It was 4 August 2011 in Tottenham, North London, when eyewitnesses saw Mark Duggan raise his hands as armed police surrounded him. An officer known only as V53 shot him anyway. Twice. Duggan collapsed onto the pavement and died from his wounds. What followed was one of the biggest rebellions that London has seen in a generation, culminating in five deaths and over 3,000 arrests.
Though bystanders said they saw Duggan with both hands up, V53 claimed that he had a gun. A low-resolution video recorded by a witness in the immediate aftermath of his death showed one of the officers at the scene walking towards the taxi that Duggan had been travelling in and disappearing for a full 11 seconds. Another witness claimed she saw the same officer retrieving the gun from inside the car. Three officers at the scene went on to testify that the weapon was found on the other side of the fence.
The question of whether Duggan had a gun in his hands when he was shot was contentious. At the time, phones were less advanced and people were less likely to have HD recording devices. 4K resolution wasn’t even a thing until two years later. But what if Mark Duggan’s killing had happened today? In 2021, the vast majority of adults own a smartphone of some kind. Technology has advanced and hurriedly shot videos from cameras on phones have become a familiar medium for the story of police brutality. Surveillance works both ways.
