The D.C. snow job: social networks, video sharing, and blogs expose police lying.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Washington, D.C. snow storm - Column

AS A BLIZZARD dumped more than a foot of snow on Washington, D.C., in December, a group of youngish, well-wired hipsters gathered in the city's gentrifying U Street corridor for a mass snowball fight. The idea had originated and gained momentum on the social networking site Twitter. By the time it was all over, the Snowball Fight Heard 'Round the World would demonstrate how social networking and easy access to publishing software are blowing open traditional, filtered channels of information. As a result, both government and traditional media outlets are becoming more accountable.

The December 19 snowball fight took an ugly turn when snowballers pelted a red Hummer. The driver, a D.C. detective named Mike Baylor, emerged from his vehicle in plain clothes and confronted the snowballers without identifying himself as a police officer. Baylor next unholstered his gun, exacerbating an already tense confrontation. Several people then called 911 about a man waving a gun at the intersection. That brought to the scene uniformed cops, one of whom had also (understandably, at that point) drawn his weapon. Baylor detained one person, attorney Daniel Schramm, whom the detective falsely accused of hitting him with a snowball.

Within hours, video of the altercation (including footage from reason.tv's Dan Hayes, who was on the scene) popped up on the Internet. By the morning of December 20, anyone with an Internet connection could see from multiple angles shot by multiple video cameras and cell phones that Baylor not only waved his gun but admitted he had waved his gun. As of this writing, he is under investigation and may lose his job.

The more interesting part of this story, however, was the initial reaction from D.C's Metropolitan Police Department (MPDC) and traditional Washington media outlets. Even though video contradicting him was already available on the Web, MPDC Assistant Chief Pete Newsham initially issued a series of what were at best reckless errors, at worst bald-faced lies. He first told the Washington City Paper, "There was no police pulling guns on snowball people." In fact, there were two. According to The Washington Post, Newsham then asserted that the worst thing Baylor may have clone was use some inappropriate language. Newsham then wrongly stated that witnesses must have mistaken Baylor's cell phone for a gun and said of Baylor--again inaccurately--that "he was armed but never pulls his weapon."

Newsham's rush to clear Baylor's name...