What would you do if you suddenly heard gunshots somewhere? Are you running away? Are you going to see what’s going on? Do you grab your phone to call the emergency number? Or are you going to film? As rational as you may hope to be, we usually don’t know what our reaction is until it actually happens.
Then this week, in the night from Sunday to Monday, a group of about twenty men very violently robbed three bank branches in the Brazilian town of Araçatuba, Renato Bortolucci was having dinner with his wife and friends at a snack bar just down the road. The 38-year-old gas pump owner first brought his wife home, but then decided it was a good idea to see what was going on. And not only that: he shared his experiences live on social media and even joked. Until he was hit by a bullet and died…
Maybe they feel untouchable in these kinds of situations that seem straight out of a movie
I had a hard time imagining it when I read it. Why would you deliberately watch a shooting that you have nothing to do with and then film? But it seems that more and more people have this tendency. As if their screen is some kind of shield. Or maybe they feel untouchable in these kinds of situations that seem straight out of a movie. Like it’s not real.
Or would Renato have just been looking for more followers? More attention? Recognition? I have to admit I don’t quite understand. Even though as a journalist I know better than anyone what kind of power a good image can have. Sometimes citizen journalism is great and very important. But at other times it’s pointless.
Throwing images around the world wide web is not always a good idea
But maybe bystanders who make videos don’t think at all about why they do it. For whom the images are actually intended. As far as I’m concerned, the latter is a question that you should think carefully about. Because just throwing images around the world wide web is not always a good idea. We saw that after the horrible attack on Peter R. de Vries.
So please think twice before you decide to film violent events. Because of the possible victims, but also for your own safety. I think everyone would have liked Renato Bortolucci to have done that too.
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