The trend of citizens using their phones to film the police at work in the US has been getting increasingly controversial, and presents a conundrum, with one side in the argument claiming that it is a positive development in line with the First Amendment rights that ensures greater accountability, and the other pushing to contain, or even outlaw it as ultimately detrimental for the law enforcement’s ability to carry out its tasks safely.
As ever with any great controversy, the thing is more of a gray than a black-and-white situation and demands context in order to be fully understood, rather than simply breathlessly promoting opposing “carved in stone” narratives; but as ever, the latter is mostly what people get from the media.
