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