Optimized for Outrage
Arrest Videos in the Attention Economy
In our video and social media saturated society, the volume of arrest videos for people accused of crimes or immigration violations are rapidly demanding far more of our attention than in the past.
The White Bear episode from season 2 of Black Mirror is one of the more memorable and disturbing stories for me. “The episode follows Victoria (Lenora Crichlow), a woman who does not remember who she is, and wakes up in a place where almost everybody is controlled by a television signal. Along with some of the few other unaffected people (Michael Smiley and Tuppence Middleton), she must stop the "White Bear" transmitter while surviving merciless pursuers.”
What makes this episode so unnerving for both the woman at the center of it, and the viewer, are all the people following her with cellphone cameras. It’s all done for perverse entertainment. At the end it’s revealed that the woman was a convicted criminal who killed a child. Her punishment is to live this horrible episode on a daily basis, with her memory wiped after each cycle. Here’s the trailer for this episode.
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami was published in March 2025. It’s a disturbing book that covers a lot of current topics.
Arresting people who haven’t committed a crime but show a high risk of criminal behavior in the future. The classic movie on this topic is Minority Report which I cover in my January 30th column, The Price of Continuous Monitoring.
The abuses of corporate prisons run at overcapacity for minimum cost to maximize profits.
A prison commissary with exorbitant prices as the only means to acquire things like shampoo and communicate with the outside world.
Experimenting on subjects without their consent.
Incarcerating people who aren’t technically arrested and extending their time due to violations of ever changing and situationally enforced rules.
‘It’s a war’
Inside ICE’s media machine
Messages reveal how the agency has raced to satisfy the White House by pumping out videos of confrontations and arrests.
The Washington Post article above is focused on ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) video production efforts. With the governments focus on illegal immigration, ICE is producing many videos to show the results of their activities. They are also working with individuals on social media, especially X.
Here’s the link from the ICE website. You’ll see the two screenshots below plus a listing of affiliated social media sites.
Here’s another link to the ICE newsroom. If you follow the link the titles to the articles are sensationalistic and promise news of arrests focusing on “the worst of the worst.”
What I found most disturbing about this Washington Post article is the government’s focus on sensationalism for social media and on the criminal behavior of immigrants. Fort the current administration, it’s far more about selling the narrative that immigrants are dangerous criminals that the country needs to remove from society vs. anything resembling even handed reporting. In fact, the vast majority of illegal immigrants are law abiding.
Should arrest videos of immigration be focused on social media impact and entertainment value?
As a nation, have we already crossed the decency line?
How different is our current reality from dystopian fiction?
Please leave a comment.
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My upcoming novel, Electromagnetic Assault, is getting closer. The launch date is April 7, 2026. The book will be available as an Ebook, print on demand, and audiobook. You can preorder the Ebook now from Amazon.
I was a guest on the Rabbit Hole of Research Podcast Episode 55. This episode was originally supposed to air in April closer to my book launch, but world events caught up with the episodes topic, Directed Energy Weapons. The El Paso airport was shut down while Homeland Security tested a laser weapon against a Mexican drone incursion, so this episode was released on February 18th.
On May 1st I’ll be a speaker at the Lakefly Writers Conference and Book Fair in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. For writers my conference session is why new writers should start a Substack Email Newsletter prior to publication. For readers I’ll be selling my new book, Electromagnetic Assault at the Book Fair.
It’s all just bad, bad, bad, made even worse by the fact that the government is doing it.
Fascinating look at how media is being used within books and other narratives like politics to persuade, or whatever the intent. As always, you bring us new perspectives and facts to consider.