Posted on 12/04/2014 5:10:23 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
A New York City Grand Jury has refused to indict police officer Danial Pantaleo for the choking death of Eric Garner. Garner was taken down by four police officers conducting a raid against illegal cigarette sellers, of which Garner was one. Garner had a history of selling illegal cigarettes, having been arrested for it a number of times in the past. Unlike the death of Michael Brown, this death was caught on video. The video clearly shows several things. It absolutely shows Garner saying he can’t breathe. It also shows a very large man who starts out the confrontation making a menacing move towards the police. There were 23 people on the Grand Jury, only 12 are needed to indict. The evidence obviously didn’t convince the jurors that the officer committed a criminal offense.
Once again the nations race baitors are crying about racist cops. Garner’s widow stood next to Al Sharpton yesterday decrying the white motherf***ers who she assumes comprised the Grand Jury. Protests ensued in Manhattan and elsewhere yesterday after the decision was announced. The Department of Justice is continuing its investigation, just like it is in the Michael Brown situation. The problem of course is there isn’t any evidence that any of these black men were targeted because they were black. Garner was approached by the police because he was selling illegal cigarettes, he had a history of it. Brown was confronted by police because he fit the description of someone who had just robbed a party store. Race played no factor in any of this, which is why the Department of Justice ultimately won’t bring a case against the police. Eric Holder may want to turn the law into a national discussion on race but he won’t do it unless he can win. These cases aren’t winners.
The real problem in the Garner case is the ridiculous laws that the police are made to enforce. Between Federal, state and city excise taxes and sales taxes the total tax on a single pack of cigarettes is over $7. The average pack of cigarettes in New York costs $14.50. It’s no wonder that people like Garner sell single cigarettes on the street. These people can make a fortune meeting the demands of cigarette smokers while buying smokes in bulk on Indian reservations or in low tax states like Kentucky. Garner is simply meeting the demands of the poor in New York who can’t afford to buy cigarettes due to all the taxes placed upon them. The police are then charged with enforcing these laws, with a priority placed on cigarettes because the state loses tax money when people don’t buy taxed packs of smokes. Thus instead of investigating actual crime in New York, police officers like Daniel Pantaleo are stuck enforcing the city’s revenue code with extreme force if necessary.
What is absolutely not the issue here is race. Race is rarely if ever a factor in deaths caused by police officers. According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and the CDC in 2012 123 blacks were killed by police officers with a gun. In that year 326 whites were killed by the police with a gun. To listen to Sharpton and the media you would think blacks are routinely targeted by the police and killed. As it stands, nearly three times as many whites are killed by the police. Thankfully the numbers are relatively low overall. If anything, based on the crime rate in the black community it appears the police go out of their way not to shoot at blacks. Consider that in 2013 blacks were responsible for 5,375 murders (90%+ were of other black people) and whites were responsible for 4,396 murders. Considering that blacks were responsible for more murders and more crime per capita than whites, you would think their death rate at the hands of police would be substantially higher. If you were to listen to the media, you might think it’s in the thousands.
The police protect black neighborhoods just like they protect white neighborhoods. While the media likes to defend criminals like Michael Brown, they never seem to talk to the average member of a local black neighborhood who is glad the police are protecting them from crime. When police presence increases, crime tends to drop. For many people in crime infested neighborhoods, the cops are a welcome sight. Of course the media never speaks to blacks who will say this and when they do that person is either targeted by neighborhood thugs or is attacked without mercy as we’re seeing with Charles Barkley. If people want to protest New York’s draconian cigarette taxes, which are what ultimately led to Garner’s demise, I’ll be happy to join in. However, race played no role in Garner’s death. When it comes to deaths at the hands of the police, race is almost never a factor.
The Parable Of The Broken Window
http://thoughtstate.blogspot.com/2011/09/bastiats-fallacy-in-parable-of-broken.html
The medical examiner will determine the cause of death. I’ve also seen reports where he died of a heart attack. It’s possible he died from the results of difficult breathing initiated from his position on the ground, being so large a man. If he hadn’t fought the arrest that would have been avoided. But blaming it on a chokehold needs to stop. I saw the video, there just wasn’t a chokehold. Repeating this lie is irresponsible.
I’m not saying it wasn’t a “proper” arrest.
But, the police are winning the battle and losing the war. This guy dying over selling a stupid cigarette is the real crime.
Our government is out of control on all levels - in every bureau, every agency, every branch. That is the problem.
Just as police catch heck for shooting dogs that are minding their own business, they should catch it for having seven officers jumping this guy and squashing the air out of him for a dime of tax money.
Have you ever been rushed to the hospital because you couldn’t breath. I have. Believe me when I tell you the Paramedics do not jump and pile on you. Once in the emergency room hospital bed I had to be held down because I was in a panic because I couldn’t breath. Your statements are idiotic and callous at best.
