What is becoming increasingly clear is that this story has been made increasingly unclear.
The initial report of a heart attack and lack of trauma to the airway does not jibe with the final coroner's report of "neck compression" as the cause of death. We have the video though, for now, and that is not so easily obfuscated. The truth as I see it is that Pantaleo was set up to take the fall for the gross negligence displayed by every cop on that scene because it looked better for the department, because it makes for a more manageable narrative, and because it made it easier to make the story go away in order to shield Mayor de Blasio from the fallout.
We should not forget that this all resulted over minor taxes and that NYPD Chief of department Philip Banks (the highest ranking African American LEO in NYC who quietly retired shortly all of this) had issued an order to crack down on loosie sales days before Garner died.
and who does the NYPD Chief of department Philip Banks take his orders from?
Mayor Bill de Blasio, Democrat.
The cops aren’t EMS workers. I don’t think is was negligence as much as lack of awareness. They are used to drama. They probably thought that is all it was. So train them a little more about heart attacks and obesity issues and other medical issues and proper responses. Minus his medical condition the officers handled it very smoothly. They did not understand the medical issue until it was too late.
The minor nature of the icharge is irrelevant.
Very informative, thanks for the detailed analysis. It was disconcerting to see the disconnect between the video with many seconds of Garner speaking suggesting that the neck hold was not damaging and the autopsy discussion of neck damage. The failure to respond with chest pressure is damning as you say. Presided over by a Black police sargeant as well.
Truth would have hurt but would have led toward a defusing the situation instead of inflaming it.
Thanks for your informed analysis. Non-compliant law breakers take a dangerous course when dealing with a police force that has been taught try not to use deadly force in normal arrest situations.
If the guy would have said, okay, I understand you are arresting me and I will comply but want my attorney, he would be alive today probably without even a citation.
RC one is either not an ER nurse or a bad one.
In trauma, we consider it defacto proof that an airway is intact and patent if the pt can say anything including “I can’t breathe”.
EMS said he was breathing. You don’t do CPR on a Pt with spontaneous respirations and a pulse. I deal with EMS every day. They know what they are doing.
Garner wasn’t just involved in selling “loosies”, He was a cereer criminal who sold “loosies” in front of ethnic stores as a way of extorting money from them. That is why they needed a 300+ pound guy who refused arrest. He was there to intimidate people of color NOT to call the police, but to pay him to move. It was a protection racket that wouldn’t work if he moved when police told him to.
God bless the families of the two policemen, neither of them “white” that died because of this nonsense.
Having had a major heart attack I know that my primary symptom was an inability to fully breathe.
There was no pain