IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 12

was that the video of the beating became the main
interpretations of unpalatable events accepted more
resource used at trial to acquit the police on charges
widely. We undoubtedly have not seen the last of the
of assault. rather than shy away from the brutality
police's crisis of visibility, as the public's attention
shown on the film, the defense sought to
will continue to lurch from one unpalatre-code it, and place the incident within
able video of police conduct to the next
The police
the world view and occupational culture
for the foreseeable future.
can play an
of policing. They did so by having Sgt.
important role Author Information
Charles Duke, a police trainer in the use
of force, go through the video frame-byKevin D. Haggerty is professor and Ajay
in shaping
frame, outlining how, in his opinion, each
Sandhu a graduate student in the Departwhat people
kick, stomp and baton strike was justifiment of Sociology, university of Alberta,
believe they
able because it was, in fact, a legally
Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2r3; Email:
are witnessing. khaggert@ualberta.ca.
authorized and legitimate response to
the actions of Mr. King who, again in his
opinion, continued to resist arrest and showed signs
References
of escalating his behavior. In this way, the jury was
[1] K. Ball, K. Haggerty, and D. Lyon, The Routledge Handbook of
Surveillance Studies. London, u.K.: routledge, 2012.
instructed to interpret images that seemed to self-evi[2] E. Bittner, The Functions of the Police in Modern Society. Marydently display the heights of police brutality as autholand: National Institute of Mental Health, 1970.
rized violence [9].
[3] A. Brighenti, "Visibility: A category for the social sciences," Current Sociology, vol. 55, pp. 323-442, 2007.
Without sanctioning the interpretation offered by
[4] A. Doyle, Arresting Images: Crime and Policing in Front of the
the LAPD officer's defense team, we believe that the
Television Camera. Toronto, Canada: univ. of Toronto Press, 2003.
King case demonstrates where the main fault line will
[5] N. Elias, The Civilizing Process: The History of Manners and State
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be for the emerging politics and organizational prac[6] r.V. Ericson, P. Baranek, and J. Chan, Representing Order: Crime,
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Law, and Justice in the News Media. Toronto, Canada: univ. of
organizations will progressively try to embed the footToronto Press, 1991.
[7] E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Harmondage from controversial videos in the world view of the
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police, offering interpretations of such actions as being
[8] A. Goldsmith, "Policing's new visibility," British J. Criminology,
authorized and legitimate in light of the law, police culvol. 50, pp. 914-934, 2010.
[9] C. Goodwin, "Professional vision," American Anthropologist,
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necessitate more proactive efforts by the police's public
[10] S. Hall, "Encoding/decoding," in Culture, Media, Language:
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Working Papers in Cultural Studies, S. Hall, Ed. New York, NY: routledge, 1980, pp. 128-138.
established news outlets, but might also involve police
[11] L. Huey, K. Walby, and A. Doyle. "Cop watching in the Downtown
officers (either on duty or on their own time) taking to
Eastside: Exploring the use of (counter) surveillance as a tool of resistance,"
the Internet to provide accounts of how such behavior
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Life, T. Monihan, Ed. New York, NY: routledge, 2006, pp. 149-165.
might be seen to be legitimate when positioned within
[12] M. Lianos, The New Social Control. Ottawa, Ont., Canada: red
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The struggle over such videos will therefore occur
[13] P.K. Manning, Police Work:The Social Organization of Policing.
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in the realm of meaning. That said, the speed at which
[14] r. reiner, The Politics of the Police. Oxford, u.K.: Oxford univ.
unfavorable images of the police can be produced,
Press, 2010.
disseminated, and discussed, means that the police
[15] D. Wilson and T. Serisier, "Video activisim and the ambiguities of
counter surveillance," Surveillance & Society, vol. 8, pp.166-180, 2010.
will fight an uphill battle to have their preferred

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