No Indictment in Eric Garner Case

[boedicca]

And remember: Obama wants to give the Police even more Military grade weapons and equipment. Just think how more effective they can be taking out people selling Loosies if they use DRONES!

 

[Ravi]

I guess it's kind of funny that this cop's actions are somehow Obama's fault, according the the personal responsibility cons.

Not funny, but ironic.

 

[ClosedCaption]

Eric Garner is a victim of the Prog Policy of Turning Everyone Into Criminals via enormous quantities of laws (some of which actually contradict each other) that nobody could possibly fully understand. When everyone is a criminal, the population is so much easier to control.

Prog policies? When did Progressives get so powerful and cons so powerless? I mean sheesh...is there nothing that happens that isnt the fault of progressive policies? I think you are using progressive in the literal sense and not political

 

[Marianne]

I understand how he wasn't charged with murder or man slaughter but I don't understand how he wasn't charged with anything at all. At the very least wouldn't this have been assault? The choke hold he used was outlawed by the NYPD in the early 90's. He should be charged with something. I think the family has cause for a civil suit and should pursue it.

 

[boedicca]

Eric Garner is a victim of the Prog Policy of Turning Everyone Into Criminals via enormous quantities of laws (some of which actually contradict each other) that nobody could possibly fully understand. When everyone is a criminal, the population is so much easier to control.

Prog policies? When did Progressives get so powerful and cons so powerless? I mean sheesh...is there nothing that happens that isnt the fault of progressive policies? I think you are using progressive in the literal sense and not political

Progs are the most vociferous promoters of Big Government as the solution to everything. The Democrats are the Party of Big Government. In this case, Obama made selling loosies illegal in 2010. He has been militarizing regulatory branches such as the FDA, EPA, IRS...and for what? Why do police have to intervene in minor violations of regulations?

Here's an excerpt for an excellent piece on this topic:


This case is a reminder that, as Twitter user Bill Hobbs put it, government is force, and more government equals more force. Government is not a benevolent authority working bloodlessly behind the scenes to ensure seamless social harmony. Government is a guy giving you orders about what you can’t do—with a gun on his hip, handcuffs at the ready, and a muscular arm to wrap around your neck if you resist.

Putting stiff taxes on cigarettes to discourage smoking may sound great, and shouldn’t we do it for the children? But what it means in actual, concrete practice, is this:


Every confrontation between police and citizens has the potential to go wrong and accidentally kill someone. This is actually why I have some sympathy for the police. Their job is to be the instrument of all the laws we pass. So when the law descends from the clouds of benevolent abstraction and becomes a diktat telling specific, actual human beings what to do, the cop’s job is to make good on that diktat by using force against citizens.

We need the police to protect us from criminals. We should be grateful for their presence.

We need the police to protect us from criminals. We should be grateful for their presence, thank them for their service, and remember the presumption of innocence when they are charged with wrong-doing. This is particularly true in New York City, where aggressive policing helped make the city livable again after the wave of violent crime in the 1970s and 1980s.

John Podhoretz notes, however, that part of this turnaround came from “broken windows” policing which emphasized restoring order by cracking down even on minor violations. But this case strikes me as a very, very minor non-crime, and even Podhoretz concludes that in this new, low-crime era the police need to ratchet back their response to such minor violations.

We should remember that whenever the police use force, there is the danger that they will kill someone, whether through malice, poor judgment, poor training, or sheer accident. From time to time, they’re going to shoot the wrong person or wrestle a guy to the ground without knowing that he has serious health problems and can’t survive this kind of rough handling. That is one good reason (among many) to make sure that police are only authorized to interfere with someone whose actions are a threat to the lives and property of others, and not just to enforce some dumb, petty regulation.

The contradiction of the left is that they want to inject government into every little aspect of our lives and mandate that the police confront us all the time over everything—and then they scream when some of those confrontations go wrong. In this way, they are not only hoping for a new series of contentious, racially charged killings. By extending the reach of government and the omnipresence of police power in our lives, they are creating the conditions that make those cases inevitable....

Eric Garner and Omnipresent Police Power

 

[Claudette]

Gotta be a reason the Grand Jury didn't indict and of course the Justice Department will try to make hay out of that decision.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Over some damn cigarettes. An innocent man is dead. There has to be accountability. I can't blame people for being angry. Their anger is justified.

