How do you safely film a group of masked armed men while they are in the process of committing a crime, without them knowing that you are recording?
For Context: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/03/photographer-arrested-home-depot-ice-raid
How to document these events safely?
You can buy body cameras that you can hide in a button front shirt, or on the collar of a t shirt
Simply get a remote camera. You can place it in the back of your back pack. Then just pretend to be looking the other way. You don't have to look at the video as it is happening.
Oh wow this is the most genius method yet.
No eye-contact mean a very low chance of confrontation.
I'm gonna see what I can find for this
If you have an iPhone and an Apple Watch, you can activate the camera remotely. I used it to take this picture of a quail. I set up my phone and put tomatoes out. Worked perfectly.
You can also see what’s on screen but you’d just look like you’re checking the time.
Look at the AKASO EK7000. Its tiny and WiFi activated with remote control included. Supposedly it has image stabilization and 20MP resolution and can record 2hrs of video per charge. All for just $52 bucks. So there are way better options that don't break the bank or risk your favorite phone full of your personal identifiable information. That way you can get your quail videos without personal risk.
I would have a shirt with a hole cut in the breast pocket. Then point a phone camera out while it records.
A few details: you’ll want a busy pattern on the shirt to make the hole less noticeable. You’ll also want an app that can record without easily being stopped (the default camera on my phone can be interfered with just by moving around inside a pocket).
With hidden cameras.
Get fake glasses with a camera or a pinhole camera on a button.
I need real glasses to see. Are there any that can also put real lenses in there?
Assuming the lenses can be removed and replaced, opticians should be able to cut prescription lenses to fit.
When my wife had her practice, we had a machine that could cut patterns using the frame. Then the pattern is used to cut the lenses. I'm sure it's even easier today.
You can get hidden cameras in pretty much anything. There's stuff line pens with a camera built in.
Pretend to be on the phone
holds the phone in front of me
WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, SPEAK UP. HELLO? YES I HAVE TO HOLD MY PHONE LIKE THIS, I'M ALLERGIC TO TECHNOLOGY. JUST GO ABOUT YOUR DAILY ROUTINE, DO NOT PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THE HAT.
This is often the simplest. I've done it a few times. It helps to practice to know where you're pointing the phone when it's up to your ear. If it's noisy you can plug your other ear with your hand and tilt your head so the video isn't tilted if that matters to you
Drone?
That sounds like a fine way to have your (presumably expensive) drone carrying your (presumably also expensive) camera hit with buckshot.
I'm not saying don't try anyways. But there's a good chance the gestapo just starts blastin'.
FYI Dji has removed the geofences on their products. You may need to do a firmware update.
Not that it helps the victims but maybe we need a bunch of falsely abused and detained reporters able to afford significant lawsuits.
I like to think I’d stand up and do it, but I’m white and in a state where we don’t often have such conflict.
I mean we do, you can’t avoid it with the current administration. However it’s just not as often. Actually a couple of weeks ago one of my city councillors was roughly detained for videoing a gang of masked thugs depriving people of their rights. However while I don’t think it’s as simple as racism, he is Hispanic and that clearly makes a difference