Videos of Police Brutality Matter, Even If They Don’t Always Save Us

Videos won’t always bring justice or peace, but they do bring truth

A woman films police officers at a demonstration over the death of George Floyd in Los Angeles, CA on June 2, 2020. Photo: Kyle Grillot/Getty Images

I’ve never seen a dead White body. Never seen a White person take their last breath or scream for mercy on camera except in movies. Never saw a dead White person sprawled out on the front page of the daily newspaper or pop up on my social media feed. Never.

But I’ve seen Tamir Rice. Walter Scott. Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, George Floyd, Korryn Gaines, Laquan McDonald, Eric Garner… The list goes on. I’ve seen real people, real bodies, real Black lives gone right before my eyes more times than I care to.

Cell phone recordings, body cam footage, and even live broadcasts on social media has become a method of showcasing police brutality in the United States (and abroad). But frankly, I’m tired of seeing Black death and I’ve been struggling to see the point in it all.

Racial tensions have erupted in recent weeks and all eyes are on police departments across the…

In truth, videos of police brutality depress and scare me, and outrage the rest of us. But there doesn’t seem to…