Justice
In Brazil, Where Police Killings Are Commonplace, Cell Phone Cameras Play a Powerful Role
More than 75 percent of Brazilians over the age of 10 now have mobile phones, which means someone's always watching.
A 30-year-old street vendor was shot in the head by a police officer in São Paulo last month, in a raid targeting sales of pirated DVDs. Carlos Braga was killed after he tried to yank a canister of pepper spray out of a cop's hands as the officer brought down another vendor.
Cell-phone camera footage from several spectators challenged the military police force's original story: that there had been a face-off between the vendors and the police and that the cornered officer had also been wounded by a bullet. After the videos came to light, the police rapidly changed their version of events and detained the officer in question.