Filming is Latinos' best weapon against immigration raids
Following the Black Lives Matter movement, it's now the turn of Latino communities to use cell phones to record law enforcement abuses. These videos play a crucial role in mobilizing citizens, this journalist and academic emphasizes in the columns of the Los Angeles Times.
It's been five years since George Floyd was suffocated to death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, at the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. Five years ago, 17-year-old Darnella Frazier held up her phone and filmed those nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds that would shake the world and spark a global mobilization against injustice and racism.
The young woman's video not only showed what happened, but also forced the world to not look away from injustice.
Today, that legacy lives on, carried on by another community, facing different dangers, but armed with the same tools. Across the United States, Latinos are taking out their phones, not to create a buzz but to bear witness to what their community is experiencing. They're live-streaming immigration raids, family separations, protests outside detention centers—so everyone knows what's happening.
Here in Los Angeles, where I teach journalism, several videos have struck a chord with the public. One video that went viral shows a handcuffed man being taken into an unmarked white truck, while his daughter, who is filming, can be heard sobbing and asking him not to sign.
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Courrier International
