I don't think you realize how important it actually is to record stuff like this while it's happening. a devastating event with video will get 100x the support and attention as a devastating event without it.

Then in the same vein when it comes to something with cops, or other people, video is crucial to be able to make sense of what happened. Witness reports are horribly unreliable, especially when its an incredibly stressful situation which is almost necessarily the case.

People like to shit on the whole "at least they got it on video" thing, but if you ever find yourself in a crazy situation I promise you are going to wish you had video... not to mention they were probably in there for a while before realizing there was no chance it would make it. I mean what are they gonna do watch TV?