Standing By Police Violence: On the Constitution of the Ideal Citizen as Sousveiller

Abstract

Individual citizens and social movement organizations document police with video, both serendipitously and deliberately. This documentation is characterized as an intervention, one that not only promises to alter events, but to fulfill civic responsibilities. Simply, video recording police makes one an active citizen, rather than a passive bystander. For instance, at Occupy Wall Street, video recording was a primary and normalized response by protesters when police used coercive force against other protesters. Their use of video streaming apps to live-broadcast such events—while chanting “The whole world is watching!”—shows how protesters framed watching as an intercession. The National Police Monitoring and Reporting Project frames citizen documentation of police as a duty, one that produces protective power against police violence. Copwatch “know your rights” training similarly portrays spontaneous filming as an intervention in violent policing. In other cases, however, video documentation is cast as a shame-worthy denial of a citizen’s responsibility to intervene to stop the perpetration of violence. In light of its equivocal standing, the treatment of documenting violence as an intervention is in doubt.

Keywords

• bystanders
• efficacy
• police violence
• social media
• sousveillance
• surveillance