US police smash camera for recording killing *Video*

Yet another case of cops attempting to prohibit recording of their actions on the street.

This man's cell phone was taken, along with many others, as well as having been arrested and held at gunpoint!

Police noticed the man filming the shooting and an officer jumped into his truck, and put a pistol to his head, Benoit said. The video shows officers crowding around Herisse's vehicle before opening fire, followed by indistinguishable yelling at onlookers, including Benoit, to stop filming.

From what I gather from the article, the police where well within their right to take down the person inside the car, but compounded the issue when they decided to confiscate personal property of US citizens because they had footage of the incident.

Well it still got out on the web and it looks as though it will be another notch on the belt for the anti-cop crowd. Please take a look and decide for yourself!



Al Jazeera

Is this an example of poor judgement, over zealousness, or power tripping? You are going to face stress in that situation but reacting to something that you were not directly involved with in such a manner makes one lean to cover up. It was almost an automatic response, however in defense perhaps there are laws to protect that officers and even the deceased families. It's a real world, if you don't want it recorded, don't do it. If you do something that merits attention keep the consequences in mind, not only to yourself but also to your family. Perhaps as a nation we are trying to ride this balance beam of being politically correct?

reply to post by QuietSpeech


Well said.

They are public servants providing a public service in a public venue. It's bound to be seen and/or recorded in this age of technology. If they don't want their actions to be seen by the public in a bad light, handle it in a different
manner.

We need to support our police officers, but they need to protect our rights and not strip them away for something that will end up even more of a fiasco.

I see nothing but domestic terrorist at there best terrorizing and threatening and taking peoples lives. I think it may be fact police ruin and take more lives then they will ever save in there lifetime as a police officer. I really don't see why people don't bring charges of domestic terrorism against many of the police officers actions nowadays they cross the line continuously to me there isn't much difference between them or the terrorist's we are supposedly fighting in the middle east. It would take something extraordinary for me to call the police that's how much of a hassle they are they make almost every situation worse and blown out of proportion then it really is of coarse so does are joke of a broken judicial court system that seems to run just for profit rather then justice. IMHO of coarse

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
From what I gather from the article, the police where well within their right to take down the person inside the car,

If this is true, then why should they care about videos taken by witnesses?

If cops are doing the right things, for the right reasons, then witnesses and video should support that.

Were these cops paranoid, or something worse?

reply to post by Fractured.Facade

I completely agree. I can only make an assessment from the video and the article.

If they were well within their rights, why did they take such an extreme offense to the citizen's recordings? What if this was just the knee-jerk reaction of the cops regardless of it's legality?

It's a big problem no matter how you look at it!

reply to post by sheepslayer247

It was 4am on May 30 when Benoit and his girlfriend Erika Davis saw officers firing dozens of bullets into a car driven by Raymond Herisse, a suspect who hit a police officer and other vehicles while driving recklessly. Herisse died in the hail of lead, and four bystanders also suffered gunshot wounds, the Miami Herald newspaper reported.

Seems to me that regardless of what happened, they were determined to kill this "suspect".

If you are targeted by corrupt law enforcement, and your choices are to give up, or run, which would you do?

Do you pull over in an area where there are no witnesses, or head into a well lit, populated area??

There is likely far more to this story than the public will ever know, and if it is all handled right, this will be a justified police action.

If this was legit, the actions of the officers with the witnesses and especially the one taking video of it seems indicate something was very wrong here.

reply to post by Fractured.Facade


I could try to come up with some irrelevant response, but it would be pointless. You're right!

I try to give the cops the benefit of the doubt, but this stinks to high-heaven. I suppose that's why I shared it on ATS.

reply to post by sheepslayer247

Benoit and Davis have hired a lawyer. The couple stopped giving interviews soon after the incident, Reese Harvey, their attorney, told Al Jazeera.

Well, at least we know that the fine investigative journalist staff at Al Jazeera are on this story.

Odds are if there is anything sinister going on here in the USA, they will be the first to report on it.