Resisting arrest is the crime , not tax evasion. Had he not resisted arrest, he would have just gotten a ticket and/or a ride to the precinct, hardly life threatening.
It isn’t the cops that are out of control.
Fox News WAS reporting the medical examiner’s findings.
I’m sure the cop didn’t mean to kill the guy, it was an accident. But it was an accident that shouldn’t have happened.
Seriously, police enforcement in the US has gone nuclear. Seven cops jumping this guy to the ground for a dime of tax revenue?
Stupid policing. Poke him in the ribs with a night stick and tell him to move along.
Just because respiration hasn't stopped doesn't mean one can get adequate breath - this is a case where the cop pretty much committed manslaughter if not murder - charge didn't call for the death penalty and there was plenty of power available to control the guy.
Apparently, you have not yet seen the roadmap upon which this sordid affair appears.
“Once in the emergency room hospital bed I had to be held down because I was in a panic because I couldn’t breath.”
You just made the case for the police. The entire Garner incident is unfortunate, but Garner created his own situation by resisting arrest. If he complied, he’d be alive today with a 9th misdemeanor.
A law being enforced isn’t what killed this guy, a cop who didn’t follow remotely reasonable procedures did. To spin this as the tax being the culprit is morally repugnant.
I don’t know who this author is, but they are beneath scum, as are anyone who honestly feels if the police get called on you for any reason, and the cops kill you because they act like jack booted thugs, its the law you have been accused of breaking that they were called about’s fault?
This line of reasoning is just as mind numbingly idiotic as the leftists arguments that folks are owed something for nothing....
Watch the tape folks, doesn’t matter what the cops got called over, could have just as easily been jaywalking, or playing his boom box too loud... that has nothing to do with why this man is dead, he is dead because the cop did not remotely handle the situation properly... pure and simple. The fact the cop did not get indicted for some sort of criminal charge for his actions is disgusting and exposes corruption/failings in the Criminal Justice System.
So go join your friends in Ferguson boy.
Bull$hit! Absolute Bull$hit, his resisting was simply pulling his arm away and saying don’t touch me.. go watch the tape, your advocation of jack booted thuggery by the police is justified by a man who is completely surrounded by police, not engaging in any sort of agressive behavior, and simply arguing his case, justifies his death is indefensible by any manner of logic or morality.
The cops escalated this situation to violence, to argue otherwise is just flat out ignorant. I’m as law and order as they come and I have no issues with police getting violent with a non copliant/violent suspect, but that’s not remotely what happened here.
The cop I am sure did not intend to kill this man, but to argue the man saying don’t touch me and pulling his arm away is justification for a cop to jump on his back and choke him to death is justification for his death then you believe in effectively a police state, and would probably feel more at home in N. Korea than NYC.
When you have a chronic pulmonary condition, it makes you think long and hard about any interaction or environment that would trigger the disease.
I am very sensitive to carpeting and warm, stuffy environments, which limits the places I can be and how much time I spend in them.
Really, you are so ignorant you wish to compare Ferguson to this incident???? There is no doubt what Wilson did in Mo. was justified, based on the evidence and the testimony.
You attempting to spin this case into a Michael Brown shows just how either uninformed, or flat out moronic you are.
This incident is all on tape, there is not one violent or threatening act perpetrated by the suspect, not one.
If you think the cops get cart blanche authority to choke a non violent suspect to death, in the situation like what happened to this man, then you sir are making the argument for a Police State, which, in that case may I suggest you move to N. Korea, S. Arabia, or one of the other nations where such thinking is not only encouraged, but brainwashed into its population from birth.
Wow..what are the odds of someone dropping dead on the sidewalk at the same time cops are piling on top of him??!! Great job by NY Finest,they arrested a corpse.
If you couldn’t breathe, you wouldn’t be here posting. Perhaps you had trouble breathing, but that’s a different issue.
Go talk to someone who has an iota of respect for you and your kind.
Thanks for clearing that up. I can breath easier now.
I respect your opinion about the arrest, but the perp was not choked to death by the police officer. That is a lie, just like “hands up.”
Oh, please! The officer exercised enormous restraint here and used appropriate force to subdue a much larger, unruly, resistant perp. He did NOT use a taser, a blunt-force instrument, his firearm, or chemical agent - all those things that the Left always complains constitutes "police brutality" - on this perp, and HE WAS A PERP, SUBJECT TO ARREST.
No reasonable person would predict that such action would kill a person. And no reasonable person would claim that officers omnisciently know the medical condition of every person they arrest.
Bottom line: don't resist police officers arresting you when you are knowingly breaking a law, especially if you have underlying health conditions.
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