Bill Maher: This Country Is Becoming A Police State

[damnedifIknow]

"I agree that we shouldn’t have given the kid his Miranda rights because he probably had information. We wanted to take him alive. We all agree with that.… there could’ve been bombs out there, there could’ve been an accomplice. So we wanted to take him alive. If you agree with that then what the cops did there was unprofessional. That’s called contagious fire,” Maher said on HBO’s “Real Time.”

According to reports, no gun was found inside the boat after Tsarnaev was captured, although the Boston Police commissioner had earlier said that cops had exchanged fire with the suspect.

Maher also said that America is becoming a “police state.”

“I want to talk about the police, who I am a supporter of… Look at this, I mean if this is what you have – why don’t you invade a country? …. I mean go up to Canada – take their oil… This country is becoming a police state. And it is very troubling to me,” Maher said, while showing pictures of police officers patrolling the city and searching for Tsarnaev.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/bill-maher-boston-police-90700.html?ml=po_r

[HiPointDem]

1. omg. if bill maher thinks so .... Duers are *wrong*! how will they deal with the cognitive

dissonance?

[Locut0s]

2. America has always had a fascist side to her that troubles me...

Men in uniforms, the power that goes with those uniforms, and the symbols and culture that go with the uniforms. They have their place but that way lies fascism as well and it's something that too many countries struggle with.

[sheshe2]

3. As much as I like Bill Maher, he's wrong!

He was not in Boston. We have not become a police state.

There is an excellent link to a lengthy story from the Boston Globe, telling the time line in detail. One of the things that are mentioned is that the police were firing dummies into the boat.
Link to bigtree's OP.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022769788

[davidn3600]

6. There are videos on the net of police forcing people out of their homes without warrant

The 4th amendment is quite clear that the government cannot search private property without warrant or probable cause.

[sheshe2]

9. Please go read the article at the link.

And the video that was posted many times here has never been linked to the Watertown story! Please show me the link showing that it has been authenticated to that night.

I have three friends that live in Watertown, they sheltered in place. They were not forced from their homes at gunpoint.

Facts are your friend.

Boston Proud!

[MannyGoldstein]

5. I live about a mile from The Boat and I was totally free to go outside, drive

dance, go get donuts in Watertown, whatever.

Most of us chose to stay out of the way of the cops tracking a bad guy, delivering milk, and otherwise doing their jobs.

I'm totally stymied by all of this police state claptrap.

[OneGrassRoot]

17. I haven't seen/heard anyone I know from Boston say otherwise, Manny...

Maher also showed pics of the heavily fortified BPD equipment rolling down the streets, and one of his guests pointed out that you don't see that stuff every day.

This was an extraordinary circumstance. If SWAT-like paramilitary personnel and equipment were on the streets of Boston every day, Maher's point would be valid. But this was not an ordinary day.

This has really divided a lot of people on the left. It's fascinating, though frustrating.

[rightsideout]

7. We have not become a police state

[link:|

[damnedifIknow]

8. I think those

that have had interaction with the police lately would agree with Bill Maher. They have gone a little power happy in my opinion.

[sheshe2]

11. Not here in Boston.

Bill is wrong about that, so are you IMHO.

[sheshe2]

10. Please post the story behind that picture.

Facts please.

[Electric Monk]

12. I'm pretty sure that's from the Chris Dorner manhunt. 2 women were delivering newspapers.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/23/17883146-women-mistakenly-wounded-in-california-manhunt-to-get-42m-in-settlement?lite

The city of Los Angeles will pay $4.2 million to the two women injured when police mistakenly opened fire on their truck during the February manhunt for a disgruntled ex-LAPD police officer who killed four people in a rampage that paralyzed Southern California.

(snip)

The shooting occurred Feb. 7 during a manhunt for Christopher Dorner. Earlier in the day, two Riverside, Calif., officers were ambushed in their police car, and authorities were on the hunt for Dorner and his Nissan Titan pickup truck.

At about 5 a.m., as the women were delivering newspapers in their Toyota Tacoma pickup in city of Torrance, police encountered them and opened fire.

Hernandez, 71, was shot twice in the back, and Carranza, 47, was injured by broken glass.

The search for Dorner ended Feb. 12 with a shootout and standoff in the Big Bear area.

[sheshe2]

15. Thank you, and yes things are wrong many times. This was unexceptable.

However not the case in Boston.

[Electric Monk]

16. I think the word you're looking for is "unacceptable", not "unexceptable". nt

[Fumesucker]

13. Maher probably recalls being taken off the air because he was politically incorrect

Evidently DU has forgotten that incident.

[badtoworse]

14. Becoming??