Transformative technology, in this historic moment

I've written before, on my other blog, about the concept of transformative technology. In particular, I'd called out the smartphone, and specifically the Android phone, as transformative: they were immediately useful, economically scalable, and were already having a game-changing, historical impact on every aspect of society:

Smartphones supercharged social media; when combined with the phones' cameras and large memories, smartphones made it possible to record, and even simultaneously upload, e.g. video of encounters between members of minority communities and the police. Consider how profoundly this has impacted the way we talk about law enforcement, or the way in which Mitt Romney's 47% video altered the outcome of that year's U.S. Presidential race, and you get an idea of the potential impact that we're talking about.

With this mind, I urge you to read this piece over on msn.com:

On May 26, the morning after George Floyd’s last gasps underneath a policeman’s knee, the Minneapolis Police Department wrote he had “physically resisted” officers, who noted Floyd “appeared to be suffering medical distress.”

That news release went online hours before video revealed two things the public may have never learned otherwise: the source of his distress was nearly nine minutes of Derek Chauvin’s leg pressed into Floyd’s neck, and there is little evidence, if any, that Floyd resisted officers.

The pattern — video of violent police encounters that contrast sharply with accounts by the departments or their unions — has repeated with grim symmetry in the days since Floyd’s death. Numerous incidents have captured the rage of the public who point to inaccurate or outright misleading descriptions of what has occurred before their eyes.

Taken together, the incidents show how instant verification of police accounts have altered the landscape of accountability.

“We certainly, as a profession, have been diminished by events that have been witnessed on video over the course of the last couple of weeks,” Jim Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of Police, a labor union, told The Washington Post.

To any who still doubt that smartphones have transformed our society, I give you the past week as evidence in support of this theory. To me, the evidence appears to be overwhelming. If you're wondering why the protests are seemingly gaining strength and support, rather than abating, after more than a week... well, this is why. The contrast between the official story of these events and the evidence of our own eyes just can't be ignored anymore.

Personally, I'd hoped that earlier events of this type would have been enough to compel the kind of change that now looks like it might actually happen, but... well, let's just say that emboldened racists were able to undo decades of progress in just the few short years of the Trump era, and leave it at that, for now. Future historians will build entire careers on dissecting and explaining exactly what happened in these few years, and why, and I will not attempt to predict or preempt them. I just hope that this wave of popular outrage and support for anti-racist reforms actually results in meaningful, lasting reforms.

And also, I hope that we don't see a wave of COVID-19 deaths among the people out marching in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Because I do think they have to march, COVID-19 or no. Black lives really must matter just as much as white lives, which is currently not the case in practice, all too frequently; we need to see an end to racist-based policing, and police brutality, both in the U.S. and around the world.

The entire msn.com piece is worth reading, by the way, so give them a click, and give it a read. This piece by Vox is also good:

Police officers across the country are now under investigation or facing disciplinary action, after viral videos captured their violence against participants in peaceful Black Lives Matter protests.

Countless videos uploaded on social media have documented officers using excessive force against the protesters, who have been marching since last week, following the police killing of George Floyd on May 25. As these videos have spread online, they have further incensed citizens advocating for stricter police regulations, while others are having even more tangible impacts. Some city officials have responded to the videos by opening investigations into the depicted incidents, putting the offending officers on administrative leave, or even terminating them from their positions.