The police no longer consider their job to be protect and serve the public, it is to control us. They are being trained to think of us as the enemy. Guilty until proven innocent is the law of the land. Why else would there be laws passed to make recording them illegal ? Policies such as that are being used to indoctrinate us into a police state. They see themselves as our masters and we are being trained to accept it.

Originally posted by DAVID64
The police no longer consider their job to be protect and serve the public, it is to control us. They are being trained to think of us as the enemy. Guilty until proven innocent is the law of the land. Why else would there be laws passed to make recording them illegal ? Policies such as that are being used to indoctrinate us into a police state. They see themselves as our masters and we are being trained to accept it.

I can understand why some of the few "good guys" in law enforcement fear video of their on duty activity... They likely have family, wives, kids etc, and are fearful of being exposed on video, even if what they are doing is justified.

Video can be good or bad, depending on the incident.

From a cop's perspective, if you are forced to pull a gun and shoot someone down, even if justified, and it was a gang member or well known criminal with friends and associates, and the video of your actions ends up on utoob???

When there is obvious misconduct, corruption, abuse, brutality and murder captured on video, it should be made public in every way possible. There are a few incidences where video being released can cause real problems for good cops.

Which is all the more reason for the good LEOs to rise up and fight against the bad among them... Regardless in the court of public opinion, they are always going to be guilty by association.

There are no easy answers, its a job with a lot of risk and very little benefits.

-when the police learn to behave themselves then WE, their employers wont need to keep track of them

Miami police say claim cops smashed man's cellphone at deadly Raymond Herisse shooting untrue
BY LARRY MCSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
The Miami Beach police department, under fire for its handling of a fatal Memorial Day shooting, acknowledged seizing cellphones from witnesses after the gunfire.
But city officials refuted the allegations of one witness who claimed police held him at gunpoint and tried to destroy his cell phone footage of the slaying.
Narces Benoit, 35, claimed he was handcuffed and held at gunpoint by officers who then stomped on his cellphone - apparently to ruin his recording of the police shooting of Raymond Herisse.
[snip]
According to the statement, Benoit was stopped by police because he matched the description of a man seen fleeing the shooting scene. Benoit also ignored police orders to stop, the statement said.

Sure looks like they took his phone at gunpoint to me:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3d6ac189291d.png[/atsimg]

The cops are becoming more dangerous then the criminals.
Maybe its time to give them Billy clubs like the UK:

One killed, seven injured during police-involved shootings on South Beach
He also said four bystanders were shot during the chase, and said they could have been hit by stray bullets fired by police officers.
“I’m not going to discount that possibility,” he said.
At Jackson Memorial Hospital, a woman who wouldn’t give her name told WSVN-7 that police shot her friend while they were running back to her hotel room.
“The police shot her,” she said. “It was by accident, but they still shot her.”

Another video, different angle:

reply to post by defcon5


ya the more they do this the more people are going to agree with you this is way out of hand

and as some astute poster noted a lot more going on here than we sheeple will ever know.

reply to post by sheepslayer247


What I see is the police aren't arresting anymore they are like a group of drug cartels. They start emptying their guns and woes to anybody in the way.

According to this news report, several of the involved officers were corrections officers. What the heck are corrections officers doing working on the street? They are not trained for enforcement in the public sector, and the rules in a prison/jail are much different then on the streets. Mainly in the fact that prisoners do not have the rights that are granted to the rest of the public. No wonder this occurred.

They also shot up another vehicle later that night for getting lost in their barricades set up over this incident.

There are a bunch of civilian shot Youtube videos from this fiasco showing the cops searching people, denying them access to their property, trapping them inside the crime scene, wrecking a woman’s vehicle with an ambulance, etc… but as many of them have colorful language, I am not going to link any of them.

Apparently Miami is not equipped for this Memorial Day Southbeach party, and there is talk of the city council working to prevent it from occurring next year. I read a lot of comments made by the locals, and most of them would prefer that the event be brought to a close as well.

Original Thread Here

Closing Duplicate

Thank you

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