The Martin verdict may well be legally justifiable but I have less enthusiasm for the overall message, which boils down to make sure you kill the other guy first. Unless you are black. The upshot of this message for a young black man being harassed in his own neighborhood by an aggressive jerk, a scenario that HAPPENS ABOUT ONCE EVERY FIVE SECONDS, sounds pretty lose-lose. Here is one thought that will not whisk away the many layers of fear and resentment that makes race relations such a profound problem in this country, but it might help.
A while back, when my wife got her first smartphone, I mused* about how nice it would be to have a simple button or button combination that would start recording video while sending it to a pre-set friend or relative. It seems hard to think of any other personal safety device that is at the same time so cheap, effective and compatible with technology that everyone already carries around. If someone bothers you for whatever reason you can take out the phone as if to give it to them, push the button and invite them to proceed with the more or less total certainty of going to jail. This probably would not stop the truly crazy or someone wearing a mask, but it would have more uses than mace or a gun.
As far as I know the idea has not been implemented yet. Nonetheless, in situations that are more uncomortable than dangerous, for example men acting like a douche to women, the more awkward strategy of login-open camera app-snap-upload later works pretty well. How do I know that it works? One, anecdotal evidence. I have heard about plenty of encounters trending from bad to worse, but which turned around as soon as the dude found out that he might end up in a shaming post on some blog, tumblr or Facebook (with its quite good face-recognition software). Second, the men’s rights crowd are up in arms over it.
Sidebar note!
The ounter-feminists coined a clever protest term: ‘creep shaming’, cf. slut shaming. This illustrates once again what Atrios describes as the conservatives problem with consent. Whatever a ‘slut’ does is consensual. When non-consensual we call it ‘sexual asssault’ or ‘rape’. Creepy behavior is not consensual. Compare and contrast.
/sidebar
Like I said, a small thing like this will not heal the racial divide in America. Still, when harassed by a jerk it could really help to activate a record-and-send feature on the phone and ask the other guy whether he really wants to become a celebrity on YouTube. Whereas the legal system has a pretty high bar for proving that someone acted like a racially motivated jerk, most people understand that the internet jumps to conclusions like Nancy Grace on meth. In my view this kind of feature would pay for itself in the same way that a seatbelt will not save you in a sharknado but it helps in the kind of accident that most people encounter most of the time. Apple, Google, how about it?
(*) No link because even us unemployed do not have the time to deal with our C- search functionality.
Joey Maloney
OpenWatch, available for iOS and Android, streams video directly to the web.
Yatsuno
It might get them at least arrested…and if you’re in a two-party consent state, immediately thrown out. Fruit of the poisoned tree still exists as a legal concept.
Joey Maloney
@Yatsuno: I’m not sure about that; if you’re recording in public they have no expectation of privacy. If it’s not a private conversation, consent rules don’t apply. But I, anal.
Tim F.
@Yatsuno: …so if you had a murder victim’s footage of the aggressor coming at him, that could not be used as evidence? Don’t get me wrong, not a lawyer or anything, but that seems strange. I understand that the state has various fourth amendment limits on what they could collect themselves but I did not realize that it extends to someone using a camera for their own self-defense.
Comrade Mary
@Joey Maloney: It streams, but does it cache? How much of a stream can be permanently archived?
Redshirt
Write an app! Then form a startup around that app! Then sell the startup to Google for 3 billion dollars. Profit!
Poopyman
OT, but I think we need this.
peach flavored shampoo
Just wait until asshole teenagers use this to surreptitiously video each other for revenge or assholeness purposes. Once it’s on the web, theres no take-backsies. Knowing someone could start of video of me in 1-2 seconds and have it instantly on the web seems…..unnerving.
BlueSkies
@peach flavored shampoo: An armed (with instant video start-send devices) society is a polite society….
Comrade Mary
@Poopyman: Eco friendly vegan cute firefighter who saves kittens? Oh, maaaaaan …
Redshirt
Or just wear Google glasses all the time.
Joey Maloney
@Comrade Mary: The description says it streams low-quality in real time, and then syncs a hi-q version when recording is done.
aimai
If the police are confiscating people’s cel phones for videotaping them why do you think there aren’t laws on the books preventing you from doing this to your harrassers? I’m not sure why this doesnt’ fall under the two party recording rules already on the books in many states.
