Bill Maher After Boston Manhunt: 'This Country Is Becoming a Police State

HBO

Bill Maher on Friday decried the massive show of force seen on Boston-area streets during last week's manhunt for the remaining marathon bombing suspect, declaring that the U.S. is turning into a "police state."

Speaking on his HBO show "Real Time," Maher flashed images of police officers riding down the street in assault vehicles during the search.

"This country is becoming a police state and it is very troubling to me," Maher said, later adding, "The British police don't even carry guns, let alone have tanks."

MSNBC contributor Robert Traynham noted that the heavy police presence was far from typical. "What we saw was a federal response after a horrific bombing," he said.

ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said, "We have cameras and our phones are being tracked and our cars are being tracked. We must want this, this must be something we want."

Maher played eyewitness footage of the major police shootout in Watertown, Mass. just before 19-year-old Dzokhar Tsarnaev was taken alive.

"To me that's out of hand," he said. "I agree we shouldn't have given this kid his Miranda rights because he probably had information. 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 continued, "He has information and he was just lying in the boat, they knew that, they put that grenade up there. He wasn't moving. It's ridiculous. It's out of control."

(h/t Mediaite)