It sucks the guy died.
But I can apply your "Over some damn cigarettes" statement to the deceased.
He wanted to throw down with the police "Over some damn cigarettes"?
I dont understand the propensity blacks have for resisting arrest for minor offenses,it makes no damn sense.
When all this crap started I was on the fat guys side. But after thinking about it and putting myself in the black guys shoes? Not anymore...I wouldnt have been illegally selling cigs on the street and I would have complied immediately and put my hands behind my back.

 

[Vigilante]

They just announced here in the city that a BLACK Sgt. was in charge of the detail that took down Garner..... Oh well, that will go down the old black hole with the rest of the FACTS, and never be brought up again!

 

[ClosedCaption]

I had no idea the Dems were the party of big govt But I do remember they created the Dept of Homeland security. Memba that?

Fool this is about the Police not about left or right. Its even silly to suggest this is about loose cigs. Oh yeah I forgot, rumor is this went down for loose cigs from the guys who choked the guy to death.

Seems reasonable

 

[PredFan]

1. The chokehold is not illegal.
2. The man died 4 hours later, likely caused by his poor health and not from choking.

 

[ClosedCaption]

Over some damn cigarettes. An innocent man is dead. There has to be accountability. I can't blame people for being angry. Their anger is justified.

It sucks the guy died.
But I can apply your "Over some damn cigarettes" statement to the deceased.
He wanted to throw down with the police "Over some damn cigarettes"?

What on the video did you see anything about loose cigs?

I dont understand the propensity blacks have for resisting arrest for minor offenses,it makes no damn sense.
When all this crap started I was on the fat guys side. But after thinking about it and putting myself in the black guys shoes? Not anymore...I wouldnt have been illegally selling cigs on the street and I would have complied immediately and put my hands behind my back.

Oh you would've gladly went to jail for a loose cigarette charge? Sure you would've sir...In Hypotheticalville

 

[NYcarbineer]

You be one of them chipmunks that put words in others mouths. I didn't say he had to die. He would be alive today if he had followed the rules.

Poor woman had to watch and plead with the bastards to release him. She watched her husband slowly murdered. This isn't justice. Anyone who claims it is, is far too gone to reason with.

Que sera sera. It was unfortunate but the guy should have obeyed the police and let himself be cuffed. But go ahead and take up for the lawbreakers.

He didn't deserve a death sentence. The Cop should have been held accountable. He murdered an innocent man right in front of his wife. She begged him to release him. This is not justice.

The cop had no way of knowing this guy was already on borrowed time.
The fat guy knew it full and well that he was in no condition for combat,yet he chose to resist.
Did the cop over react? Maybe,but I dont believe he intended to kill the guy and thats what the GJ looks at.
I wouldnt have been opposed to some form of punishment but that would be circumventing the law,because the fact remains...it was an accident.

He should have been at least charged with manslaughter since the chokehold is against NYPD rules.

And the guy didn't resist arrest. He simply asked the cops to quit harassing him.

Criminally negligent homicide, at least. Or at least, let a jury decide. The grand jury is not supposed to decide the case; they are supposed to decide if there are reasonable grounds to be a case.

 

[NYcarbineer]

I had no idea the Dems were the party of big govt But I do remember they created the Dept of Homeland security. Memba that?

Fool this is about the Police not about left or right. Its even silly to suggest this is about loose cigs. Oh yeah I forgot, rumor is this went down for loose cigs from the guys who choked the guy to death.

Seems reasonable

It is not 'silly' to blame this on the cigarette tax; it is rightwing madness.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Yes we know, he deserved to die. You Big Brother-Worshippers never disappoint. How sad.

You be one of them chipmunks that put words in others mouths. I didn't say he had to die. He would be alive today if he had followed the rules.

Poor woman had to watch and plead with the bastards to release him. She watched her husband slowly murdered. This isn't justice. Anyone who claims it is, is far too gone to reason with.

He didn't die on the street he dies hours after.

And if he could say <" I can't breathe" he was not being choked. It is impossible to speak if you are being strangled.

lol, so the cop with his arm around his neck was doing so in such a gentle manner that he wasn't choking him?

Goddam you people never give up, do you?

