On Charleston’s Eastside, the belief in video surveillance as a tool to “deter crime” was widely shared by the local church community, law enforcement, and social media groups, after a significant increase in gun violence in 2019. By concentrating on the public discourses surrounding the concomitantly rapid increase in gun violence and video surveillance, this paper analyzes the ways in which these communications—through their language, images, and filmic documentation—have shaped and informed public perceptions of CCTV in Charleston’s Eastside. The presented discourses around the public perception of video surveillance and the analysis thereof offer an opportunity to explore the cultural assumptions as well as the underlying racial, gender-based, and socio-economic power dynamics experienced in Charleston’s Eastside community. Through the analysis’s broad scope, this paper argues for a shift in public perceptions of video surveillance. As an integral part of the Eastside’s surveillance infrastructure, video surveillance in the hands of a community of “all-seers” displays, at first, unspoken strategies for preserving racialized surveillance hierarchies that are deeply embedded in the history of Charleston. However, through the counternarratives presented in Idrissou Mora-Kpai’s documentary America Street (2019), those power dynamics are ultimately diffused and questioned, resulting in a reevaluation of video surveillance through the lens of social justice movements, whose effects extend beyond Charleston’s city borders.

中文翻译：

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“全视社区”：查尔斯顿的东区、视频监控和听力任务

在查尔斯顿的东区，在 2019 年枪支暴力事件显着增加之后，当地教会社区、执法部门和社交媒体团体广泛认同将视频监控作为“阻止犯罪”工具的信念。通过专注于公共话语围绕同时迅速增加的枪支暴力和视频监控，本文分析了这些交流方式——通过他们的语言、图像和电影文件——塑造和告知公众对查尔斯顿东区闭路电视的看法。围绕公众对视频监控的看法及其分析提出的论述为探索查尔斯顿东区社区所经历的文化假设以及潜在的种族、性别和社会经济权力动态提供了机会。通过分析的广泛范围，本文主张改变公众对视频监控的看法。作为东区监控基础设施不可分割的一部分，“全能者”社区手中的视频监控首先展示了保留深深植根于查尔斯顿历史的种族化监控等级的不言而喻的策略。然而，通过 Idrissou Mora-Kpai 的纪录片《美国街》（2019）中的反叙事，这些权力动态最终被扩散和质疑，导致通过社会正义运动的镜头重新评估视频监控，其影响超出了查尔斯顿的城市边界。作为东区监控基础设施不可分割的一部分，“全能者”社区手中的视频监控首先展示了保留深深植根于查尔斯顿历史的种族化监控等级的不言而喻的策略。然而，通过 Idrissou Mora-Kpai 的纪录片《美国街》（2019）中的反叙事，这些权力动态最终被扩散和质疑，导致通过社会正义运动的镜头重新评估视频监控，其影响超出了查尔斯顿的城市边界。作为东区监控基础设施不可分割的一部分，“全能者”社区手中的视频监控首先显示了保留深深植根于查尔斯顿历史中的种族化监控等级的不言而喻的策略。然而，通过 Idrissou Mora-Kpai 的纪录片《美国街》（2019）中的反叙事，这些权力动态最终被扩散和质疑，导致通过社会正义运动的镜头重新评估视频监控，其影响超出了查尔斯顿的城市边界。