“I took a look at the demeanor of the men taking that suspect down. None of them were cursing him, yelling racial epitaphs or striking him violently.
I do not see those guys as trying to be mean to him. Perhaps you see something I don’t.”
No, I don’t think there was malice involved here, or that anyone intended for the situation to end the way it did. I just think that some of the officers didn’t follow their training when they used some of these banned maneuvers. Perhaps they resorted to them because he was so large, but I don’t think that excuses the lapse.
These things (chokeholds, compressing the chest) were banned specifically because they were potentially lethal, and it looks like they were indeed lethal here, or at least contributed greatly. I think if the policy had been followed, this man would still be alive today.
If anything, it’s unfortunate that the grievance mongers are latching on to this case. It might have hardened the resolve of the city and police to circle the wagons and defend their conduct instead of trying to make sure these same mistakes don’t just happen again. We also shouldn’t forget, while we are opposing the grievance mongers and their racially divisive agenda, that there are legitimate cases police of misconduct and abuse that conservatives aught to be concerned about.
My rule of thumb on things like this, is how many people are you reading about being killed by the actions that brought this guy down?
The NYPD probably deals with people just like this guy day in and day out. If these tactics were as bad as they appear to be here (and of course extrapolated out to be even worse over a broad body of people), this would be a scandal of epic proportions. It really isn’t.
Others are brought down with these tactics all the time. So this leads me to think this guy had physical problems that caused him to be high risk.
Some folks will come along and think I’m trying to give the police license to do anything they want. The truth is, I think they have a hard job and it’s tough to do that job with 10,000 experts attacking every incident based on spotty information that seems to indicate one thing happened when it may or may not have.
I agree that the police to have to answer for their actions. One of my focuses is no-knock swat raids for little or no cause.
This action, I’m not as bothered by. I am sorry the guy died. I just don’t see gross negligence here.
I do agree that a review is in order. When someone dies it’s good to review things and see if some tweaking in necessary.
There are bad people in every segment of our society. There are bad physicians, bad dentists, bad lawyers, bad judges..., and even bad police officers.
I don’t have a vested interest in defending bad cops. I just have a higher bar than some other folks do, when it comes to assessing actionable blame.