Asshats To Keep An Eye On

I-Witness Video (henceforth, Witness) is a self-styled "international human rights organization" that trains activists to use video to advance their political agendas; provides them with technical and editing assistance; and helps to support and distribute their productions. Founded in 1992 by musician and activist Peter Gabriel, the nonprofit Witness is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. By his own account, Gabriel hit upon the idea of arming activists with video cameras in 1988, while touring at the behest of Amnesty International. Gabriel secured funding for Witness in 1991, when footage of police brutality against Rodney King demonstrated the potential of amateur video to command headlines. Seed money was provided by the Reebok Human Rights Foundation, and Witness was established under the auspices of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. *snip*

Even more politically charged is another Witness initiative: "Project Voice." As explained on the Witness website, the project involved producing a video "that aims to bring attention to the increased militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border area and its impact on people crossing the border." Sheared of the political overtones, the video's subject is nothing more than the United States' efforts to police its southern
border and curb illegal immigration. Witness frankly acknowledges that it opposes both efforts, explaining that the project is especially "concerned with the expanding powers of law enforcement" on the U.S. border. Indeed, Witness regards the notion of legal versus illegal immigration as an oppressive anachronism. Thus the Witness video project "seeks to recast the current immigrants' rights debate in the U.S. in a broader human rights framework, believing that immigrants' rights should be viewed and defined in terms of human rights, not just by legal immigration status." But Witness does not altogether disregard the notion of legality in the context of immigration. It merely shifts the blame to those who would enforce immigration laws. In keeping with its declared faith in universalist utopianism, Witness trains a sharply critical camera on independent border-patrol groups like the Minutemen. Calling them "vigilante groups," the video concentrates on the "legal and human rights implications of these groups." Source

Nice to see nice people coming together like this,

Ain't it?

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