Camera Phones Capture Police Conduct in LA

One cell phone video shows Los Angeles police beating a man repeatedly in the face. Another shows a handcuffed, homeless man being blasted with pepper spray in the face. A third grainy video has campus police using a Taser stun gun on a student who refused to leave a Los Angeles university library.

Once regarded as a toy for rich teens, the ubiquitous camera cell phone is becoming a powerful community tool in the debate about police conduct.

Some Los Angeles grass-roots groups are training citizens to use cameras, video cell phones and the speed and Internet sites like YouTube to get their voices, and pictures, heard.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

“We urge everyone to have a camera on them at all times so if anything happens it can be documented. The concept of patrolling the police is something we are trying to push as a form of direct action,” said Sherman Austin, a founder of Cop Watch L.A., which launched its Web site three months ago.

The three videos shot on cell phones or small recorders capturing Los Angeles police using apparently excessive force to restrain suspects all surfaced within a week.

The images recall the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King by four police officers, which was caught by on home video by an Argentine plumber.

Fifteen years later, black and Latino activists in tough Los Angeles neighborhoods are leaving nothing to chance.

“We have tried civilian review boards, we have tried going to City Hall and going to the police and all we have seen is more brutality,” said Austin, 23.

“Technology makes it all the easier now. There are little digital cameras you can buy for 20 bucks in a drugstore that take good enough photos in daylight. And then there’s the Internet that gets it out there.”

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton is investigating the officers’ conduct but cautioned against quick conclusions.

“I cannot make judgments based solely on videos or portions of videos,” Bratton said this week. He contended there is no U.S. government agency that “has more policies, procedures, guidelines and independent oversight with respect to use of force than the LAPD.”

Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California chapter of the ACLU, said the latest incidents underlined the case for more citizen oversight.

“This police department was a cowboy department, a department that was very quick on the trigger and it is hard to root out those practices from the past. That’s why the cameras are important,” Ripston said. “If the police were not overreacting there would be no photographs to take.”

Austin, a dreadlocked African-American with a police record, said he had been detained, followed and framed.

“I don’t remember how many times I have been pulled over by police or had the light shined in face because of the way I look. I am sick and tired of it. That’s why I thought it was necessary to start this organization because I can’t take it any more.”