An Eye on History, A Witness to Murder
Darnella Frazier. Remember that name. History books in the future will record the names of witnesses in this time of the video camera and the cameraphone, much in the same way they will record the names of victims and perpetrators. Darnella “filmed” the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 from an angle to capture the faces of Floyd and his killer and the killer’s abettors.
We live in a time of sousveillance (Google it!) where the cameraphone is our witness and tool of record to capture the harsh realities of life. From school children fighting in Trinidad and Tobago and public sex everywhere to police action and brutality, and now, murder of Black people in the US, the cameraphone and the operator of that camera, with a steady hand and a clear focus, put truth back into a system where adversaries only have to legally prove who is more believable.
Centuries of stories of one man’s word against another’s, with no other signifier than a man’s social status, have rendered many innocent people lost to the world by lynching, death penalty, incarceration, enraged revenge and massacre, and all other manner of retribution. Darnella’s video brought a perspective that could not be ignored. It was proof. It is truth.
The FBI interviewed her. She is a hero. Period! Those murderers seemed oblivious of her recording them, so confident they were that they were above the law. 8 minutes and 46 seconds. [Now amended to 9 minutes and 29 seconds.] “Somebody making a jail this time.”
Remember the other names, too, of steady hands with a camera: (Video hyperlinks included.)
• Abraham Zapruder — the killing of JFK in Texas;
• George Holliday — the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles;
• Abdullah Muflahi and Arthur Reed — the arrest and killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and from another angle;
• Ramsey Orta — the strangulation of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York;
• Diamond ‘Lavish’ Reynolds — the aftermath of the killing of Philando Castille in Falcon Heights, Minnesota;
• Feidin Santana — the shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina;
• William “Roddie” Bryan, Jr. — the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia. (Ironically, this videographer was charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment in this case. One of the killers, Gregory McMichael helped release video online after a couple months, seemingly to prove that he and his son “were not white supremacists driving in a pick-up truck with a confederate flag in the back who shot a black man in the back because he was jogging in a white neighborhood.” Karma is a bitch!)
