None for me, thanks.

[Jim Bow]

I have no need or desire to watch a video of a young man being beaten to death, or an 80 year old man being beaten with a hammer.

I honestly cannot think how viewing either video would benefit my life or improve or change my perception of the human condition.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Me neither, but plenty of lowlifes do, and the media keeps them well fed.

[lupussonic]

The Germans have a phrase 'kopf-kino'. Literally it means 'head-cinema', but you get the idea.

What is the difference between knowing a man was beaten to death and seeing the video replay? None in my case, as my kopf-kino is extremely vivid.

[David G]

The Germans have a phrase 'kopf-kino'. Literally it means 'head-cinema', but you get the idea.

What is the difference between knowing a man was beaten to death and seeing the video replay? None in my case, as my kopf-kino is extremely vivid.

AKA the 'circus' part of 'bread & circuses'. SameSame as U.S. daytime TV - Dr. Phil & such.

[Jimmy W]

I haven't watched either one either.

[John Smith]

Me neither, but plenty of lowlifes do, and the media keeps them well fed.

I think videos need to be shown for those who refuse to believe. FOX, for example, was telling their audience the guy who attacked Pelosi's husband did not break in. Video clearly shows he did.

[lupussonic]

I agree Jim. It is modern day permissable snuff-ware, and I refuse to pollute my mind with it. It has enough horror already, real and imagined.

[Jim Mahan]

I agree with John Smith. It needs to be shown so it's known to be the true representation. But not everyone needs to see it for that reason. I don't want to watch them but I'm glad that I can, if I thought there was some controversy.

I still think it's worth noting for some reason, that the, 'quote' alleged 'close quote' assailant was witnessed by plural LEOs, the surviving victim AND is caught on both cop body cams and at least one residence security cam, acknowledges that he was present, that he arrived intent on taking a hostage and committing torture, and still pleads not guilty, and so will have a trial to prove his guilt before having a verdict pronounced and a sentence proclaimed. And all of that will cost taxpayers a million bucks or more, and take year to get to the sentencing.

[Jimmy W]

I agree that it should be shown. I just don't really need to see it myself at this point.

[Nicholas Carey]

The New York Times has an interesting essay on this very topic by A.O. Scott, the NYT's chief film critic: civic duty to watch and bear witness? Or moral obligation not to watch it?

[not paywalled]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/28/a...e=articleShare


The Responsibility of Watching
The video of Memphis police beating Tyre Nichols challenges public complacency — and complicity. What are our duties as citizens and as human beings?

By A.O. Scott
Jan. 28, 2023
Updated 1:17 p.m. ET

Do you have a civic duty to watch, or a moral obligation not to?

Some version of that question has confronted us since the body- and pole-camera footage of Memphis police officers beating Tyre Nichols was released on Friday evening. The argument isn’t necessarily about whether the Police Department should have posted the roughly hourlong, four-part, lightly redacted video online for everyone to see.

The legal and political reasons for doing so, at the urging of Mr. Nichols’s family, seem obvious and cogent. Too often, the worst abuses of power are allowed to fester in secrecy, shrouded in lies, bureaucratic language and partial information. Raw video offers clarity, transparency and perhaps accountability — a chance for citizens to understand the unvarnished truth about what happened on the night of Jan. 7.

That is the hope, in any case: that concerned Americans will become witnesses after the fact, our senses shocked and our consciences awakened by the sight of uniformed officers repeatedly kicking and punching Mr. Nichols, who would die from his injuries three days later. “I expect you to feel what the Nichols family feels,” Cerelyn Davis, the Memphis police chief, said in anticipation of the video’s impact. Her appeal to common humanity expressed faith in the power of even the most horrific images to foster empathy and community — and faith in the human capacity to experience outrage and compassion when shown such images.

