Miami Police Smashed Mobile Phones Belonging to People Who Witnessed Shooting; One Witness Hid His Phone’s Memory Card in His Mouth
June 4th, 2011Update: Narces Benoit’s Video
—End Update—
This is a pretty timely development, coming just a day after the news about Apple’s iCensor technology.
Via: Miami Herald:
On Thursday, The Miami Herald spoke to the couple that saw the end of the 4 a.m. police chase on Collins Avenue, then watched and filmed from just a few feet away as a dozen officers fired their guns repeatedly into Raymond Herisse’s blue Hyundai. They say the only reason they were able to show the video to a reporter is because they hid a SIM card after police allegedly pointed guns at their heads, threw them to the ground and smashed the cell phone that took the video.
The three-minute video captured on Narces Benoit’s HTC EVO phone begins as officers crowd around the east side of Herisse’s car with guns drawn. Roughly 15 seconds into the video, officers open fire.
Benoit filmed the incident from the sidewalk on the northeast corner of 13th Street and Collins Avenue, close enough to see some officers’ faces and individual muzzle flashes.
Shortly after the gunfire ends, an officer points at Benoit and police can be heard yelling for him to turn off the camera. The voices are muffled at times. The 35-year-old car stereo technician drops his hand with the camera and hurries back to his Ford Expedition parked further east on 13th Street.
The video shows Benoit get into the car, where his girlfriend, Ericka Davis, sat in the driver’s seat. He raises his camera and an officer is seen appearing on the driver’s side with his gun drawn, pointed at them.
The video ends as more officers are heard yelling expletives, telling the couple to turn the video off and get out of the car.
“They put guns to our heads and threw us on the ground,” Davis said.
Benoit said a Miami Beach officer grabbed his cell phone, said “You want to be [expletive] Paparazzi?” and stomped on his phone before placing him in handcuffs and shoving the crunched phone in Benoit’s back pocket. He said the couple joined other witnesses already in cuffs and being watched by officers, who were on the lookout for two passengers who, police believe at the time, had bailed out of Herisse’s car. It is still not known whether any passengers were in the car.
Four bystanders were shot in the gunfire and three officers suffered minor injuries.
Benoit and Davis said officers smashed several other cell phones in the ensuing chaos.
Benoit said the officers eventually uncuffed him after gunshots rang out elsewhere and he discreetly removed the SIM card and placed it in his mouth.
Officers again took his phone, demanding his video. He said they took him to a nearby mobile command center, snapped a picture of him, then took him to police headquarters and conducted a recorded interview while he kept the SIM card in his mouth. He insisted his phone was broken.
Related: Miami Shootout
Methinks the police are afraid of the truth coming out.
wow, i thought people only swallowed drugs to get out of trouble with the cops. apparently sim cards are rising to the top of the list of contraband.
times are changing. i wonder if this is behavior-according-to-policy or just side effects of car chase-induced adrenaline in the individuals?
No unfortunately this is policy. I saw it coming years ago and wanted to basically follow in Kevin’s footsteps but I got very ill in 2006.
Since when is it policy that our protector class is allowed to destroy private property? They might as well just be out smashing car windows. Phones are expensive, if anyone stepped on mine, cop or not, I’m gonna have them pay for a new phone.
That aside… in the video, it appears there’s a moment when the shooters realize what just happened, realize that there was plenty of phone recording going on, and they send in that troop of white shirts, who totally freak out. I thought I heard a shout “Let’s get the phones!”
Oh boy. Stumbled into this police blotter from just a few towns away from me:
http://homewood-flossmoor.patch.com/articles/homewood-police-blotter-pepper-spray-threat-and-run-eavesdropping-on-officer
It’s short, and I believe relevant so I’ll post the entire text:
Felony Eavesdropping
A South Holland man who recorded a conversation with a Homewood police officer was charged with felony eavesdropping in connection with that incident, police said. Charles A. Tate, 24, of the 400 block of E. 168th Street in South Holland, was pulled over in the 1600 block of 183rd Street after an officer in a marked squad car saw that the South Holland man was not wearing his seat belt, according to the report. As the officer waited for Tate to hand over his driver’s license and proof of insurance, he realized that Tate was surreptitiously operating a cell phone against his right leg, police said.
Tate then admitted that he was recording the conversation, and the officer advised him that under Illinois law, he could be charged for recording the conversations of others without their consent, according to the report. The officer gave Tate a citation for not wearing his seat belt, at which point Tate declared he would challenge the citation and would keep the recording, police said.
The officer released Tate, who then promptly made his way to the Homewood Police Department to complain. A sergeant contacted the officer to come to the station, where the video and audio surveillance records from his car were reviewed. Tate again admitted making the audio recording and played it for the officers, at which point they read him his Miranda rights, police said. Tate interrupted the officers during the recitation, commenting that he knew his rights and could recite them himself, according to the report.