I called up journalist Radley Balco, because after another weekend of getting flooded by violent images of federal agents threatening pepper spraying and killing residents of Minneapolis, I wanted to talk with someone who could tell me the story of how we got here.

I know what I've seen with my own eyes, but I was curious why the people with the chemical

irritants and the badges weren't believing their own. How many police brutality videos do you

reckon you have watched over your career? Oh, wow. I guess

easily hundreds. I hope I'm not into the thousands yet, but yeah, a lot. Radley's substack is

called The Watch. You know, it uncomfortable and difficult and sort of collectively traumatic as that can be,

that's a good thing, right? I mean, it's a good thing that we have this decentralized,

citizen-driven method of transparency.

I feel like I have seen more videos of someone dying in the last three weeks than maybe ever before.

Yeah, it has really accelerated.

A key difference to me here seems to be the fact that people are intentionally observing.

People are intentionally around.

So the overwhelmingness of different angles and different people holding cameras,

that's what gives the images their veracity.

I think there's something to that.

And then you've got an administration that's also openly encouraging and celebrating police abuse.

And so, yeah, we're getting this kind of surreal moment where we're getting inundated with these videos of violence,

unjustified government violence from every possible different angle.

And yet an administration that is more determined than the worst police agencies in the

country to make sure that no one has ever held accountable for it.

To Radley, the images of people getting killed, people like Alex Preti and Renee Good,

they are atrocious. But they're not the only videos where he can see this shift in how federal

...