If the police don’t want people to think of them as the enemy, then they should stop behaviors which continue this perception.
This is for the good of the police, by the way. If it’s police vs ‘the people’, or even police vs ‘black people’, then the police will lose, and lose badly. For the safety of police officers, and the good of future police and society in general, it’s imperative that they repair their image in communities in which the image is very poor.
Maybe you should communicate valuable insights like this to the US Justice Department, which has been trying for decades to curb police abuses and excessive police violence. I’m sure they’d appreciate helpful advice like that. The DOJ has investigated at least 30 systemically out-of-control police departments in the past ten years alone, 20 of them in just the last five.
Would a choke hold that cuts off blood flow to the brain, and was released before the person lost consciousness, be responsible for his death?
I’m not even sure that it matters, but it sure seems to me that the choke hold was not the culprit here, it was being cuffed while lying prone and having several police officers on his back. The immediate escalation of an arrest for a petty crime was a problem. The manner of holding the guy down and cuffing him was a problem. Leaving him lying down after he reported breathing issues was a problem. The choke hold seems like a red herring.
So it is your belief that the police should refuse to perform the task which the people, via their elected representatives, have ordered them to do.
And I’m the one who’s supposedly in favor of a “police state”.
It’s not “the police vs the people”. It has never been “the police vs the people”. It is and has always been the people vs the criminal element. The police are on the same side as the people. Whose side are you on?
Nope. Police should review their tactics and policies to try to reduce the instances of force used and people killed by police.
Sometimes the police are, sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes the police are the “criminal element”, like the ones who tried to get Frank Serpico killed, or the one who shot Sean Groubert.
IIRC, it was reported early on that Garner had died of a heart attack, in the ambulance, and that there was an indication of hemorrhaging in the area of his neck. That’s why I would like to see the coroner’s report instead of having the results filtered thru AP, CNN, or two law professors with a personal agenda.
There have been no reports that Garner died from strangulation or choking on red herrings.
Garner was a career criminal. Police arrested a career criminal for committing a crime. The career criminal resisted arrest by 5 officers. The career criminal died but the career criminal didn’t die by chokehold strangulation.
Cite? How much time had he spent incarcerated?
Please feel free to provide evidence in support of all four of those sentences.
I found a partial list very easily. I wasn’t aware that there was an incarcerated-minimum before career criminals qualify as career criminals???
*At the time of his death, the Port Richmond resident had three misdemeanor cases pending in Stapleton Criminal Court. He was free on $2,000 bail.
On Aug. 22 of last year, Garner was arrested on School Road and Bay Street, Fort Wadsworth, for allegedly driving without a license, according to a criminal complaint.
Garner, 43, gave cops a phony name and put himself in more hot water when officers allegedly found untaxed cigarettes and a small amount of marijuana in the 1998 Lincoln Navigator he was driving, the complaint said.
He was charged with aggravated unlicensed vehicle operation, false personation, possession or sale of untaxed cigarettes and marijuana possession, according to information from District Attorney Daniel Donovan’s office.
Seven months later, while out on $1,000 bail, Garner was busted on March 28 for allegedly selling unstamped cigarettes on the street outside of 200 Bay St., Tompkinsville. He had 24 packs of untaxed smokes in his possession, police said.
The location is next door to 202 Bay St., where the fatal confrontation occurred Thursday between cops and Garner.
Garner was charged with a misdemeanor count of violating the cigarette and tobacco products tax and posted $1,000 bail, online state court records show.
Garner was arrested again on May 7 on Victory Boulevard and St. Marks Place, Tompkinsville. The site is across the block from Bay Street.
Cops accused him of possessing six packs of untaxed cigarettes.
Garner last appeared in court to answer the three cases on July 2. The matters were all adjourned then to Oct. 7, online state court records show.*
Shouldn’t you define terms first? What characteristics are necessary for a “career criminal” to exist?
Someone who’s career is that of a criminal.
Someone who is a repeat offender.
Someone named Eric Garner?
Well, the problem is that there are very few of those. He had worked as a horticulturist, a (generally) legal profession – depending, I suppose, on what one is culturing.
But he had over 30 arrests on his record. Does that create a “career criminal?” I don’t know – it’s a phrase that defies strict definition.
See Eric.
See Eric grow pot.
Puff, puff, puff says Eric.
“Put your hands behind your back, Eric”, says Mr Policeman.
(What? Too soon?)
So outside of the driving charge, he was targeted and charged for a tax violation that in one case resulted in ~$110 less revenue to the state.
This is a similar amount as is lost by an individual who buys a laptop online and fails to their use tax.
Would the NYPD tackle kids in the NYU Dorms if an Apple store order arrived with no proof of the use tax being paid? Or are those criminals exempted from this behavior because they are not as disadvantaged?
Those are questions that you should ask the mayor or the police chief.
I see, so by your argument the mayor and the police chief are the ones who decide what race, income level and sex a suspect in a misdemeanor tax violation is worthy of violent arrest?
If they choose to target poor people of color, poor people of color will have records…thus then they are “career criminals” while the housewife selling E-bay finds on craigslist will have a spotless record.
This is EXACTLY why there is outrage.
And before anyone claims there was no evidence of bias, look at the data from the bias in “Stop and Frisk” which New Yorkers have been dealing with for decades and that was recently judged as a a violation of civil rights.
[
](Stop-and-Frisk Data | New York Civil Liberties Union | ACLU of New York)
Being randomly stopped and searched by police because of your skin color is a pretty awesome way to win their hearts and minds.
Too lame.
What argument? I suggested that those were questions that should be directed to the mayor and police chief.