When Cops Attack Online

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A few months back, I wrote an article called
Copwatch 2.0. It was about the shooting death of Oscar Grant by law enforcement, the fact that the act was shown on YouTube, and how our Internet culture has changed the landscape of police accountability.

I think the San Jose Police Officers Association just read the title because based on their recent Internet postings, they have their own ideas of what happens to police accountability in a hyper-communications era. They feel that if activists are using new media to expose what they feel is police abuse -- posting videos and blogs of civilians getting tased, beaten, or otherwise mistreated -- cops can create their own media as well.

In activists circles, there is a common phrase used these days: "Media is a weapon." That just means we may not have money or political clout, but if youve got a laptop and a cause, anything is possible. But that message is presumably for the disempowered. When applied to groups like law enforcement that actually have real weapons, that message takes on a different set of possibilities.

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