Meet the man who recorded the world's first viral video

[dalton99a]

https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2017/05/25/inenglish/1495709209_218886.html

Meet the man who recorded the world’s first viral video
In 1991, George Holliday filmed LA police beating Rodney King, sparking deadly race riots
Pablo Ximénez de Sandoval
Los Angeles - 25 may 2017 - 10:37 EDT


George Holliday at the spot where Rodney King was beaten by police. APU GOMES

One of the first things George Holliday did when he bought his then cutting-edge Sony Handycam 8-millimeter video camera in early 1991 was to go into a bar in front of his house in north Los Angeles. It was there that he managed to capture some moments from the shooting of the celebrated scene from Terminator 2 when Arnold Schwarzenegger steals a biker’s clothing and rides off on his Harley Davidson.

On March 3 of that year, using the same tape and in the same place, he recorded the savage beating by several police officers of an unarmed black man called Rodney King. The term might not have existed at the time, but this was the world’s first viral video, as well as an early example of citizen journalism, becoming a symbol of police brutality and sparking the worst race riots in US history in Los Angeles a quarter of a century ago.

Holliday says he was woken up around 1am by the sound of a helicopter. The police had been chasing King in his car at speeds of up to 160 kilometers an hour, and the chase ended in front of Holliday’s apartment. He went out on to his balcony to look, and when he saw police decided to record the scene. King was about 40 meters away, and the camera picked up the sound of the batons used by the officers to beat him for eight minutes as he lay on the ground. “I thought to myself: what did that guy do to deserve that?”

He didn’t know what to do with his recording: this was a time before YouTube or Facebook. A few days later he went to a wedding, where he told guests about what had happened, but nobody considered it important. He then contacted his local police station, but officers would give him no information. Finally, he called local television station KTLA to ask whether there had been a police operation in his neighborhood. “During the conversation, the fact that I had recorded something came up and they asked if I would show them the tape,” remembers Holliday.


Holliday's footage of police beating Rodney King

[underpants]

1. 8 minutes hmmm

I didn’t know about the connection to Terminator.

[tblue37]

2. I think the Zapruder film was probably the first viral film. nt

[hlthe2b]

3. EXACTLY... NO DOUBT.