On June 2nd,
outside this convenience store
in Baytown, Texas,
Isaiah Benavides saw his
friend being pulled over.
He took out his phone
and pressed record.
- 'Cause he's Black, huh?
- I didn't do nothing.
- You're cussing in public.
Put your hands behind your back.
- As he filmed, the
incident got pretty violent.
- Put your hands
behind your back.
And if you don't get back,
I'ma break your shit.
- But it didn't end there.
Isaiah posted the video online.
It went viral and set off
a string of consequences
for Isaiah,
his friends,
the local police,
and the city of Baytown.
All from one video clip and one
snap decision to hit record.
- Shit just went down, bro.
I think they're probably
gonna try to get me next.
- It all started after Isaiah
and his two friends,
Skylar Gilmore
and Isaiah Phillips,
left a barbecue.
- Well, Jostin was leaving
and we were going to get more beers
from the store for the barbecue.
And Jostin got pulled
over in his car.
- We noticed Officer Brown
pulling over our friend.
- Their friend, Jostin Moore,
had been pulled over
for a traffic violation.
- That's Officer Brown.
- All of Baytown
recognizes Officer Brown.
- Officer Brown
is known in Baytown
for doing some shady stuff.
So we just wanted -- I
just wanted to make sure
that our friend Jostin
was alright.
- They pulled him over
just 'cause he's Black.
- That's fucked up, bro.
- Black lives matter.
- Officer Nathaniel Brown
had previously been accused
of targeting and harassing
Black Baytown residents.
- Like, we started
talking about how
he was doing this shady stuff
in the past, how he sicced
a dog on somebody.
- He's the one that sicced the dog.
Oh, 'cause you Black, bro.
A hundred percent 'cause you Black.
- I guess he overheard
us talking about him.
- He clearly had a problem
with us basically watching him.
- He proceeded to walk up to Skylar
and I was just standing
there behind Skylar
like that's not right.
- I didn't do nothing.
- You're cussing in public.
Put your hands behind your back.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- I get thrown against a
wall, thrown onto the ground,
and then I get kneed in the face.
- Put your hands behind your back,
hands behind your back.
- What happened next?
I mean, he basically
got up from Skylar,
walks over to the other officer
and he says,
"Just to make things
fair across the board."
- I gotta be fair across
the board.
- And grabs the other
officer's handcuffs,
and then that's when
he grabbed Isaiah.
- Turn around.
- They're arresting
him for nothing.
- They slammed me and
left a dent on my face.
- If you don't get back,
I'ma break your shit.
- I'm not doing nothing to you.
- I was hoping they
didn't draw their guns.
That's all I was
thinking in my head.
They cannot draw their
guns on me today.
- What surprised me is that
I was getting arrested for
talking on the sidewalk.
- I was confused, but I was
enraged at the same time.
So I had to use my mind,
take a step back, and keep
using the camera that I used.
And that's how we got
that video out like that.
- Skylar and
Isaiah Phillips were arrested
for disorderly conduct for
using profanities in public.
Jostin was arrested for
the traffic violations
and a prior warrant
related to a car accident.
What happened next is the
reason we know this story
and so many others like it.
Later that night,
Isaiah and another friend,
Dajone Mitchell, posted
the video online.
- Isaiah and Skylar were in jail.
From there, Dajone put
the video to Twitter,
and I put it on Facebook.
- By the time we got
to see the video,
it already had a
couple million views.
- Not even 24 hours later,
we had, like, eight news
interviews back to back to back.
- After the
incident went viral,
the friends joined other
victims of police brutality
in Baytown to stage a protest.
- The march was organized
due to several incidents
involving the Baytown
Police Department.
- And that really made
our cause bigger,
and that ended up causing
the petition to form itself.
We ended up getting
Officer Brown fired.
- The charges against
Skylar and Isaiah Phillips
were also dropped.
The Verge was unable to reach
Officer Brown for comment.
- We're happy that it went viral
because our justice is
gonna be served soon,
but at the same time,
like, that's not the video
you wanna be known
for going viral.
- Isaiah had
never filmed the police
before this moment.
- I'ma get out and record.
- So what
made him hit record now?
- He was by himself without
any other recording on him,
then they could
do whatever they want.
Normally, it's supposed
to be “he says, she says,”
but if you say something and
the officer says something,
it doesn't go that way.
It's the officer said
something and that's it.
- When they see a cellphone
being pulled out,
I think law enforcement
are aware
of the potential
accountability
that may come with these
recordings.
- Chaz Arnett teaches law
at the University of Maryland,
and he studies the
role of technology
in situations like this one.
- Typically, what we see --
we see this in some
of the footage
from most recent Black
Lives Matter protests --
is that when cameras are
introduced in these scenarios,
law enforcement oftentimes
take that as a threat
to what they are doing.
- That's what
Isaiah thinks happened
with Officer Brown.
- He clearly had a problem
with us basically watching him.
I feel like that's the exact
reason why everything happened.
I feel like he was angry
that we weren't letting him do
what he wanted to do, so he
came and took it out on us.
- I mean, I think that's a
reflection of law enforcement
knowing that there is some
level of power connected
with being able to
document these episodes.
It is seen as a way of
attempting to take away
and flip on its head that
imbalanced power relationship.
- Skylar and
Isaiah Phillips' lawyers
believe the video was key
in getting the charges
promptly dropped.
But using technology this way
can have scarier
consequences, too.
- For the next couple of weeks,
we were getting, like,
watched by the officers.
At the beginning, there
was just one cop car
that would be watching us,
and now after the protests,
that's whenever they'd have
different types of cop cars
that would watch us
at different times.
It made me feel like I
was gonna get picked up
by a black van one day.
- Anytime an individual
is attempting to document
or speak to what is happening
in terms of law enforcement
and police abuse,
they become targets.
- The Verge reached out
to the Baytown Police Department
but did not receive a response
before publishing this story.
- Yeah, we've been
getting a lot of anxiety.
Could barely even sleep.
Every time I see a cop, I'm
not even doing nothing wrong
and I'm just already, like,
my heart's already racing.
It brings stress to not
only us but to our families.
I mean, they're scared
'cause this simple matter,
it can cost us our lives.
- In spite of
everything that happened,
Isaiah feels like he
did the right thing.
- I don't regret any of it.
I feel like it would have
been swept under the rug
like nothing happened.
Because that's what
happens almost every day
whenever somebody... even if
somebody gets a video of it.
- Recording the police
can be a risky and painful act.
But as we're seeing across the
country, it is also powerful.
- Particularly with the
killing of George Floyd,
I think that video has
ignited and set off
these global reckonings
with law enforcement.
- And that movement
clearly helped Baytown residents
have their own reckoning.
- This incident really
changed how our community
really does things because
everybody really took a part in
taking the movement and
making it into something else.
The more people across
the country doing good
and making more protests,
the more my community
and other communities
would do the same
just simply because
other people are doing it.
- I feel like more people
should record the police,
not even if it's just
their problem.
I feel like even if you see
somebody else
that's in a problem, I feel
like you should record it.
Because nobody is gonna
believe our voices.
The whole world believed
the video, though.
This video was part of a larger project at The Verge
that looks at the power and consequences
of filming police violence
Our other YouTube channel Verge Science
looks at what police body cameras don't always show you
