Do you remember what the significance of that year was . I know you know but for those who dont, that was the introduction of the iphone which literally changed the way we use devices with those multimedia functions and enabled and opened up several doors of opportunity for us to have this conversation today but on a regulatory front which is more in line with your questions in the 1980s the sec launched its first cell phone spectrum van and through a series of those decisions, based on that, we are now seeing that launch this Global Mobile revolution. Of course, revolutions often happen in different phases and different stages so now in terms of mobile revolution or evolution we are talking about the fifth stage in some ways but not in all communities and that is another topic for another time but the fifth wave or evolution when it comes to mobile phones and what we saw around the third wave or so is these devices becoming smaller, more nimble, less expensive and more ubiquitous so you have the pop up of a lot of these very assessable sites to buy these phones and they became more attached literally to us and the devices through those evolutions particularly when it comes to recording, i like to still say but videotaping content. It has become the narrative, literally the narrative for our lives today. Im stuck in what he said for a variety of reasons because people dont understand that the federal committee occasions a lot to do with a sort of introducing us to this mobile ecosystem. I would try to remind myself also that this iphone really was only 12, 13 years old and as old as my daughter but then too, that even with the other platforms that we use what you said is key. Its become able to, you put it in our purse or pocket and its something for people of color and historically the spanish group. You never had that before. You never had the ability to cover that type of arsenal to share distinctively what is happening. If we were lucky we had a landline phone and we could afford the rates. If you remember, Long Distance was incredibly expensive and we had to stand around and it was a sunday afternoon event to make a longdistance call. Now if you have the right plan anytime, anyplace you can make anyone. Thats right. I will not date myself and i got my new hairdo to make myself look younger so i will not tell people how far back i go to pagers and payphones but i want to switch it over to you. Doctor ray, when we think about sociologists what is happening in this big old transformation . When we look at black lives matter for example they started online and it wasnt, i love the story of how black lives matter got creative but really it became a movement that enabled itself through Technology Much like we talk about with global devices. Speak to us for a moment about social causes and activism in the Role Technology has played to advance this message before we get into the mixed message or revolved around what we are using this for and why its so important. Thank you for having me back to say that act scenes. When we talk about social media and for the past several years i have been part of a group of researchers that have been collecting and curating data on social media and the black lives Matter Movement and the big thing we have is a large digital archive of tweets starting in 2014 with Michael Brown was killed and continue to curate those data and millions of tweets and as you mentioned black lives matter started by three black women primarily interacting on facebook, community with each other and now turned in to an international movement. The way the black lives has used social media is something that is unprecedented. What i mean by, lets go back five, six years ago. After Michael Brown was killed and freddie gray and so many others who werent not fortunate to have a is that the level of public support at the time was significantly low. People were trying to figure out black lives matter. It reminds me of whats happening right now around this defund the police. Im cursed to see that movement over the next decade but the movement for buckeyes and the black lives Movement Matter hasnt officially officially increased in such a short time. That is because people affiliated with the movement and working organizations have figured out how to use social media and particularly figure out how do you use social media algorithm so what happened with george floyd and ahmad aubrey and Breonna Taylor and others is that when people were using hashtags on twitter, instagram, snapchat or tiktok, whatever people are using is that the algorithm now has loaded up additional videos and that shows that what happens to george floyd is not isolated and that instead its part of a broader pattern of systemic racism and Police Brutality trade not only that the video also showed why people behaving in similar ways and getting treated significantly different than black people. I think that is one of the biggest things that led to this racial awakening and of course, covid has contributed to that because people for a time and for the most part in a lot of places around the country have been at home or at least working from home giving them capacity and ability to look at things during the day to watch news and Pay Attention in ways that their former lives would not have allowed. Social media played a big role in what is going on in one of the biggest findings i can share from our work is we looked at the year in ferguson so every single tweet that had to do with ferguson from the time Michael Brown was killed until one year later and what we found is that when the department of justice report came down they showed that Service