Bill Maher Decries ‘Police State,’ It’s ‘Ridiculous’ And ‘Out Of Control’

On Real Time With Bill Maher Friday night, host Bill Maher discussed the manhunt for suspected Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at several points — supporting the decision of agents to question the 19-year-old without Miranda rights initially, but blasting the “police state” illustrated in pictures of the daylong search for the teen and lockdown of Boston and its surrounding areas.

Early in the show, Maher talked about the reasons questioning a suspect without Miranda rights invoked can increase intelligence gleaned for possible future attacks — but the comedian laid into the Boston police for some actions during the unusual event.

Much of Boston and surrounding areas was under a “shelter in place” order during the tense search for the surviving Tsarnaev (brother Tamerlan, 26, was killed in the MIT confrontation that sparked the event), but Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was ultimately located unarmed and bleeding to death in a boat — not by the police and other forces patrolling Boston, but by a homeowner going out for a smoke.

As Maher showed images of the heavy artillery called in to locate Tsarnaev, he criticized the massive response to what was ultimately one man at large in a big city, explaining to his guests:

“This country is becoming a police state, and it is very troubling to me. I want to talk about the police. I want to talk about the police, who I am a supporter of, and of course, obviously, we all are. We would be in big trouble without the police.”

Alongside images of an “urban assault vehicle” used by Boston Police, Maher mused:

“This country is becoming a police state and it is very troubling to me.”

After Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, it was revealed the Boston bombing suspect was unarmed — and Maher challenged the need to fire the number of bullets fired during the tense situation, calling the actions of Boston Police “unprofessional.”

Below is a clip of Maher discussing the police state-like images — do you agree the response last week was, as the host describes, “out of hand?”