Live Streamers Make Great Informants

from We Cop Watch

There are many ways to effec­tive­ly doc­u­ment the move­ment while pro­tect­ing the space, its move­ments and people’s pri­va­cy. Live Stream­ing is gen­er­al­ly NOT one of them.

A com­mon issue with Stream­ers is their dis­play of enti­tle­ment, often cit­ing the val­ue of bring­ing the move­ment to the peo­ple. But Stream­ers have a hard time admit­ting that the police find their work more valu­able then demon­stra­tors.

In a world of voyeurism and exhi­bi­tion­ists, Stream­ers often get car­ried away, inter­pret­ing their role as being a nar­ra­tor for the move­ment. They often film peo­ple with­out their con­sent, plac­ing more val­ue in pre­sent­ing to their view­er­ship, then pro­tect­ing the group that is already tak­ing risks by just get­ting out into the street to protest.

 

One of the biggest prob­lems with stream­ing is that it gives real time infor­ma­tion to the police as far as what peo­ple are present, the group’s inten­tions, as well as its loca­tion and routes. Embed­ded Stream­ers give police a tac­ti­cal advan­tage when try­ing to con­duct mass arrests.

An even more trag­ic con­tract Stream­ers impose on demon­stra­tors is the raw, unedit­ed, archived video that is often made pub­lic and avail­able online for law enforce­ment to use lat­er to help iden­ti­fy and tar­get peo­ple.

Before we move to “Stream­er Solu­tions” lets review some “Stream­er tac­tics” that are favor­able to law enforce­ment, and almost always at the expense of the peo­ple.

Very Poor Stream­er Eti­quette:
Call­ing Peo­ple out by Name on Streams.

Peo­ple don’t go to protests for oth­er peo­ple to call them out on streams that are put up per­ma­nent­ly online for law enforce­ment to review.

Film­ing Peo­ples’ Iden­ti­ties on Streams

Law enforce­ment use streams to tar­get and iden­ti­fy peo­ple for repres­sion and arrest

Nar­rat­ing your Inter­pre­ta­tion of what Kind of Action is Tak­ing Place

Stream­ers often divulge per­son­al opin­ions rather than facts when nar­rat­ing about actions. Are you pre­pared to be a wit­ness for law enforce­ment in the future?

Film­ing Direct Actions

Every­thing you film, can and will be used against pro­test­ers if law enforce­ment has any­thing to do with it.

Nar­rat­ing Logis­tics and Tac­tics

At the height of Occu­py Oak­land, Under­cov­ers were being called into cer­tain FTP protests because of the “no Live Stream­ing” / “no Twit­ter­ing” tac­tic.

FTP march­es are ongo­ing Fuck the Police march­es that take place in Oak­land and across the Bay.

Nar­rat­ing Group Routes

Police have a much eas­i­er time arrest­ing peo­ple in the streets when they have Stream­ers nar­rat­ing the group’s routes. You don’t need Under­cov­ers and heli­copters when you have a front-row seat.

If you want to be help­ful to the move­ment, be hon­est about your inten­tions. Is your view­er­ship more impor­tant than the peo­ple you are stand­ing with? Do you want to be doing some­thing that ben­e­fits the police over the peo­ple? Every action, every mass mobi­liza­tion, has a sto­ry that can be told. But folks need to either start hold­ing “non stream­ing” actions again, or stream­ers should stop oper­at­ing as infor­mants for the police.

If any of these issues are con­cern­ing to you, maybe con­sid­er NOT “Live Stream­ing” your next protest. Pick up a still cam­era, con­duct some audio inter­views, heck shoot some video. There’s no rea­son why you can’t go home after a protest and pro­duce some con­tent that is use­ful and not harm­ful. But in case it’s not in your blood to con­sid­er oth­er peo­ple on that lev­el, here are some good Live Stream tac­tics.

“Good” Livestream Tac­tics

• Stand hun­dreds of feet away from the group so the low qual­i­ty record­ing doesn’t pick up con­ver­sa­tions or peo­ples’ iden­ti­ty.
• Don’t film peo­ples’ iden­ti­ty with­out their con­sent.
• Don’t nar­rate inten­tions, tac­tics, loca­tions, or des­ti­na­tions.
• Wear a bright shirt that says “Live Stream­er” or “Infor­mant.”

More “Real Good” Livestream Tac­tics

• Live Stream an event, pan­el, or dis­cus­sion where all par­ties con­sent.
• Live Stream a demo or action where all par­ties involved con­sent.
• Live Stream your inter­ac­tions when being stopped, ques­tioned, or harassed by law enforce­ment. (maybe put your chan­nel on pri­vate!)

Be safe out there, and make it safer for the mass­es by con­sid­er­ing them when you point a cam­era at them!