Department head had egregious forms against black people is that what happened at that point is black lives matter started getting so organized that it started going on the ground and the tweets about black lives matter is not necessarily as prominent as to what is before and a year after Michael Browns death, despite what weve seen and people using the black lives matter shows that was a deliberate organizational strategy to be able to highlight where what was going on because Michael Brown was a catalyst in a sense that black lives matter was an extremely popular internationally before that but particularly with november when Darren Wilson was found or did not go to trial but grandeur he not to pursue charges but they showed what the movement for black lives was about, how quickly they were able to organize and how quickly they learn strategies to use their mobile phones and all the apps that came up not like if you get stopped by the police, Start Recording in it is layered up and has become part of an ecosystem for people and how to interact. While. I planned and a third series having a conversation around Movement Series and what that looks like Going Forward and if you combine the tool which back in the day when it came to organizing and now combines this collective that has mobilized activity and put the brake on the fact that these are no longer hidden phenomenon when it comes to police. I want to move to you because part of it is we are seeing it. I think we all with Trayvon Martin we saw the representation of the powerful imagery of hoodies but we did not see it but it came with Michael Brown and watching that video with i believe it was on body cam and it came out late on the body cant but as we began to see collect information the question i have for you is no one talks about the First Amendment and the fact that the legal rights associated with that and before we go deeper i want to what should we be looking at in terms of the invisibility of this type of contact. Yeah, first thing. Thank you doctor lee for bringing us together for this timely discussion. We really appreciate it. You know, you have the right to record. This is all right that is protected under the First Amendment and courts have looked at the act of, you know, of recording and taking photography as forms of expression that are clearly protected under the First Amendment. There is a split on this question and it is possible that this question makes its way eventually to the Supreme Court but for the time being it has taken up this question of whether or not this is First Amendment protected activity and have found that it is and that there is qualified immunity for officers in this context. I wanted to take a step back and just talk about the power of visual images of violence and brutality perpetrated against black people throughout time because as it turns out, this is not just a new thing but something that really dates back to, you know, the darkest days of jim crow and the images of lynched black people, the images of people assaulted on the Edmund Pettis bridge in the images of john lewis being brutalized by state troopers and those images went viral to and they went viral on gray, black and white tv screens and ended up being images seen all over the globe that really brought a degree of shame on america, shame on the nation and in some respect those images and that shame that came along with those images are what laid the groundwork for congress to pass the Voting Rights act of 1965. What really propelled lyndon b. Johnson back against the wall to sign that remarkable act into law. Fastforward to moments like rodney king and a scene that brutality and what were those devices called . You know right . That wasnt even a digital camera but it was a camcorder. Yeah, with the big tape. Seen the brutality perpetrated against rodney king is kind of what laid the groundwork for there to actually be a prosecution of those cops that purge perpetrated that horrendous assault. Fastforward to walter scott who you know, he is 50 yearold man stopped because of a broken tail light, former military and a human being is stopped by a cop who claims, right . Who claims falsely as we find out that mr. Scott tried to take his taser and that he was forced to shoot but then the courageous person who happened to record that incident comes forward and we find out theres a different truth that mr. Scott was running away and shot about a dozen times in the back and the officer planted that taser next to his body. Then we fastforward to eric garner, right . Mr. Orta who accorded what happened there and you think about all these incidences and the through line is that throughout history images of the brutality have proven a powerful tool in promoting reform in sometimes promoting accountability but most often and shaming the public to see up close the vicious violence perpetrated against black people and against black lives. You are so right. Emmett till, if you ever go to the National Museum of africanamerican history culture and watch the video there, maybe tilt made the decision to came emmetts casket open to do exactly what you said for the shameful history that was a spark of the modernday Civil Rights Movement. When i was at [inaudible] [inaudible] was one of the people we honored for taking that video and having the courageous this as david would say to record what had happened to walter scott but since that time there have been so many and i think we said the name of every person whos been up to him of Police Brutality unarmed. People that have done that. And shot by police in the fact that its dramatic but that trauma that we are experiencing as