Friday, October 13, 2006

Wauwatosa brawl update

I've located the original video that aired on TMJ4 in Wisconsin.

Those of you who have followed my comments on this story know that my recollection of the original video suggested that somebody had been in the corner behind the black suspect.

After seeing a later video, I changed that assessment, supposing instead that the original video had been edited so that it was harder to tell that one of the people seated to the suspect's right had left his seat and moved around to the suspect's right.

Here's the original video.

Once the scene starts in which the suspect is shown seated at the corner of the counter, watch the man to the suspect's right in the green shirt.
After the suspect shoves "Jorryn," green shirt guy disappears from the scene via the magic of video editing. It is "green shirt guy" that ends up to the right of the suspect as he faces Jorryn.

The nutty thing about this is that the video later aired on the same television station tells the same story without that edit. In the later version, it is easy to see that "green shirt guy" moves to confront the suspect.
I suggested in an earlier post that the second video seems to suggest that green shirt guy threw the first punch. I want to make clear that it remains hard to tell since the video appears to skimp on the frames-per-second.

I've contacted the station to inquire into the rationale for the edits and to inquire about the video itself, as to whether or not the full tape will be released as a newsworthy item. As of today, I've had a couple of tentative replies but nothing that addresses the particulars that I have asked about regarding the video or the editing process.

I stick with my initial assessment that the video will not support a hate-crimes charge against the suspect.

I wonder how the witness testimony stacked up against the full video.

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