It's a darn good thing America isn't a Police State.  Can you imagine what police would be like if it was?  I'm speaking specifically about Miami police unloading probably half a dozen service pistols into one man, and as soon as he's dead they turn their weapons on anyone watching this all go down.

Anyone with a cell phone is threatened, has their cell phone taken, smashed and handed back to them.

A few lucky individuals even got a special trip down to the police station where they were interrogated and their cell phones seized again.

Why?

Police wanted no video of their assassination of Raymond Henrisse on Memorial Day, where they also injured four innocent bystanders,  or their subsequent destruction of evidence, namely the cell phone videos of what they'd just done. Naturally, Miami Police say they did nothing wrong, and never destroyed anyone's cell phones.

No, America is not a Police State, but it's not far from it either.

In a true Police State we would never even have heard of this atrocity, or their even more horrific police actions that followed.

I watched the video shot from a balcony above the scene and you can clearly hear the massive amount of gunfire that killed one man in what someone much more jaded than me might call an execution.   It almost sounds like machine gun fire, there are so many cops shooting this guy at the same time.

Here, watch and listen for yourself.

When police act like thugs, as they did here in Miami, we must all fear for our safety.  These cops had just fired dozens of bullets into Raymond Henrisse so there is absolutely no reason to expect that,  as one of the unfortunately onlookers, you're not going to be next.

There is no excuse for police to treat citizens like this.  Claims that "there have been no other complaints" doesn't cut it. If you've managed to escape from these thugs with your life after having their weapons trained on you... are you really going to walk back into a Miami police station, say you were there when they emptied their weapons into a man and make a complaint about your broken cell phone?

Not bloody likely.

Thugs with badges and guns have no right to smash the private property of citizens who are unfortunate enough to be within their range.

Police can spin this any way they want, like claiming they were "looking for more suspects."

That's utterly ridiculous.

If you're looking for suspects, why are you smashing cell phones that might record your wrong-doing?

If you're not doing anything wrong, why are you SO concerned about being recorded while doing your job?

Good questions, both, and ones that will NOT be answered by Miami police.

You can bet on that.

They will blame the victims of their thuggery, as they are doing with Mr. Benoit.  In a statement released by the Miami Beach Police Department they defended their actions by saying:

"Because Mr. (Narces) Benoit matched the description of one of the subjects just reported fleeing the scene and, further, because he ignored repeated commands as he quickly walked towards and entered his vehicle, he was detained by officers."

Hey, it's a great story if you can get anyone to buy it.

Me?  Not a chance.

I'm far more inclined to believe the victim of their actions, Narces Benoit, who said this:

"One of the officers jumped in the truck, put a pistol to my head, poked me like three times, saying, 'What the F was you recording?' "

The video footage, while it doesn't show this specific comment, it does show an armed officer pointing his weapon at Benoit holding the cell phone camera.

Cases like this, where police are caught in the middle of committing atrocious acts, would probably never see the light of day if it weren't for public recordings like Benoit's.

That's why police hate cell phone cameras so much.  They know they will actually be held accountable for their actions, and that the public will be justifiably outraged at their conduct.

John DeLeon of the American Civil Liberties Union said it perfectly:

"This isn't a question of police trying to secure evidence. It's a question of police trying to destroy evidence of what they had done."