This camera phone website reports a story from India, with implications anywhere:

Nikhil Niranjan Alva, a documentary filmmaker who won a Green Oscar and who also is the son of an Indian government official, saw a traffic warden beating a taxi driver who refused to stop when asked to.

Nikhil used his camera phone to record the incident and the traffic warden assaulted him. "An assistant inspector, a head constable and a constable were present but they did not interfere," the article says.

This is one more example of how camera phones are helping to document abuses of power. But it also highlights a problem with camera phones usage: Camera phone users are in danger of being assaulted, shot, imprisoned.

I've written before about my fear of camera phone users who could get into trouble documenting illegal activities. We are just beginning to see the effects of "citizen journalists" and "citizen photographers."

Let's suppose you decide to film a group of anti-American activists burning the flag. Or a Koran desecration in progress. You might get attacked and beaten (more likely they'll just target your camera) but at least you won't be out the cash it takes to replace valuable equipment. And if you have to run away, you'll feel less inhibited about harming the equipment.

I mean, I hate to be a relativist about these things, but human life is cheap, and cameras are still pretty pricey. I suppose the costs of both will keep going down. (Meanwhile, based on additional information supplied for this this InstaRecommendation, I bought one of these for slightly more money, and I can't wait to try it out.)