Thursday, November 17, 2011

How Social Media Has Revolutionized Citizen Action

The internet, cell phones and social media networking have revolutionized citizen action.  I remember riding in the back of an RMP on a strangely quiet hot evening in Brooklyn in August of 1988, on my way to take a statement from a perp in a rape case. I asked the cops, who were driving me out to the 7-5 precinct station house, why it was so quiet on a Saturday night and where everybody was and they told me that almost all of the cops in the City were in Tompkins Square Park. I didn't know, at the time, what that meant. THOSE cops taped over their badge numbers and names with black electrical tape. THESE cops have no such option, and they know it.
1988 Tompkins Square Riot 
Live video feed from Zuccotti Park and environs...