Pandemic/screen. The visual motif of police violence in public spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, various forms of digital surveillance have been globally, established. Despite many of these forms of surveillance already existed, now, they have increased their range and have been legitimized and imposed daily. The logic of surveillance has allowed the universalization of surveillance, denunciation between citizens, and protests through mobile phone screens and social networks. In this state of exception, crossed by the rise of vigilantism, we propose to analyze the visual motif of police brutality in public spaces during the confinement. We will base the analysis on three categories of subjective enunciation: a witness-gaze, where the observer remains silent, recording the image; a protest-gaze, in which the observer reproaches the police for their violent action; and a lynching-gaze, where, on the contrary, the observer encourages police brutality and denounces the subject who transgresses confinement and goes for a walk on public roads. These types of gaze will allow us to demonstrate a settlement in the popular imagination of trust in the use of digital technologies and media to empower citizens in political and social praxis, and citizen journalism.