A half-dozen Kern County sheriff’s deputies were across the street beating a man with clubs and kicking him. A witness whipped out her mobile phone and began to video the episode, announcing to the officers what she was doing. For about eight minutes,  the man screamed and cried for help. Then he went silent, making only choking sounds.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/us/fatal-encounter-with-police-is-caught-on-video-but-kept-from-the-public.html?ref=us  Finally, having hogtied him, a number of witnesses said, two officers picked up the man and dropped him, twice. One deputy nudged the man with his foot When he did not respond, they began CPR. “He was like a piece of meat. We were telling them: ‘He’s dead. You guys already killed him.”
A witness said she recorded the entire episode on her phone, as did her daughter’s boyfriend. But before they could send the videos to news media outlets, detectives from the Kern County Sheriff’s Office took their phones before a warrant for them had even arrived. The seizure of the phones has led to accusations that the sheriff’s department is trying to cover up the episode.
“Now they’ve given the cellphones to the Bakersfield police? That just smacks of collusion.”
“For the first couple minutes he was screaming for help, basically pleading for his life, then we couldn’t see him anymore. That’s how many cops were on top of him.”
Sheriff’s detectives showed up at the house of witnesses at about 3 a.m.They were kept from leaving the house for three hours. When her boyfriend tried to leave for work, a detective shoved him, closed the door and told him to hand over his phone, she said. Eventually he did.
“(This) could have a chilling effect on the willingness of bystanders to make these recordings, if they worry that they could be accosted by law enforcement.”