: the Impact of CCTV on Police Behavior and Autonomy, 1 SURVEILLANCE & SOCIETY 191, 191-93 (2003), available at http://www. surveillance-and-society.org/articles1(2)/publicpolice.pdf. 215. Id. 216. Id. 193-94. 217. Id. at 194. 218. Id.

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the book, or at least create the appearance of doing so.219 An investigation using similar methodology performed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the International Association of Chiefs of Police came to the same conclusion.220 While only one-fth of the ofcers responded that the cameras altered their performance on initial surveys, a majority of ofcers confessed in subsequent interviews that they act with more professionalism and courtesy when under surveillance.221 These studies strongly indicate that recording ofcers in their confrontations with civilians will, in addition to facilitating successful prosecution, deter acts of misconduct in the rst place. B. With or Without You, Government When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.222 - Thomas Jefferson As Jefferson foreshadowed, our moral duty has become resistance. Irrespective of whether the American government sanctions the acts of police ofcers who choose to prevent, suppress, or destroy video evidence of their misconduct, it is self-evident that such acts are wrong. Police departments cannot be allowed to continue condoning clear abuses of power at the expense of innocent civilians, and ofcers cannot continue committing them under color of law. Therefore, our duty to engage in peaceful civil disobedience through recording police misconduct is clear. Thankfully, our greatest weapon is now within reach for hundreds of millions of Americans at any time, notwithstanding the deep-seated police culture that actively works to impede its use. As common experience and social science have demonstrated, the perception of oversight can have a positive effect on ethical behavior. If the ofcers who beat Rodney King had known that their conduct would be televised nationwide and become topics of political discourse for decades, they would undoubtedly have altered their behavior for the better. In light of this knowledge, every ofcer must believe that his or her misconduct can and will be recorded and played back endlessly on the internet, by media outlets, and in courtrooms. Further, to the best of our ability, we must work to make that belief true. Students should pair with organizationssuch as the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Copwatchthat have already begun to take up the cause. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has created a
219. Id. 220. OFFICE OF CMTY. ORIENTED POLICING SERVS., THE IMPACT OF VIDEO EVIDENCE ON MODERN POLICING: RESEARCH AND BEST PRACTICES FROM THE IACP STUDY ON IN-CAR CAMERAS (2004), available at http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/ric/ResourceDetail.aspx?RID 404. 221. Id. at 22. 222. Marie G. Kimball, Unpublished Correspondence of Mme. De Stael With Thomas Jefferson, 208 NORTH AM. REV. 63, 65 (1918), available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/25121947.

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program to train and disseminate legal observersindividuals who attend and record protests and other events likely to produce conicts between the public and the police.223 The ACLU of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) has released an application for mobile phones running the Android operating system called Police Tape, which allows users to record video and audio discreetly.224 First, the application disappears from the phones screen when recording begins. Second, the application can send a copy of the recording to the ACLU for backup and storage so that a recording remains intact even if the police attempt to delete the video or destroy the phone.225 Discussing the ACLU-NJs motivation for developing this application, Executive Director Deborah Jacobs said, Too often incidents of serious misconduct go unreported because citizens dont feel that they will be believed. Here, the technology empowers citizens to place a check on police power directly.226 Copwatch, a network of individual organizations dedicated to monitoring the police, has taken this newfound capability very seriously. For example, the primary aim of Oakland Copwatch is to ensure that incidents of police brutality will never go undocumented, unreported, and that the cop will never go free from prosecution.227 The founder of Orlando Copwatch, John Kurtz, was recently convicted of resisting arrest for pointing his camera at police and saying, Calm down, I am lming you.228 Such organizations and their courageous members are the natural allies of law students as we move forward. C. A Call to Arms If we desire respect for the law we must rst make the law respectable.229 - Louis D. Brandeis The simplest and most effective means of completing this herculean task is to divide it among the many. Conscientious law students have a natural afnity with organizations like the ACLU and Copwatch, but we have a unique position and role to play in aiding the effort. There are law schools in nearly every major city in the United States, which gives a great numbers of students access to a majority

223. Legal Observer Program, NATL LAWYERS GUILD, http://www.nlg.org/legal-observer%C2%AEprogram (last visited Aug. 30, 2012). 224. Elinor Mills, ACLU App Lets Android Users Secretly Tape the Police, CNET (July 5, 2012, 1:00 PM), http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57467073-83/aclu-app-lets-android-users-secretly-tape-thepolice/. 225. Id. 226. Id. 227. About Copwatch, OAKLAND COPWATCH, http://www.oaklandcopwatch.com/About_Us.html (last visited Aug. 30, 2012). 228. Garry Reed, Orlando CopWatch Activist Not Guilty, Goes to Jail Anyway, EXAMINER.COM (July 8, 2011), http://www.examiner.com/article/orlando-copwatch-activist-not-guilty-goes-to-jail-anyway. 229. FRED R. SHAPIRO, THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN LEGAL QUOTATIONS 244 (1993).

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of the nations population.230 Further, for those with even minimal training in legal research, it is exceedingly simple to determine the legality of recording ofcers in any given jurisdiction and whether local law enforcement has acknowledged the situation. While that information is present in this Note and current through its drafting, it is regularly being liberalized further in favor of First Amendment privileges. We must disseminate that information through all means at our disposal, the simplest being to post and distribute yers and pamphlets. In the Spring of 2013, members of the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy will distribute a yer detailing the legality of recording police in Washington, D.C. and suggesting means of pursuing misconduct charges; however, the students will caution that doing so may result in meritless arrest and incarceration. Efforts will be targeted at high crime neighborhoods. Further, the author will contact each of the seven police districts in the city to ensure that commanding ofcers are likewise aware of the situation and have informed their subordinates. Similar actions must be taken in cities across the country. CONCLUSION The ght against police brutality must be won not only in law books, but also on the streets. This is not a discussion in the abstract, a callused inspection of another of the myriad pressing legal and social issues, but a call to arms. D.C. law students, in conjunction with likeminded public interest organizations, will campaign throughout the city to ensure that both the police and the people are aware of the First Amendment right to record. Other conscientious students must follow suit. I ask, on behalf of every civilian brutalized by police ofcers, that those reading this Note continue the work that members of this Journal will begin this Spring. Let every person know that it is the right and duty of the American people to train cameras on police ofcers whenever possible. The immoral and illegal commands of ofcers to turn it off!231 must be willfully disobeyed, even when made under the color of law. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events . . . . It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.232 - Robert F. Kennedy
230. See U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census Urban and Rural Classication and Urban Area Criteria, CENUS.GOV (Aug. 17, 2010), available at http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ua/2010urbanruralclass.html (stating that 80.7% of the U.S. population resides in urban areas). 231. TheCopBlock, supra note 157 (wherein the ofcer shouts, Turn it off! before charging the civilian and illegally snatching his mobile phone). 232. Robert F. Kennedy, Day of Afrmation Address at the University of Capetown (June 6, 1966), available at http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Day-of-AfrmationAddress-news-release-text-version.aspx.