Hey Activists: You Need to Think Twice Before Livestreaming Protests

After a few hours of watching livestreamers E-Poemz or Johnny Dangers on February 22, 2017, you might have felt like you knew them. Their voices, narrating livestreams of the slow-motion eviction of Dakota Access pipeline protesters from a Standing Rock protest site (on land claimed by the Army Corp of Engineers), became familiar. For those viewers not accustomed to police at protests, it might been a shock when officers tackled and arrested E-Poemz, possibly seriously injuring him. His livestream ends with a sideways shot from his camera lying on the ground.