That being said I think this would work in a small number of cases–cases where the violence factor is not already tuned up to 11. Holla back is an example of it working (a bit) on creeps. But really violent people? Doubtful.
Its called “souveillance” by the way, when the function of cctv cameras and recording devices devolves down to the lowest level and we are watching and recording each other.
Comrade Mary
@Joey Maloney: Hmm. Interesting — I may check that out.
Poopyman
@Comrade Mary: I didn’t really catch the “cute” part. :^)
Emerald
@Poopyman: Awwww. You’re right. We need that.
Fireman rescues tiny kitten from fire and saves it’s little life.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@peach flavored shampoo: Blame Thomas Edison. John Barnes described this in a book back in 94, though he had old people going around taping everyone. I think teabaggers will do it more than teenagers.
Forum Transmitted Disease
I was discussing this very idea with someone recently, I cannot remember the circumstances.
There would be hell to pay in a two-party consent state – that includes mine – but I think it’s needed.
@Tim F.: There’s one and only one reason these laws exist: cops hate being recorded. No other.
Mandalay
What could possibly go wrong?
In such a situation your are not – by definition – dealing with someone who is reasonable and rational.
I think a phone that sprays Mace is the way to go.
Comrade Mary
@Poopyman: Cute can be earned.
Violet
A dashboard cam might have helped in the Zimmerman situation. Wasn’t he in the car and then left? If he was close to the car, maybe it would have captured it.
Maybe dashboard cams should become standard issue. Wouldn’t help inside buildings or other non-car places, but might help some.
Ted & Hellen
What?
No one here at BJ jumped to any conclusions in the Zimmerman trial.
sherparick
What has kind of shocked me is the continuing Zimmerman and Right-wing offensive against the dead kid and their outrage that any white man should be held accountable for shooting an unarmed black kid, since by definition they are identical to rabid dogs apparently. The cases are not identical (the Mr. James’s son was present as an eyewitness so that did not help Mr. Dooley’s case), but still we have evidence that black man shooting a white man does not get the same deference for self-defense as Mr. Zimmerman got from his jury.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/14/1223588/-We-don-t-have-to-ask-What-If-Zimmerman-had-been-Black-We-know-the-Answer
EconWatcher
OT, but Nate Silver is predicting that we lose the Senate in 2014.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/nate-silver-predicts-gop-holding-50-51-senate?ref=fpb
jl
” The Martin verdict [and the Dooley verdict] may well be legally justifiable” in states that have vicious batshit insane laws and judicial precedents.
I asked two lawyers I met on a recent trip about the Martin/Zimmerman case and they completely disagreed about how to interpret Florida’s vile ‘stand your ground’ law’. How far back through the chain events to you have to go before Zimmerman could rightfully claim he had the right to have stood his ground and shoot an unarmed person?
They did agree that apportioning responsibility will be parsed more accurately in the civil case. Well, golly gee, that knowledge will be very comforting to me should I be gunned down someday for very little reason in Florida. Which won’t happen since I won’t be in Florida anymore if I can avoid it. I guess if I have to go to a conference, I’ll stay in the damn hotel the whole time.
I had thought that if a person claims self defense after he shoots an unarmed person, that legally, the shooter had at least some burden of proof that he made at least some attempt to avoid a confrontation that lead to a supposed threat to his life.
I guess that rule is out the window in places like Florida, with their horrible ‘stand your ground’ BS, and fact that if there are no witnesses, The shooter can say whatever he damn well pleases and its the state’s responsibility to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooter was wrong. That is way messed up.
I wonder whether even streaming video from the victims point of view will be foolproof in protecting those who chose to not walk around packing heat all the time.
I think someplace in the politics, Aristotle talks about barbaric customs that fade way with civilization, like buying wives and walking around all the time armed with swords. That gives an idea of where our white racist wingnut crazies want to take us. I guess if some vicious fat armed fool decides to ‘take a wife’ by dragging away a random woman of his choosing by the hair, and a passerby makes some objection, he’ll get shot, and we can have another Zimmerman trial circus.
CNN will see the need to but on some barbaric nitwit expert who will explain why the woman’s testimony (should she still be alive) cannot be trusted. For balance sake.
