Was the introduction of the iphone, which literally changed the way we use devices with those multimedia functions, and it 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 question, in the 1980s, the fcc launched its first cell phone spectrum band. And through a series of those decisions, you know, based on that, we are now seeing and that launched this Global Mobile revolution. And of course revolutions often happen in different phases and different stages. So, now in terms of mobile revolution or evolution, were talking about the fifth phase in some ways, but not in all communities. And thats another topic for another time. But the fifth wave of 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 had the popup of a lot of these very accessible sites to buy these phones, and they became more attached, literally, to us. And the devices, through the evolution, particularly when it comes to recording, i like to still say, but video taping content. It has become the narrative, literally the narrative for our lives today. Im stuck on what you said for a variety of reasons because i think a lot of people dont understand, right, that the federal Communications Commission had a lot to do with sort of introducing us to this mobile ecosystem. And i try to remind myself also that this iphone really was only 12, 13 years old, right, as old as my daughter. But then, too, even with the other platforms that we use, what you said is actually key. Its actually become able to be put in our purse or our pocket, which is something for people of color or historically disadvantaged groups. We never had that before, right . No. We never had that ability to carry that type of arsenal to be able to share distinctively what was happening to us. If we were lucky, we had a landline phone if we could afford the rates. And if you remember, Long Distance was incredibly expensive. We had to stand around and it was a sunday afternoon event to mac a Long Distance call. Now, if you have the right plan, any time, any place, you can reach anyone. Thats right. You know, im not gone date myself. I got my new hair do to look younger, so i wont tell people how far back i go when it came to pagers and pay phones. But i want to switch over to you, dr. Ray. When we think about sociologists, what is actually happening in this digital transformation. When we look at black lives matter, for example, they started online. There wasnt i love the story of how black lives matter got created. But really it became a movement that actually enabled itself through Technology Much like were talking about with these mobile devices. Speak to us about social activism that social media has played before we get to the nuts and bolts of why its so important at this moment. Thank you, nicole for having me, dr. Turner lee, to say that back to you. When we talk about social media, and of course as you know, for the past several years ive been part of a group of researchers that have been collecting and curating data on social media in a black lives matter movement. The big thing we have is a large digital archive of tweets starting in 2014 when Michael Brown was killed. We just continue to cue rate those data, millions and millions of tweets. Black lives matter started by three black women, primarily interacting on facebook, communicating with each other. Now its turn sbood an international movement. The way that the movement for black lives has been able to use social media is something thats unprecedented. Lets go back five or six years ago after Michael Brown was killed, so many others who werent fortunate to have a hash tag is that the level of public support at that time was significantly low. People were trying to figure out black lives matter. It kind of reminds me of whats happening now over the slogan defund the police. Im curious to see how that evolves over the next decade, but the movement for black lives matter has increased over a short period of time because people affiliated with the movement have figured out how to usual social media and social media algorithms. Part of what happened with george floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Floyd and others, the algorithm has uploaded additional videos that shows what happened to george floyd is not isolated,that instead its part of a broader pattern of systemic racism and Police Brutality. Not only that, the videos show white people behaving similar ways but getting treated significantly differently than black people. Its led to a racial awakening. Covid has contributed to that because people for a period of time and for a most part in other parts of the country have been from home or working from home giving the 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. So, social media has played a big role in whats going on. One of the biggest findings i can share from my work is that we looked at a year in ferguson. Every tweet in ferguson from the time Michael Brown was killed until a year later, what we found was that the department of justice consent came down showing they engaged in Racial Discrimination is that what happened at that point, black lives matter started getting so organized that it started going underground a bit. And the tweets about black lives matter was not necessarily as prominent as it was before. And then a year after Michael Browns death, a mean, the spike that weve seen in people using the blacklivesmatter showed that was a strategy to highlight what was going on because Michael Brown was a catalyst in a sense that black lives matter was not popular nationally or internationally before that. The spike happened particularly in november when Darren Wilson was found well, didnt go to trial. But showed the movement of black lives was about, how quickly they were able to organize, how quickly they learned strategies to use their mobile phones, all the apps that have came up now. If you get stopped by the police, hit this button and start recording. Here are the things to do. It is layered up and become part of an ecosystem for people in how to interact with the police. I plan on in the third series having conversations around social Movement Theory and what that looks like. If you combine the tool, which back in the day used to be the telephone tree when it came to organizing. You now combine this collective hash tag that has mobilized activity and put the brakes on the fact that these are no longer hidden phenomena when it comes to police. I want to move to you. Part of it is were seeing it. We all, i think with trayvon martin, we saw the representatirepresent and the powerful imagery of hoodies and skittles. We didnt see it. It came with Michael Brown and watching this video. I think ray shad came out with body cam. The question i have for you is no one ever talks about the First Amendment, the fact that the legal rights associated with that. Before we go deeper, i want you to actually lay for us what should we be looking at in terms of the enforceability and admissibility of this type of content . Yeah, first, thanks so much, doctor lee, for bringing us together for this really timely discussion. Really appreciate it. And you know, you have the right to record. This is a right that is protected under the First Amendment. And courts have looked at the act of, you know, recording and taking photography as forms of expression that are clearly protected under the First Amendment. And there is a circuit split on this question. And it is possible that this question makes its way eventually do the supreme court. But for the time being, the courts have taken up this question of whether or not this is First Amendment protected activity, have found that it is and that there is no qualified immunity for officers in this context. I wanted to actually 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 outs, this is not just a new thing. This is something that really kind of dates back to, you know, the darkest days of jim crow, the images of lynched black people, right, the images of people assaulted on the Edmund Pettus bridge, the images of john lewis being brutalized by state troupers. Those images went