That faith provides a strong argument for the importance of looking. To turn away in circumstances like this would not merely be to succumb to a loss of nerve, but to risk a loss of heart. In insisting that the world see what had been done to her son, RowVaughn Wells, Mr. Nichols’s mother, recalled Mamie Till-Mobley, who in 1955 placed the disfigured body of her murdered son, Emmett, in an open coffin so that the viciousness of the racists who killed him could not be denied.
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A delicate ethical line separates witness — an active, morally engaged state of attention — from the more passive, less demanding condition of spectatorship. The spectacle of violence has a way of turning even sensitive souls into gawkers and voyeurs. Violence, very much including the actions of the police, is a fixture of popular culture, and has been since long before the invention of video. For much of human history, public executions have been a form of entertainment. The history of lynching in the United States is in part a history of public spectacle, in which the mutilation and murder of Black men brought out white crowds to stare, cheer and take photographs.

I’m not saying that looking at the video of Mr. Nichols’s beating is equivalent to joining in one of those crowds, but rather that Black suffering in America has often been either relegated to invisibility or subjected to exploitation and commodification. That is the dilemma that Ms. Wells and others in her position have faced, even as she challenges the public to acknowledge her son’s full humanity.

[continued]

[birlinn]

Me no watch either.
And on YouTube there is even a Fatal Motorsport Channel. Yuk!

[hawkeye54]

I watched part of each, and then decided I was definitely viewing 'Man's inhumanity to Man' , and turned each of them off in turn. .

Rick

[Andrew2]

Hearing about it is enough, watching is unpleasent voyerism.

[Canoeyawl]

This has been going on since Rodney King, 40 years now and from where I am standing not a thing has changed
(Except perhaps the police force is now largely made up of veterans from the US religious wars brain washed to kill or maim civilians and afflicted with ptsd)

[John Smith]

Hearing about it is enough, watching is unpleasent voyerism.

That might be true if all 'news' reported the same set of facts. Ignoring it won't make it go away. Seeing it MIGHT have some positive impact on future actions by people, including cops.

Mans inhumanity to man is not always pretty, but should we ignore it?

[CWSmith]

Jim, in the one case we have many people who are still very reluctant to believe that the police can do any wrong. They need to see it. They need to be confronted by it. We need to keep it from happening again. Sometimes we need to see the face of true evil in order to confront it.

As for old men with hammers, no, I don't need to see that. I just need for the creep to go to jail for the rest of his life.

[John Smith]

Question seems to one of 'how much'. It was definitely necessary, I believe, to show the video of the man breaking into the Pelosi home. Necessary because some 'news' was saying he didn't break in. Would many believe the viciousness with which he struck her husband if they didn't see it?

It's not like all the 'news' is reporting these incidents the same way and giving everyone the same set of facts. Some are lying to their viewers/listeners/readers. Showing these videos proves they are lying. If they didn't lie to their audiences, maybe we'd have no need for the video.

Sans the video, would the cops who beat King ever been held to account? Man's inhumanity to man is not pretty, but it exists.

[Durnik]

with Jim & Jimmy (perhaps I was misnamed? ), I have no desire to watch anything of the sort & very much plan to not.

don't get me wrong, hiding my head I am not.. I completely understand my world is full of far too many despicable beings and acts, but watching a record of them will help no one, least of all me.

[bob winter]

I feel no need to watch this stuff.

[Garret]

I won't watch either. However the point above about how it's necessary to have them out there is entirely valid. Deny he broke in & hit Pelosi with a hammer? Not so fast - here's the video. Same thing with the cops & Tyre.

How do Fox et al lie about it when there is video evidence? Not saying they won't, but having the videos available makes it a little harder.

[Paul Pless]

How do Fox et al lie about it when there is video evidence? Not saying they won't, but having the videos available makes it a little harder.

fox news is all over the tyre nichols video. . .
majority liberal city
majority black city
black on black violence

[Garret]

fox news is all over the tyre nichols video. . .
majority liberal city
majority black city
black on black violence

Figures. They sure can spin.

[John Smith]

fox news is all over the tyre nichols video. . .
majority liberal city
majority black city
black on black violence

I saw a clip of FOX denying some of this before the videos came out.

There's a large chunk of the American people who believe the lies FOX, Newsmax, and others tell them. Releasing the videos makes it far more difficult to lie or deny.

Failing to release them allows the denial/lies to continue and spread, believed by more people.

The whole point of body cams, IMO, is to curb bad behavior by cops. If the video is never seen by the public, that goal has no chance of being obtained.

If one is talking to a right winger who claims Pelosi's house, for example, was not broken into, one can say, "I've seen the video. Have you?"