Have you ever been in a choke hold?

I have. If he could say "I can't breathe" then he was NOT in a choke hold. At that point it was not much more than a head lock.

Why don't you learn a little bit about physiology and martial arts so you don't seem like a stupid sheep?

It's like when they want to argue about firearms.

 

[bodecea]

People with heart conditions can have a heart attack just from getting really upset. The typical chokehold doesn't kill anyone. I've seen people crying and yelling for police to let go of their spouses and not because they are being hurt, but because they don't want them arrested.

It's sad that the guy died, but the cop was merely subduing a suspect that fought. How was he supposed to know the guy's heart was a ticking time bomb? When you resist, cops will do what they need to take you down.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but you have to put yourself in the cop's place at the time. Taking down a suspect who is fighting you isn't something that is done gently. Little hard when you are literally fighting with the person to get them to stop and sit still. Had the guy cooperated, it might have been different, but then maybe not. If he had not encountered police and gone home, there is a good chance he was on the verge of a heart attack already.

We weren't privy to all the evidence presented to the grand jury, but they would have had to see proof that the cop knowingly and willfully harmed the guy. I don't see how the cop could have known about the guy's condition. It's possible the guy didn't know how bad off his heart was.

If a person is choked to death, they die on the spot. An autopsy would have shown the cause of death. Without knowing all the details, it's too hard to judge. I would guess the grand jury had information not released to the public yet.

I know police use the chokehold all the time and this is rare, so there must have been other things at play here, like the guy's general health. I just can't buy that a cop murdered someone in front of witnesses. I really can't believe that.

Chokeholds are against NYPD policy. So at the very least this asshole cop should be fired and stripped of his pension.

Hannity had some nut on yesterday who was supposedly some sort of 'expert' who claimed that you could clearly see that it wasn't a chokehold, it was a headlock.

Didn't Hannity get his start in NYC defending the cops who sodomized that black man with a plunger handle?

 

[gipper]

1. The chokehold is not illegal.
2. The man died 4 hours later, likely caused by his poor health and not from choking.

And it is very likely he would not have died, if not for the choke hold.

Many cops today are little tyrants. If you disobey them, they just might murder you and get away with it.

The police state rolls on.............

 

[ClosedCaption]

The contradiction of the left is that they want to inject government into every little aspect of our lives and mandate that the police confront us all the time over everything—and then they scream when some of those confrontations go wrong. In this way, they are not only hoping for a new series of contentious, racially charged killings. By extending the reach of government and the omnipresence of police power in our lives, they are creating the conditions that make those cases inevitable....

Whenever someone fails to be specific and uses words like "everything" "every little aspect" you have to wonder what type of person uses such broad generalizations?

A liar

 

[irosie91]

Over some damn cigarettes. An innocent man is dead. There has to be accountability. I can't blame people for being angry. Their anger is justified.

It sucks the guy died.
But I can apply your "Over some damn cigarettes" statement to the deceased.
He wanted to throw down with the police "Over some damn cigarettes"?
I dont understand the propensity blacks have for resisting arrest for minor offenses,it makes no damn sense.
When all this crap started I was on the fat guys side. But after thinking about it and putting myself in the black guys shoes? Not anymore...I wouldnt have been illegally selling cigs on the street and I would have complied immediately and put my hands behind my back.

I see the episode as an unfortunate accident-----the man
who died was TOO BIG-----and he resisted arrest-----
the cop who restrained him was too little to restrain that
big guy without using all the force he could muster.
I did not perceive that episode as some monster cop
choking an infant to death--------who wuddah thunk that the
big big guy would go down???

 

[teddyearp]

I still do not see this question answered:

Are cops supposed to just let people go once they resist arrest?

 

[boedicca]

The contradiction of the left is that they want to inject government into every little aspect of our lives and mandate that the police confront us all the time over everything—and then they scream when some of those confrontations go wrong. In this way, they are not only hoping for a new series of contentious, racially charged killings. By extending the reach of government and the omnipresence of police power in our lives, they are creating the conditions that make those cases inevitable....

Whenever someone fails to be specific and uses words like "everything" "every little aspect" you have to wonder what type of person uses such broad generalizations?

A liar

You are blinded by your faith in Big Government.

Too bad. So Sad.