 On June 2nd, outside this convenience store in Baytown, Texas, Isaiah Benavidez saw his friend being pulled over. He took out his phone and pressed record. As he filmed, the incident got pretty violent. But it didn't end there. Isaiah posted the video online. It went viral and set off a string of consequences. For Isaiah, his friends, the local police, and the city of Baytown. All from one video clip and one snap decision to hit record. It all started after Isaiah and his two friends, Skylar Gilmore and Isaiah Phillips, left a barbecue. Well, Justin was leaving and we were going to get more beers from the store for the barbecue and Justin got pulled over in his car. We noticed Officer Brown pulling over our friend. Their friend, Justin Moore, had been pulled over for a traffic violation. All of Baytown recognizes Officer Brown. Officer Brown is known in Baytown for doing some shady stuff. So we just went, I just want to make sure that our friend, Justin, was all right. Officer Nathaniel Brown had previously been accused of targeting and harassing black Baytown residents. Like we started talking about how he was doing shady stuff in the past. He used to kick a dog on somebody. I guess he overheard us talking about him. He proceeded to walk up to Skylar and I was just standing there behind Skylar like, that's not right. Put your hands behind your back. I get thrown against a wall, thrown onto the ground, and then I get kneed in the face. What happened next, I mean, he basically got up from Skylar, walks over to the officer and he says, just to make things fair across the board. I got to be fair across the board. And grabs the other officer's handcuffs and then that's when he grabbed Isaiah. Turn around. They slammed me and left a dent in my face. If you don't get back, I'm going to break your shit. I'm not doing nothing to you. I was hoping that they didn't draw their guns. That's all I was thinking in my head. They cannot draw their guns on me today. What surprised me is that I was getting arrested for talking on the sidewalk. I was confused, but I was enraged at the same time. So I had to use my mind, take a step back and keep using the camera that I use. And that's how we got that video out like that. Skylar and Isaiah Phillips were arrested for disorderly conduct, for using profanities in public. Jocelyn was arrested for the traffic violations and a prior warrant related to a car accident. What happened next is the reason we know this story and so many others like it. Later that night, Isaiah and another friend, Dejon Mitchell, posted the video online. Isaiah and Skylar were in jail. From there Dejon put the video to Twitter and I put it on Facebook. By the time we got to see the video, it already had a couple million views. Not even 24 hours later, we had like eight news interviews back to back to back. After the incident went viral, the friends joined other victims of police brutality in Baytown to stage a protest. The march was organized due to several incidents involving the Baytown Police Department. And that really made our cause bigger and that ended up causing the petition to form itself. We ended up getting Officer Brown fired. The charges against Skylar and Isaiah Phillips were also dropped. The Verge was unable to reach Officer Brown for comment. We're happy that it went viral because our justice is going to be served soon. But at the same time, like that's not the video you want to be known for going viral. Isaiah had never filmed the police before this moment. So what made him hit record now? He was by himself without any other recording on him that they could do whatever they want. Normally it's supposed to be, you know, he says, she says, but if you say something and the officer says something, it doesn't go that way. It's the officer says something and that's it. When I see a cell phone being pulled out, I think law enforcement are aware of the potential accountability that may come with these recordings. Chaz Arnett teaches law at the University of Maryland, and he studies the role of technology in situations like this one. Typically what we see, we see this in some of the footage from most recent Black Lives Matter protests is that when cameras are introduced in these scenarios, law enforcement oftentimes take that as a threat to what they are doing. That's what Isaiah thinks happened with Officer Brown. He clearly had a problem with us basically watching him. I feel like that's the exact reason why everything happened. I feel like he was angry that we weren't letting him do what he wanted to do. So he came and took it out on us. I mean, I think that's a reflection of law enforcement knowing that there is some, some level of power connected with being able to document these episodes. It is seen as a way of attempting to take away and flip on its head that imbalanced power relationship. Skyler and Isaiah Phillips' lawyers believe the video was key in getting the charges promptly dropped. But using technology this way can have scarier consequences too. For the next couple of weeks we were getting like watched by the officers. At the beginning there was just one cop car that would be watching us and after the protest that's whenever they'd have different types of cop cars that would watch us at different times. It made me feel like I was going to get picked up by a black van one day. Any time an individual is attempting to document or speak to what is, what is happening in terms of law enforcement and police abuse, they become targets. The Verge reached out to the Baytown Police Department but did not receive a response before publishing the story. Yeah, we've been getting a lot of anxiety. I could barely even sleep. Every time I see a cop, I'm not even doing nothing wrong and I'm just already like my heart's already racing. It brings stress to not only us but for our families. I mean they're scared because it's a simple matter. It can cost us our lives. In spite of everything that happened, Isaiah feels like he did the right thing. I don't regret any of it. I feel like it would have been swept under the rug like nothing happened because that's what happens almost every day whenever somebody, even if somebody gets a video of it. Recording the police can be a risky and painful act. But as we're seeing across the country, it is also powerful. Particularly with the killing of George Floyd. I think that video has ignited and set off these global reckoning with law enforcement. And that movement clearly helped Baytown residents have their own reckoning. This incident really changed how our community really does things because everybody really took a part in taking a movement and making it into something else. The more people across the country doing good and making more protests, the more my community and other communities will do the same just simply because other people are doing it. I feel like more people should record the police, not even if it's just their problem. I feel like even if you see somebody else that's in the problem, I feel like you should record that because nobody's going to believe our voices. The whole world will believe the video though. This video is part of a larger project at The Verge that looks at the power and consequences of filming police violence. Our other YouTube channel, Verge Science, looks at what police body cameras don't always show you.