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So...much to my surprise (and I should definitely make the deliberate choice to stop being surprised these days) I have learned that there are folks out there who think that people who *film* Karens in the wild are somehow responsible for provoking said Karens.
A thread.
A thread.
I sat with this for a while, and realized that if one had not had much exposure to the way Black men are utterly brutalized by our system, and if one imagines a stranger randomly filming them *doing nothing wrong, minding one's own business* how filming could seem provocative.
So...I feel like I have to explain this if you're out there (or if your friends or relatives or family) take this view.
Christian Cooper--and everyone else who has captured these videos--is doing the single best thing they can do to protect themselves from harm.
Christian Cooper--and everyone else who has captured these videos--is doing the single best thing they can do to protect themselves from harm.
I don't just mean the violence of the police, though countless Black and brown men have been killed because of a false complaint, often from a white woman feigning fear (as we see in the Amy Cooper video).
I also mean, as a public defender, I have seen hundreds of cases where the only evidence of what--if anything--went down between two people is a voice on a 911 call. Where one person says they were punched, for example, but has zero injuries and the other says it never happened.
These situations are awful, because there's no evidence, really, at all, and police and prosecutors are apt to believe ANYTHING that is said by whomever calls 911 first.
This person strangled you and hit you with a tire iron but you have zero bruises whatsoever? Sure.
This person strangled you and hit you with a tire iron but you have zero bruises whatsoever? Sure.
So filming--and beginning to film the SECOND things become even mildly contentious--may be a bit inflammatory, but it's also the single best thing a person can do to prevent being wrongly accused of a crime.
The earlier one can start filming, the better. Because the more of the encounter that is captured on video, the stronger the proof that the accused person didn't actually do anything.
This is, as you might imagine, especially important for people who are historically wrongly accused ALL THE TIME, ie Black and brown men.
Christian's video proved Amy was lying, but he probably *started* filming to ensure he could prove that he didn't do anything wrong.
Christian's video proved Amy was lying, but he probably *started* filming to ensure he could prove that he didn't do anything wrong.
The fact that BIPOC have to think this way--to be constantly on guard against the system being used as a weapon, to be constantly on guard against false accusations that could lead to death-by-police--is something anyone who questions this filming should sit with.
Frankly, I'd rather people be irritated by a stranger's cell phone video than arrested for no reason or killed by a cop.
And I suspect we can agree on that.
/end rant.
And I suspect we can agree on that.
/end rant.