Mandalay
@aimai:
Indeed. Here is a very recent nightmare story:
– A group of cops beat someone to death.
– Someone videos it on their phone and calls 911.
– The cops take the phone and delete the video.
This is the scenario where Tim’s solution really would be a winner; do not phone 911 until you have sent your incriminating video to a friend or relative. Then the cops can delete all they want, and put themselves in even deeper shit.
catclub
@aimai: I would suspect that the ‘two party consent’ taping laws are pretty explicitly linked to phone calls. But I also am not a lawyer.
BethanyAnne
I wonder if Qik is any good? It seems to do what you are saying.
PeakVT
@EconWatcher: Note that Silver pretty much says he’s guessing at this point, not modeling.
geg6
@Mandalay:
I second that, but think a phone that would record the incident and sense when the tension rises to a certain point and then spray mace would be even more awesome.
Baud
If there is a group of people douchier than libertarians, it’s the men’s rights people.
If recording people without their consent is illegal, how does James O’Keefe get away with it?
Joey Maloney
@catclub: They’re for sure linked to situations where there’s a reasonable expectation of privacy. That doesn’t exist when you’re in public. And at least one state has a law that explicitly says cops on duty have no expectation of privacy. Dunno how that managed to get passed.
Mandalay
@Violet:
I think they will eventually. I’m surprised that insurance companies don’t already offer discounts for dash cams. Their mere presence would surely make many people become safer drivers.
catclub
@Baud: various possibilities: say that you obtained the tape
from anonymous sources. Claim press freedom.
Joey Maloney
@geg6: Mace and some distinctive color of nontoxic but permanent dye, so everyone would know when they were dealing with a douche.
Joey Maloney
@Mandalay: My understanding is that insurance is the reason why dashcams are mandatory in Russia, hence the proliferation of can-you-fucking-believe-what-that-guy-just-did road videos with Cyrillic titles on YouTube.
Pinkamena Panic
@Baud:
Considering the two are inextricably linked, I’d say that’s a given.
Violet
@EconWatcher: Wouldn’t surprise me.
Baud
@Pinkamena Panic:
Same demographic makeup, I suppose, but I don’t know how much actual overlap there is between the two groups.
Pinkamena Panic
@Baud: Plenty. Go to any Rich White Glibertarian Internet Hangout (Reddit, for example) and you won’t have to lift up many boxes to see the MRA roaches scatter.
Mandalay
@jl:
IANAL, but if you are correct this white guy, who also killed an unarmed black teen in Florida, is in deep trouble.
If he gets off then I expect riots in Florida. This shit has to stop, and the law has to change.
Spaghetti Lee
I gotta say, I don’t like it. It seems like it would be just as easy for a Zimmerman type to harass some random black person and only film the reaction, i.e. the Breitbart School of video editing. Plus what other commenters have said about everyday teenage dickishness.
Pinkamena Panic
For the people screaming that this would be abused, free tip: that’s already happening. Making it easier to NOT abuse isn’t going to hurt things by this point.
Baud
@Pinkamena Panic:
I visit Reddit, so I know it’s a hangout for both libertarians and MRA folks. I just never paid attention to how much they cross over.
Tim F.
@Spaghetti Lee: This point about abuse completely escapes me. Teenagers already carry cameras everywhere. People today can livestream video whenever they want. Any realistic way handheld video can be abused (e.g., creepy guys filming or snapping pics of women) it already is. The only thing my idea would do is shave a few seconds off the camera activation time and designate a third party to receive the video.
catclub
@Pinkamena Panic: Go to any Rich White Glibertarian Internet Hangout (Reddit, for example) and you won’t have to lift up many boxes to see the MRA roaches -XXXXXX- stand up on their hind legs and squeak at you.
FTFY
Cacti
@Mandalay:
Dunn, of course, made the mistake of leaving 3 of his victims alive.
RSR
NYCLU has an app with those features, although it’s ‘marketed’ as useful for monitoring and/or recording NYPD stop and frisk activities.
http://www.nyclu.org/app
Tim F.
@RSR: That does look like a winner. The only catch is that the video automatically goes to a special division of the NYCLU, who most likely does not want to sift through a thousand videos of sheepish guys explaining their until-just-then creepy behavior to the camera.
Mandalay
@Tim F.:
That “few seconds” is more significant than you might imagine.
