Police abuse video on YouTube

Last Friday, a policeman from the Houston Police Department (HPD) supposedly used excessive force on clubgoers:

“Last Friday night, a small music venue here in Houston (Walter’s) was in the middle of a show when a cop walked in on a noise disturbance call (not unusual for Walters), and instead of talking with the management to turn down the music or shut down the show, walked straight up to the stage to tell the band to shut down. The band had no idea what was going on and asked why, at which time the cop tried to grab one of the musicians’ guitar, and then slammed the musician to the ground… of course from that point on melee ensued, with at least three people being tasered by this cop (…)” (Link)

Now, stories like that aren’t that unusual, but that time, it was captured on video by several people, who posted the videos online (1, 2, 3). Some of the videos have already been deleted, but some are still online. The point is: This is a great example how citizen journalism can help to find out what really happened. Without these video clips, it would have all been just witness statements by clubgoers on one side and cops on the other. Now hopefully it doesn’t become standard to just have the videos deleted. (via BoingBoing)

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