"That's on tape! That's on tape!": Capturing Police Brutality in Miami

This Halloween partiers in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami were subject to something more alarming than the standard fare of ghosts and goblins.

Caught on tape below, policemen went "above and beyond" their duties by roughing up some of the holiday revelers. With a crowd of costume-sporting Floridians watching (and hollering), police officers seemed to cross the line between keeping order and abusing their power as they dragged people from the crowd and forcefully arrested them.

What makes this occurrence particularly interesting is that one of the witnesses recorded the entire incident on their camera phone, brazenly shouting "That's on tape! That's on tape" throughout the arrests. This amateur footage is reminiscent of the shocking clip of Oakland resident Oscar Grant being shot by BART police.

When politicians and pundits speak of increased government transparency it often comes across as a top-down initiative -- the legislators will open their doors and show the inner workings of their political operations and budgeting. At the end of the day though, there is no greater way to force government transparency than empowering citizens with video cameras to capture and broadcast the injustices of the day.

Reports from CBS 4 and the Miami New Times state that this video was shared amongst various government department and an internal investigation into the offending police officer is underway.