viral too. They went viral on grainy 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 respects, 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. And what really propelled lyndon b. Johnson back against a wall to sign that remarkable act into law. Fast forward to moments like rodney king, right, i mean, seeing that brutality. What were those devices called . I know, right . That wasnt even digital camera. That was a camcorder. Camcorder, yeah, with the big tapes. I mean, seeing the brutality perpetrated against rodney king is kind of what laid the groundwork for there to actually be a prosecution of those cops who perpetrated that horrendous assault. Fast forward to, you know, walter scott, right, who you know, he is 50yearold man, stopped because of a broken taillight, former military and a human being. And hes stopped by a cop who claims, right who claims as we find out falsely, 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 that there is a different truth, that mr. Scott was running away and shot about a dozen times in the back and that the officer planted that taser ne taser next to his body. And then we fast forward to eric garner, right . And mr. Orta who recorded what happened there. And you think about all of these incidents. And the through line is that throughout history, images of the brutality have proven a powerful tool in promoting reform and sometimes promoting accountability. But most often in shaming the public to see up close the vicious violence perpetrated against black people and against black lives. Yeah, youre so right. Emmett till, if you ever go to the National Museum of africanamerican history and culture, maimmy till made the decision to keep emmetts casket open to, do what you said, in terms of the shape of history that was the spark of the modern day Civil Rights Movement. Santana was one of the people we honored for taking that video, having the courageousness as david would say, to actually record what had happened to walter scott. But since that time, theres been so many, right . I think if we sat here and said the name of every person who was in the victim of Police Brutality unarmed, other people who have done that unarmed, even shot by police, the fact we saw it, its traumatic. That trauma that were talking about with the use of modern day technology, that has a history, right . 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. Speak to us a little bit about the history in terms of media policy of actually eliminating our ability to be authentic in those images. Before you do, if you have questions, events brookings. Edu. And continue the digitaljustice. Thank you, nicole. What a lot of people expect but may not know is that especially across the south in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s, there was something real. It was a thing called a news black out. Governors got out with broadcasters. Police officials got together with newspaper publishers. And when things were happening across this nation that would, under any other circumstance, news worthy, deserve to be covered, they were not. So, it is particularly were 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 i might share later. Have you ever heard of sara may fleming . Sara may fleming was a 20yearold africanamerican female from east South Carolina. Its as rural as it sounds, who got on a bus 17 months before rosa parks. But because of the lack of covering what became two trials, you dont hear about her. But that location in columbia, South Carolina, sparked informed and enabled the success of the montgomery bus movement. And so what happens is not only we dont have dominion, which we do now with these devices, we dont have possession or the ability to get the did not have the ability to get the information out. But because of that, there were gate keepers that purposefully ensured that those movements, those acts of rebellion, those injustices were not broadcast or printed. And it gave a false impression to the world that we were okay, everything was all right, you know, that theres no problem here. We know thats not the case. And what we see now are ubiquitous tools to more level that Playing Field for visual, audible and other forms of justice. Yeah, i have to be honest. This is a really tough webinar for me to do, folks, because i theyre so close to home and the videos are so telling about what that looks like. But i would assume in the work you do working with Police Officers that that also brings a different angle to their work as well. And of course i want to be sensitive to what youre seeing by what were talking about so far, which is this availability of content that just brings the lived experiences of black people closer to home, ones that were blacked out for period of time. What is the strain on the police . I mean, you know, without taking any sides because we are nonpartisan and we try to be open, but where do the police find themselves with this plethora of content that is so telling about their behaviors . Yeah, i appreciate that question. Even to your point about having to give a caveat about which side were on, its unfortunate we live in an era where its perceived that police and people are on different sides when supposedly theyre supposed to protect and serve. Nicole, as you know, i come from a Law Enforcement family, military family, and now i study and work with police which isnt even the reason why i study Law Enforcement. It directly stemmed out of the research i was doing on health. It speaks to your question about what impact it has on police. Ill try to break this down quickly. I think the first big thing is that it has a huge toll on their Mental Health and their emotional well being. Now, Law Enforcement is an extremely difficult profession. I would argue probably the most difficult that we have in our country. With that being said, they already dont get the proper resources they need when it comes to psychological services. So, theres a recent study highlighting that 80 of officers report chronic stress. So, thats depression, anxiety. They get angered easily. They have familiar yall problems, 80 . 1 out of 6 report substance abuse, 1 out of 6 report suicidal help, but 90 never seek help. You couple that with the destruction of a hero complex. Part of what happens when kids grow up in the united states, we are socialized that the police are there to protect us. They are the good people, right . We say good guys, which kind of depending where you are in the country directly signals gender on top of that, even for people who just 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 theyre doing. This is the kicker though, even though it impacts their emotional and Mental Health and their emotional and Mental Health is already problematic to begin with, it doesnt necessarily mean it impacts their outcomes. Theres a theory about the ferguson effect that came about from ferguson, missouri, that more or less saying because of the continuous stress and strain of law enforce skpmt the attention on them that its going to impact how they do their job. Theres no Empirical Research to support that whatsoever. If anything, its the exact opposite. Lets take this moment. Have Police Killings decreased during 2020 . Its actually increased. If the ferguson effect was correct, what happened to george floyd, what happened to jacob blake wouldnt have happened. There are other incidents we can highlight. Part of what happens is people get pushed back into a corner and react to that. One of the biggest things i could tell people and i conducted with thousands of Police Officers, my team at the lab applied social Science Research have done ride alongs with so many different ride alongs. Weve interviewed hundreds of Police Officers. Theres one main finding about black lives matter. Weve asked them what do they think about the black lives matter movement. This was three years ago when we asked them this but i dont think its changed a lot. I think the nuances changed slightly. We asked them what are your views on black lives matter, do you view them on positive or negative . 75 of officers who have over ei