I had really bad flu at the start of the year and found myself watching them 20 hours a day for a week maxxed out on lemsip and paracetamol - they kept me sane, now I just enjoy watching people behave badly and reminding myself that I'm not the biggest fuck up in the world after all
The people-refusing-to-admit-they're-DUI ones really do make me feel less unsuccessful as a human being. And then one in twenty or whatever is just like an incredible Chekhovian masterpiece, where every character is instantly seared into your memory and you come out of it feeling like you've actually learned something important about being human even if the footage was just two very polite Midwestern cops trying to convince someone with a lot going on to leave a supermarket.
For a while, half of the rural bodycams seemed to originate from Billings, Montana - people living in absolute meth-addled squalor in trailers, set out in the most spectacular landscape imaginable - they were all in chaos and detached from reality - but I have a close friend from Billings, Montana, who is very idiosyncratic, and somehow I now feel I know her better. The saddest ones are veterans with acute, untreated PTSD trying to hold together normal lives, then crashing and burning after one beer too many. "Thank you for your service but I'm going to put you in the wrap now"
I've been trying to explain to friends who think they're trash and that I'm frying my brain by watching them that I feel as though there's something quite profound about seeing these people in moments of vulnerability or mania, mainly because of alcohol or drugs or low impulse control or just the awful lives they've had to live and the shitty situations they're in. Even more so when, as frequently seems to be the case with younger cops, they're dealing with a person who genuinely doesn't seem to want the worst for them. I've found some of them deeply moving - like I say, Chekhovian. Though I suppose I could with some justification be accused of just indulging in misery porn. Hope I'm not. Anyway, then there's the amazing one of the drunk businesswoman on a DUI who can't get her jumper on over her head and pretends to be a dinosaur, which I rewatch on a weekly basis. All the comments are like 'I bet her employees are so glad she got arrested', even though she's clearly a naturally-gifted-comedian and the most entertaining person on Earth.
I agree 100% - the comments are often really interesting too - the mental health crisis in America and lack of treatment and understanding is chilling - as are the comments from people who lose friends and family to DUI events (I've also seen a few 'yeah - I went to school with her, she was always like that '). You're right about the drama and pathos - I've seen a lot of mini Tennessee Williams dramas play out in the car park of a 7-11. Lack of self awareness and control in people much younger than me is something that I find perplexing and a bit chilling - as it the entitlement and arrogance of the middle classes - but sometimes, after a really shitty day with work - I relax by seeing an arrogant, drunk, racist idiot being dragged out of a car by police officers who just wated 40m minutes of time and public money trying to persuade them just to get an Uber.
Glad I'm not the only person obsessed with police bodycam videos!
I had really bad flu at the start of the year and found myself watching them 20 hours a day for a week maxxed out on lemsip and paracetamol - they kept me sane, now I just enjoy watching people behave badly and reminding myself that I'm not the biggest fuck up in the world after all
The people-refusing-to-admit-they're-DUI ones really do make me feel less unsuccessful as a human being. And then one in twenty or whatever is just like an incredible Chekhovian masterpiece, where every character is instantly seared into your memory and you come out of it feeling like you've actually learned something important about being human even if the footage was just two very polite Midwestern cops trying to convince someone with a lot going on to leave a supermarket.
For a while, half of the rural bodycams seemed to originate from Billings, Montana - people living in absolute meth-addled squalor in trailers, set out in the most spectacular landscape imaginable - they were all in chaos and detached from reality - but I have a close friend from Billings, Montana, who is very idiosyncratic, and somehow I now feel I know her better. The saddest ones are veterans with acute, untreated PTSD trying to hold together normal lives, then crashing and burning after one beer too many. "Thank you for your service but I'm going to put you in the wrap now"
I've been trying to explain to friends who think they're trash and that I'm frying my brain by watching them that I feel as though there's something quite profound about seeing these people in moments of vulnerability or mania, mainly because of alcohol or drugs or low impulse control or just the awful lives they've had to live and the shitty situations they're in. Even more so when, as frequently seems to be the case with younger cops, they're dealing with a person who genuinely doesn't seem to want the worst for them. I've found some of them deeply moving - like I say, Chekhovian. Though I suppose I could with some justification be accused of just indulging in misery porn. Hope I'm not. Anyway, then there's the amazing one of the drunk businesswoman on a DUI who can't get her jumper on over her head and pretends to be a dinosaur, which I rewatch on a weekly basis. All the comments are like 'I bet her employees are so glad she got arrested', even though she's clearly a naturally-gifted-comedian and the most entertaining person on Earth.
I agree 100% - the comments are often really interesting too - the mental health crisis in America and lack of treatment and understanding is chilling - as are the comments from people who lose friends and family to DUI events (I've also seen a few 'yeah - I went to school with her, she was always like that '). You're right about the drama and pathos - I've seen a lot of mini Tennessee Williams dramas play out in the car park of a 7-11. Lack of self awareness and control in people much younger than me is something that I find perplexing and a bit chilling - as it the entitlement and arrogance of the middle classes - but sometimes, after a really shitty day with work - I relax by seeing an arrogant, drunk, racist idiot being dragged out of a car by police officers who just wated 40m minutes of time and public money trying to persuade them just to get an Uber.