I'd also note that even with video cops don't always pay a price for wrongdoing.

[willin woodworks]

I think videos need to be shown for those who refuse to believe. FOX, for example, was telling their audience the guy who attacked Pelosi's husband did not break in. Video clearly shows he did.

Agreed. Without the video the deniers win the argument with the ill-informed and the uninformed. Some jackass on Fox was doing his best to spin the video and somehow claim the guy didnt break in. At one point after watching the video, he claimed he didnt see the guy break in.....

I was a little surprised to see the Tyre video aired repeatedly on the Sunday shows this morning. By now its been seen enough times that they could have have made all their points and had an intelligent discussion/debate without airing it. Enough is enough

[wizbang 13]

You cannot overstate the importance of these videos.
Pen and Sword thing .
We would prolly still be in freakin Vietnam without video of the war. Oh wait, no video of dead cannon fodder patriots returning from the M.E. ….. twenty god damn years of war. Day in day out, we forget there is even a war going on.

[John Smith]

Agreed. Without the video the deniers win the argument with the ill-informed and the uninformed. Some jackass on Fox was doing his best to spin the video and somehow claim the guy didnt break in. At one point after watching the video, he claimed he didnt see the guy break in.....

I was a little surprised to see the Tyre video aired repeatedly on the Sunday shows this morning. By now its been seen enough times that they could have have made all their points and had an intelligent discussion/debate without airing it. Enough is enough

I'd agree it's been overly shown. I'd have shown it less, but not showing it at all would be a mistake in my opinion.

What would have happened to the cops that killed George Floyd had there been no video? I believe we, the people, are entitled to FACTS, and that often means a need to SEE what actually happened.

[David G]

I feel no need to watch this stuff.

It is my experience that those with busy/fulfilled lives have little need for such sensational 'entertainment'.

[Rich Jones]

I watched the Pelosi attack video.
Some nutters will still say he wasn't hit in the head with the hammer since the
actual strike wasn't recorded, just the guy swinging the hammer for his head.
The strike was out of frame.

The cops beating the guy video has been played on MSNBC no fewer than a gazillion times.
They are reporting on it 24/7 like it's the only news story in the world.

[JayInOz]

I saw the clips. Graphic content seems to be aired mostly on commercial stations here- another reason to stick to the ABC. It's good that there is a damning record of such acts but it really doesn't need to be for general viewing. I was talking to an ex cop once about stuff the cops had done at gatherings I'd been part of and to people I knew. He got so angry he was shaking and was on the point of punching me for telling such lies about the police. The stuff I was telling him was stuff I'd seen with my own eyes and he flat out refused to believe it. I didn't know how to respond to that. JayInOz

[John Smith]

Question: Would the cops who killed Floyd ever been tried if not for the video being made public? Would the cops who beat Rodney King been held accountable sans the video?

Have some not been held accountable even when we've seen the video?

We suffer from dishonest 'news' networks and radio. How do we have any hope of keeping them centered on facts if videos are not seen by the public?

[SKIP KILPATRICK]

I concur with op! I hope to never see it!

[JayInOz]

Question: Would the cops who killed Floyd ever been tried if not for the video being made public? Would the cops who beat Rodney King been held accountable sans the video?

If there were no cameras of any kind present would the cop who murdered Floyd have lived long enough to finish the deed? If ever a cop deserved to get shot "in the line of duty" it was that scumbag. JayInOz

[TomF]

Didn't watch. And I'm a guy who will watch boxing, and used to watch mma.

I've no need to see a murder or attempted murder to know it happened. When I trained martial arts more, I did watch video of common types of criminal attacks as a training aid. But that's different than watching to be convinced of the inhumanity, or to surreptitiously enjoy the cascade of brain chemicals.

There's some boxing and mma film I won't watch too. I don't need to see a guy's life end, or change irrevocably from injury. Ever.

[wizbang 13]

How many bad cops have those five cops turned in / reported in their career?
One does not watch the vid for entertainment, but it should be watched.
From the moment when cops are screaming “outta the car motherf###er on the ground motherf###er”, you know they should not have that shield.
cops hate cameras

[Paul Pless]

eff the police