we talk about the use of modernday technology to help us through that has a history. We talked about that with the Civil Rights Movement when there were broadcast stations that wanted to turn off what was happening in places like selma. Tell us about history in terms of media policy of eliminating our ability to be authentic and those images. Before you do, if you have questions at events at brookings. Edu and use the digital justice. Thank you, nicole. What a lot of people suspect but may not know is that especially across the south in the 50s, 40s, 50s and early 60s there was something real, it was a thing called a news black out. Governors got together with broadcasters and Police Officials got together with a Newspaper Publishers and when things were happening across this nation that would, under any other circumstance newsworthy, deserve to be covered, they were not. It is particularly sensitive about it in South Carolina where there were a number of incidents, how many people know about the orangeburg massacre . Ive got a picture that i can share later. Have you ever heard of Sarah Mae Fleming . Sarah may fleming was a 20 yearold African American female from South Carolina, and from a rural place, who got on a bus 17 months before rosa parks and because of the lack of covering which became two trials you dont hear about her but that is the case in columbia, South Carolina where they informed and enabled the success of the montgomery bus movement. What happens is not only you dont have dominion which we do now with these devices and we dont have possession or the ability to did not have the ability to get the information out but because of that there were gatekeepers that purposely insured that those movements, those acts of rebellion, those injustices were not broadcast and it gave a false impression to the world that we were okay and everything was all right that there was no problem here. We note that is not the case and what we see now are ubiquitous tools to more level that plainfield for visual, audible and other forms of justice. I have to be honest, this is a tough webinar for me to do because they are so close to home in the videos are so telling about what that looks like but i would assume in the work you do, doctor ray, working with Police Officers that brings a different angle to their work as well and of course i want to be sensitive to what you are seeing by what we are talking about which is availability of content that brings the experiences of blacks closer to home. Ones that were a blackout for a period of time. What is the strain on the police . Without taking any sides because were not partisan and try to be open where do the police find themselves with this plethora of content that is so telling about their behavior . Yeah, i appreciate that question. Even to your point about having to give a caveat about the side we are on, its unfortunate that we live in an era where its perceived that police and people are on different sides that when supposedly they are supposed to protect and serve. The coalition i come from a lawenforcement family, military family and i study and work with police which is it even the reason why i study Law Enforcement but directly stands out as the research i was doing on health and speaks to your question about what impact it has on police. I will try to break it down quickly. I think the first big thing is that it has a huge toll on their Mental Health and emotional wellbeing. Now, Law Enforcement is an extremely difficult profession. I would argue probably the most difficult we have in our country. That being said, they already dont give the proper resources they need when it comes to psychological services. There is a recent study highlighting that 80 report chronic stress so that depression, anxiety and they get angered easily and they have familial problems, 80 , one out of six or sport substance abuse, one out of six report suicidal thoughts but 90 of them never seek help. Then you couple that with the destruction of a hero complex because part of what happens when kids grow up in the United States we are socialized to the police are protect us and are the good people. We say good guys which depending on where you are in the country directly signals gender on top of that, even for people who use guys to mean everyone but the point of that is as people get older that image starts to erode and for people trying to psychologically process that it has a huge impact on what they are doing. Here is the kicker, even though it impacts her mental and Emotional Health is already problematic to begin with it doesnt necessarily mean it impacts the outcome. There is a theory that has been put out there about the ferguson affect the came about from ferguson, missouri more or less the same because of the continuous strain and stress of Law Enforcement in the attention on them it will impact how they do their jobs but there is no Empirical Research to support that what so ever. If anything its the opposite. Lets take have Police Killings decreased after 2020 . Know its increase. The ferguson affect was correct what happened to george floyd, what happens to jacob lake right now when this happened and of course there are other incidences that we could highlight so part of what happens is people get pushed back into a corner and react to that. One of the biggest things i can tell people and of course, with thousands of Police Officers in my team at the lab with social science we done right alongside so many different right along and interviewed hundreds of Police Officers and there is one finding about black lives matter and we asked them what you think about the black lives