By Laura Ly, CNN
(CNN) -- Millions of people have now seen the
video.
Eric Garner, standing on a
sidewalk, asks the NYPD officers surrounding him, "What did I do? What did
I do?"
Garner, 43, raises both hands
in the air and tells the officers not to touch him.
Moments later, he's on the
ground while a plain-clothes officer places him in an apparent choke hold.
Garner gasps, "I can't
breathe, I can't breathe."
His words are muffled as his
face is pressed into the pavement.
By the end of the video, Garner
is lifeless on the Staten Island sidewalk.
The video went viral. Garner's
death sparked protests across the country, thrusting into the spotlight the
issue of police brutality on unarmed citizens. Citizens who, in increasing
numbers, have taken to arming themselves with their own kind of weapon -- their
cell phones.
"The police out here [are]
crazy. Nobody trusts them. So I decided to pull out my camera every time they
come over here," said Ramsey Orta, who filmed the July 17 incident on his
cell phone.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics
reports that acts of police forcehave not increased dramatically in recent
years. Their Police Public Contact Survey found that in 2008, only 1.4% of
those who reported contact with police had force used or threatened against
them, with no statistically significant increase since 2002.
What has changed is the
prevalence of cell phones equipped with cameras. Cell phone videos of alleged
police misconduct have proliferated online, flooding social media websites and
provoking questions about law enforcement behavior.
Luis Paulino's August 2012
beating by NYPD officers was captured on video and posted online. The video
shows officers throwing Paulino to the ground. Several officers punch him
repeatedly. According to Paulino, the officers started in on him after he saw
them violently beating another young black man on the sidewalk. In the
background, an unidentified male can be heard encouraging people to record what
was happening and yelling, "He didn't do nothing!"
For Paulino, the video proved
to be vindicating. He was initially charged with disorderly conduct, resisting
arrest and obstructing a government official, but all charges were dropped.
Without the video, "there
wouldn't have been anything but my word against 15 police officers,"
Paulino told journalist Soledad O'Brien.
Paulino has filed a lawsuit
against the city. The NYPD will not comment on the case, citing the legal
proceedings.
"When you are in public
spaces, where you have a right to be, you can photograph anything that is in
plain view," said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American
Civil Liberties Union. Stanley's research focuses on technology-related privacy
and civil liberties issues.
The ACLU says that
photographing things that are plainly visible from public spaces is a "constitutional
right" and that this includes "federal buildings, transportation
facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their
duties."
Law enforcement officials also
do not have the right to confiscate any video or photographs being taken, nor
can they ask to view it without a warrant.
"If you are not
interfering in any real way with legitimate police operations, they don't have
the right to interfere in any way," Stanley said.
Still, even with the perceived
ubiquity of cell phone videos showing alleged acts of police misconduct, it
seems that some errant officers aren't deterred by the cameras.
Stanley said he believes
authorities are simply still adjusting to the availability of new technology
and the knowledge that they may be recorded at any time.
"For police officers, it
can take a while to sink in [that they may be filmed]. As police officers do
take in that new reality, we may see a revolution in terms of a drastic
reduction in brutality. We may not, but it's too early to tell," he said.
Paul Callan, a CNN contributor
and former prosecutor, said he believes that drastic reduction has already
begun.
"I believe that the
existence of cell phone video and social media postings has substantially
reduced police brutality over the long run. Although the intensity of news
coverage of cases such as [George] Zimmerman and Michael Brown makes it feel
like there is more police brutality, my sense of the situation as a lawyer who
is in court several times a week is that the number of cases is
diminishing," Callan said.
Some police departments are
embracing camera technology and are even utilizing it to strengthen
transparency and accountability between their officers and the community.
Police departments in Rialto, California, and Mesa, Arizona, have implemented
body-camera programs for their officers.
The initiative seems to be
working. A 2014 study by the U.S. Department of Justice cites both departments,
noting an 88% reduction in citizen complaints and a 60% reduction in officer
use-of-force incidents after one year of camera deployment in Rialto. In Mesa,
there were 40% fewer complaints for officers with cameras and 75% fewer
use-of-force complaints overall.
On September 4, NYPD
Commissioner Bill Bratton announced that the police department would be testing
two types of body cameras that would allow officers to record audio and video
during their patrols.
"The NYPD is committed to
embracing new and emerging technology in order to continue to keep New York
City safe," Bratton said. "Having patrol officers wear body cameras
during this pilot demonstrates our commitment to transparency while it will
also allow us to review its effectiveness with the intention of expanding the
program."
The statement came less than a
week after it was announced that officers in Ferguson, Missouri, had adopted
the use of body cameras after the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen who
was fatally shot by an officer.
In New York, cameras will be
distributed to officers patrolling in precincts that reported the highest
number of "Stop, Question, and Frisk" encounters in 2012. The policy
-- in which police stop, question and frisk people they consider suspicious in
an effort to deter crime -- has been widely criticized for unfairly targeting
young, male minorities.
Police-community relations in
such precincts, with predominantly black and Latino residents, have been
tenuous. Police department figures showed that nearly nine out of 10 people
"stopped and frisked" in 2011 were African-American or Hispanic, though
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has said 90% of those stopped were innocent.
In mid-November, the NYPD said
the body-camera program is still in the planning stages.
In the four months since
Garner's death, the New York Medical Examiner's Officer ruled it a homicide.
Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is seen on the video choking Garner, was put on
modified assignment and stripped of his badge and gun amid the investigation,
the NYPD said.
In a statement, Patrolmen's
Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch called Pantaleo's
reassignment "a completely unwarranted, knee-jerk reaction for political
reasons." He said the move "effectively pre-judges this case and
denies the officer the very benefit of a doubt that has long been part of the
social contract that allows police officers to face the risks of this difficult
and complex job."
Video shows trooper shooting
unarmed man
CNN's attempts to reach
Pantaleo for comment were unsuccessful.
A second police officer was
placed on desk duty. The NYPD also announced new mandatory training for
officers on the proper use of force when engaging a suspect.
Garner, a grandfather with six
children, had a lengthy criminal history, including more than 30 arrests, and
had previously been arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes in May. Police said
they initially approached him on July 17 because they believed he was selling
cigarettes illegally again.
The case is now in the hands of
Manhattan's district attorney. Citing the legal proceedings, Bratton declined
to comment further on the case.
In early October, Bratton spoke
to a conference of NYPD officers, publicly stating that there were "a
few" officers in the department who "just don't get it."
"They're not the right fit
for the NYPD in 2014. My intention going forward is to ensure that we will
aggressively seek to get those out of the department who should not be here.
The brutal, the corrupt, the racist, the incompetent," Bratton said.
Bratton told Soledad O'Brien
that policing is "a balancing act."
"How do you have the
appropriate level of policing to reduce crime, and prevent it, to reduce
disorder and prevent it, but do it in a way that the law-abiding in that
community don't feel they need to be fearful of the police?"
It's a balance that Paulino
wonders if the NYPD will ever achieve.
It has been two years since the
incident, but Paulino, a former college football player, still goes to physical
therapy every week to rehabilitate his injured shoulders.
"Every time I'm asked
about the incident, I close my eyes and I can see myself there again. I can see
myself on the floor getting punched, getting kneed and asking why?"
Paulino said.
"Every day I wake up and
I've got aches and pains in both my arms. I'll never be the same."
New York police officers plead
not guilty to assaulting Brooklyn teenager