Your proposal is certainly a winner in some situations. But it has a huge potential drawback: you would make it really easy for someone to be able to post a video to YouTube in the heat of any difficult situation, such as a domestic disputes between spouses, or kids and parents.
That is not necessarily a good or reasonable capability, and even the person doing it might regret it later. Of course anyone can still do that now, but the extra time and effort required to load the video to YouTube also offers a valuable “cooling off” period.
liberal
@Baud:
I’m almost certain that they get away with it by making sure they only work in one-party consent states, or whatever it’s called.
Redshirt
@Baud: Oh, Reddit. I visit – for the funny pictures – but egads has that place gone south, what with the NSA and Zimmerman stuff. I know I’m only skimming the surface of Reddit (front page only), but even that has gotten a bit too much lately. I feel like I’m being lectured to by 18 year old white suburban kids.
Tim F.
@Mandalay: If using this for personal security, I doubt that anyone would choose YouTube as their trusted third party. A parent, sibling, friend or spouse seems like a more practical choice. Broadcasting live puts you in as much jeopardy of looking like a douche as the other guy.
Baud
@Redshirt:
Pretty much how I experience Reddit.
Mandalay
@Tim F.:
Really? Yet that is the exact scenario you chose to provide:
I still like your idea a lot (see post #26), but I think it should be implemented with some limitations.
Mandalay
@Tim F.:
Of course. It is fortunate that no hot-headed angry teenager with an iPhone would ever contemplate such an irresponsible action.
Tim F.
@Mandalay: No, the point is that you have yhe choice to broadcast it on youtube because a person (or cop) cannot make it go away by destroying or erasing your phone. It did not occur to me that someone would want to livecast a stressful situation like that. I doubt very many people would.
jl
@Cacti:
” Dunn, of course, made the mistake of leaving 3 of his victims alive. ”
Well, hell, the more you shoot, the better your defense in some of these states I guess.
” Dayam, they were all unarmed, but a whole pack of them come at me, Judge! ”
The racist crazies will use that sad type of (all too common of course) situation, to put on ‘stand your ground’ defenses shooting cases (aka massacres) for righteous white racists who pack machine pistols.
I just all makes sense, if you think about it the white supremacist, er, I mean, the right ‘rule of law’ way.
RSA
Nice idea.
I had a similar thought a couple of years ago, but not with video–just the ability to put your hand in your pocket and surreptitiously activate your phone to start recording audio. (A police stop is the most obvious situation for this.)
We did a bit of empirical work in my lab and found in a pilot study that people can accurately press software buttons on their phone, without being able to see the screen, if there are no more than four buttons across the width of the phone (a common Android phone). This was with the phone held in the hand but under a visual barrier. We thought about testing accuracy with the phone in a pocket or purse, but it was hard for us to think of a general class of applications that might take advantage of the capability, so we stopped work on it.
alhutch
Well, my bog standard iPhone running iOS 6 mostly does this now. Every photo and video I take with it is automagically uploaded to my “Photo Stream” (via iCloud) and then appears on my home Mac shortly thereafter. Since I don’t bother with a pass code, one upward swipe at the lock screen brings me to the camera. One additional swipe to change from still to video and I can start recording. It’s pretty easy.
vitaminC
Yes, everybody is automatically swayed by video evidence. Rodney King taught us that.
El Cid
As a male I’d like to emphasize how much I do not want these “men’s rights activists” douchebags representing me.
wmd
@Redshirt:
I’ve been thinking this since the verdict came down. Bonus is that the NSA has a whole new data stream to monitor the proles.
wmd
There’s folklore about police having a “drop knife” on hand in case they have an encounter with the public that results in a shooting. They plant a knife on the person shot… voila self defense or justified shooting.
In truth a knife versus gun fight is not as simple as Indiana Jones made it out to be. If the knife comes into play when the people are less than 15 feet apart the outcome is in doubt.
BlueUU
This isn’t the same as video recording racist intimidation, but for personal safety, there’s an app called Circle of Six. It allows the user to put in the contact info of six friends or family, who can then be accessed with one touch in an emergency or uncomfortable situation. The user can ask for 911, or just for the contact person to call her right then to interrupt a potential incident, among other options. It was intended for college-aged women to use in dicey situations, but it would work for anyone.