To Protect and Serve Their Own Interests :: 06/13/2011

Does the government work for us or do we work for the government? Is the job of the police to police for you or to police you? And if the police watch you, who watches the police? Tonight, the state of the police in a police state.

A week and a half ago, over the Memorial Day weekend, a man was shot to death by cops in Miami. Details remain murky, but what's known has largely become known because of the release of personal videos made by witnesses of this incident. Because of personal on-the-spot cell phone videos, we know police shot more than 100 rounds into the dead man's car. Because of these videos, we know police confiscated at least one cell phone at gunpoint from a bystander filming the incident. We know from a local news station that the police stole and destroyed one of its cameras.

Over the coming days, more will become clear about this depressingly common story of death and abuse at the hands of cops. And then it will be in the hands of the residents of Miami to demand accountability from their police department. The issue is not did the police have the right to shoot. A jury will decide that. The issue is do we have the right to watch and record the police when they shoot. Of course we do.

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