1. Safety

The safety function of the video team has morphed over time. In the wake of the taping, broadcast and trial of the Rodney King case it seemed a new media possibility had emerged, in spite of the unjust verdict. Ordinary citizens armed with inexpensive camcorders could monitor state violence in their communities. Jello Biafra launched his "Camcorder Truth Jihad" and Marge Simpson told us, "The courts may not work anymore, but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else, justice will be served." However, as the critical mass of video activists has grown, it seems that the police have become numb to the fact that "the whole world is watching" and commit brutal acts such as the shooting of an anarchist demonstrator in Genoa with impunity in front of the camera's ever-present gaze. In Quebec City during the FTAA summit, I noticed so many video cameras that it appeared police were gassing crowds of journalists rather than crowds of demonstrators. The most recent IMC feature production "How the WEF Was Won," includes a scene of the footage recorded by an IMC reporter as a police officer used his baton to knock his video camera out of his hands, throw him on the ground and arrest him. These images have a visceral impact as the viewer sees, from the camera's point of view, sailing through the air, spinning and landing. In the upside down frame are the cement, a black shiny boot and the videographer's glasses as we hear him screaming.

Simultaneous with the growth in activist video, increased state surveillance systems have been adopted. It has become standard practice at recent demonstrations that police with video and still cameras taking pictures of demonstrators. These pictures are placed into databases of activists kept by local law enforcement agencies. But they do not stop there. Within the city, multiple agencies cooperate in file sharing. In Houston, acting under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Safety, the Joint Terrorism Task Force- that includes the FBI, the Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies- keeps files on local activists. When a new city is slated to be the meeting place of global capital decision-making, police forces and intergovernmental agencies such as Interpol and national agencies like CSIS in Canada collect and share databases on activists. Under the new Patriot Act legislation, some activist groups or tactical strategies such as Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front and Carnival Against Capitalism have been labeled "domestic terrorism." This follows a history of demonizing groups like Earth First! and tactics like the Black Bloc as violent terrorists. Many activists are concerned about the harvest of their images for databases. Partly in response to this concern, a new tactic of protecting identity through modes of anonymity unfolded. Strategies include: wearing masks or bandanas across the face at rallies and demonstrations (this is also accomplished with a gas mask, a piece of equipment used to counteract the chemical assaults of tear gas and pepper spray pervasive at these events) and the use of pseudonyms.

While this collection of data is real, the concern it inspires can lead to paranoid speculation. At the February of 2002 World Economic Forum meetings in New York City, the police upheld an anti-mask law from the 1850's prohibiting the wearing of masks in public . The police used a crowd control tactic that involved herding the marches into a "pen" made of fencing to keep them in one place. As participants tried to leave the areas, they could only get through the exit two by two. Numerous reports confirmed that everyone walking out of the exit had their face photographed. With the exponential growth of security cameras and the invention and implementation of face recognition software, it is not surprising that the presence of cops with cameras is disconcerting to activists. What leads to the paranoid speculation I referred to above is what gets done with all those images? Ironically, cops with cameras at demonstrations have become prevalent images on the Indymedia newswires, as the circle of image harvesting continues. Police document protesters, protestors document police documenting them, police issue warnings about being especially careful of protestors "posing as journalists with cameras," protesters issue warnings about cops posing as demonstrators with cameras.

After the Seattle demonstrations of 1999 legal activists calling the police tactics excessive and brutal used footage taken by independent videographers to their advantage in court cases against the city. But, the police also used IMC material to arrest demonstrators after the fact. The safety function of videographers is complicated through many mechanisms: police impunity in front of the camera, the police forces' own use of camera, and the police using the camerawork of IMC also to their advantage as well as legal teams using footage to their advantage.

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