“A real police state would have followed up with a good beating on the guy doing the videos.”
Um, that has happened many times before and documented here on FR. So, I guess you agree we do have a quasi police state.
Very important operative words are "later" ~ has that happened?
This stuff where something just happens and there's no warrant and the cops end up shooting your dogs, cats and dinner ~ those are exceptions to the rule. Most encounters between citizens and cops in the US usually don't involve violence. That's not the case in police states ~ there they don't need warrants, and they don't care, but if you're there, they might decide to sharpen skills on your head just to make sure you know who is in charge.
They also make a practice of coming around later with reminders ~ rather like the mafia enforcers.
Here's how I saw a police state work. Our radar position was just across the boarder from a small older city in Czechoslovakia. There appeared to be one automobile there ~ everybody else rode bicycles or walked. NO private cars near the border!
During the day our radar showed the one automobile traversed a circuit around town where he stopped at the same houses every day ~ a reminder tap!
Police states don't have to be full force all the time