A rather accidental set of circumstances placed media artist Paul Garrin right in the middle of what became known as the Tompkins Square anti-gentrification riot on 6 August 1988, holding a video camera. Recording the events while besieged by police officers, Garrin managed to get the tape aired on different news channels, documenting and exposing police violence, and sparking the ‘camcorder revolution’ in Garrin’s words.

Documentation of his camcorder activism featured on major US news channels in 1988, three years before the recorded assault on Rodney King.