New Michael Bennett Video Shows Exactly Whatever You Want It To Show

Las Vegas police have released body camera and surveillance footage of the August 26 detainment of Michael Bennett after the Mayweather-McGregor fight, showing the panic inside the casino and the actions of officers after Bennett was in handcuffs:

The surveillance video shows a chaotic situation inside the casino, after toppled stanchions apparently made gunfire-like noises and created a panic. The footage shows a very frightened Bennett, along with dozens and dozens of other patrons, attempting to flee a very uncertain situation. It then shows a no-less-frightened but now handcuffed Bennett being put into a squad car by officers, and then the aftermath. What none of the video shows is more than a darkly lit split second of the actual moment of arrest—the officer who allegedly pointed his gun at Bennett, took him to ground, and handcuffed him apparently had his body camera turned off throughout the event. It neither proves nor disproves any of what Bennett or the LVMPD have claimed about the encounter, but that should not stop you from using it in support of whatever preconceptions you carry into this moment in time.

The video suggests nothing about why Bennett in particular was chased and arrested, nor does it show any of the moments of his actual arrest, but the main lesson is this: if “video” is now synonymous with “proof,” even video as shitty as this will be positioned as evidence of something. What that something is will depend almost entirely upon the viewer’s priors.