Officially, anyway, the 5th Amendment says that you can remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Unofficially, cops regard that as a) suspicious, b) “being difficult,” and c) a personal insult. This middle-aged white guy can get away with it. A young Black man … the odds are considerably worse.
I had this conversation with my sister-in-law who used to be LEO re: Eric Garner (the guy killed selling loose cigarettes). She said, “Well, he was resisting” and I pointed out that anyone would resist getting body slammed onto concrete. It’s just a natural reaction.
In this case you are wrong, and she is right. In this case, Eric Garner was resisting before getting knocked down. This is utterly clear from the video:
In this cut of the video, he begins resisting at 1:17. At this point the only part of his body the officers have attempted to touch are his hands. There is no reason to believe he would have been knocked down, choked, sat on, or anything else if he had not resisted.
Now you can argue that he shouldn’t have been under arrest at this point, or you can argue that the police response to that resisting was inappropriate, but to say, “he resisted because he was being thrown to the ground” is not accurate.
He prevented police from grabbing his arm, so they murdered him.
Is that better? Accurate enough for you?
Yes, it’s better because it’s not directly contradicted by the video evidence.
Remaining “silent” can also get you arrested, depending on the circumstances and the state you live in.
I live in Ohio. Let’s say I am peacefully walking down the street, minding my own business, and not doing anything illegal. Someone just robbed a bank located one block from me. The robber was male, wearing a yellow shirt and blue pants. I am male, wearing a yellow shirt, and blue pants. The cops see me and detain me. They demand I give them my name. I decline. I have just committed a crime, a misdemeanor of the fourth degree (ORC 2921.29).
FTR, I do not like this law.
I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that, in order to be compelled to provide ID (and/or your name), the officer must have Reasonable Articulable Suspicion that you have committed, am committing, or are about to commit a crime. In this hypothetical the officer would certainly have RAS.
One thing I’ve noticed a lot of cops doing is demanding ID before providing RAS, saying they’ll do so later.
Correct.
Some states have this law. Some do not.
And if you are suspected of committing a crime, technically you can stay “silent,” and instead provide the cop with an ID card or piece of paper with your name on it.
I’ve watched hundreds of 1st Amendment audit videos. One of the biggest problems I see is cops detaining people when it’s obvious they do not have RAS.
There should be an explicit uttered declaration “we are placing you under arrest,” which was not evident on the video. Absent that, police officers are not entitled to touch your person without your permission.
We were once, decades ago, caught by officers in East Bumfuck with some weed. At one point, one of them came up to me and stuck his hand in my trouser pocket. I said, “Hey! You can’t do that.” I was up against the wall so fast. Fortunately, we were not black at the time. Also, we were never arrested. They just took all our stuff, gave us a warning, and most likely sold it later on the sly to local stoners.
My recollection was a little off and you’re correct, him pulling his hands away was resistance, but my focus was the resistance that happened when the 4 or 5 guys were tackling him onto the concrete. I’d say that is a completely normal reaction to what’s happening.
Thank you.
I would say so too. But that happened after the arrest had already escalated into chokeholds and physical force, and was not the instigation of it.
Arrest?
Nice use of the passive voice here. The arrest escalated into chokeholds, physical force and murder because the cops decided to escalate it into chokeholds, physical force and murder. That was 100% their choice in reaction to:
And here I thought it was only LASD that should be federally investigated for being gang members. I guess we need to widen that a bit.
Absofuckinglutely! Get rid of the whole military mindset. For a start, get rid of ranks. Make them use manager, assistant manager etc. Call beat cops Public Assistance or something similar. Give them those funny bobby hats with chinstraps. Have them wear hi-visibility vests and drive high visibility vehicles. They are supposed to be there to help people, not make matters worse.
I wouldn’t be opposed to having every police shooting investigated by the federal government. Yes, it would cost a lot of cash. But so does so called self investigations that clear the cops and then the feds have to prosecute anyway for civil rights violations. Or the family sues and wins millions in a settlement from the city , but the cop just gets fired. I simply don’t trust local departments to do their own investigations.
I’d love to see some system where not only do they not do their own investigations, they can’t just call in the department from the next city over. Either the state does steps in and does it or the state picks the department to do it and the department would be from a fair distance away (say, 100+ miles) to help ensure that these aren’t all friends. The people doing the investigation might be less likely to risk getting caught lying on their report for a bunch of cops they’ve never met before.
Or, you could institute 100% conscription, in which every citizen is required to take at least 90 days of training, about a quarter of which would be martial, the rest about teamwork and crisis response; along with 2 week refresher camp every 2 years.
This would make keeping the peace simpler because everyone would have appropriate skills, LEOs would not have to be overpaid, and we would all have a sense of community; it would also have the benefit of making it harder to start a war because none of us want to go do that – but an invader would face millions of citizens with defense skills, everywhere.
Good comparison graphic.
Fucking SUV ghostcars around here.
Unfortunately, with my view of police now, I’m not so sure that distance would be enough. We need to start somewhere though.
Your pic is exactly what I’m talking about.
Boy, are you optimistic! And I thought my idea was like asking for a pony. 
…the snippets from that article are very much sanitized.
Content warning: upsetting footage in the two below links.
This two minute version shows that whatever culpability the hospital have, the police don’t get a pass.
(Second content warning: this video is worse than the first)
And the six-minute version? All of the cops here should be thrown in fucking jail. The video ends with Lisa Edwards probably dying quietly in the back of the patrol car while the police officer is in the middle of another stop. And he still thinks she’s faking. He pulls her by the hair to try and wake her up. We only see her in the shot because the cop literally yanks her head into frame while he yells at her to wake up.
I still think that’s more on the hospital than on the police. The police officer thought that she was actually OK, because the medical professionals just told them that she was actually OK. The police were rougher than they needed to be, even given that, but the medical folks who turned her out for lacking insurance should have their licenses revoked.