Minnesota Shooting: How Will New Social Media Features Influence Police, Prosecutors, and Public?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The live video stream on Facebook of a Black Minnesota man killed during a police traffic stop went viral immediately.
The chilling, raw footage captured on Facebook live propelled the Philando Castile story around the world.
Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University and says the new technology make the issue more personal for Americans.
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"This case is a little bit different because what you have is a live video, a Facebook live video, not of just someone taking a video and then disseminating it but actually showing it to the world in real time and I think that that amplifies the outrage and the trauma that was actually experienced by the victim and his girlfriend and the fact that there is a child in that car at the same time," Gonzalez Van Cleve said.
The 10-minute video was streamed and narrated by Castile's girlfriend on her smartphone.
"It was an extremely powerful video because it allows people who don't have those experiences, in particular, white suburbanites for instance, who may not have these types of interactions with the police," she said. "They can actually see what it looks like in real time."
Gonzalez Van Cleve said violence against unarmed black men isn't anything new, but what is new is that we have different populations of people witnessing it through social media.
"I think its a shift showing that now people who don't necessarily experience that level of violence in the criminal justice system that is victimizing them," Gonzalez Van Cleve said. "I think they are starting to say this might not be all of what I thought it was so maybe I should be more aware, maybe I should take out my camera etc."
The video drew more than 1 million views before it was taken down by Facebook on Wednesday night. It was later re-posted with a "graphic material" warning and now has over 4 million views.
You can watch Lavish Reynolds video here.
