I agree in the Garner case, the question of why should the police be tasked with enforcing all of these lib laws, ordinances created by the likes of DeBlasio?
The politicians might as well create some sort of meter maid army to hand out tickets, considering all that the Democrats really want is revenue.
The breaking of a “trivial law” evaporates when someone advances to “resisting arrest”. Once again, the law breaker made a stupid decision, which to me seems little different from the stupid decisions that occurred in the other two cases. I think we all regret the outcome, but I sure cannot blame the police. Imagine the landscape without them.
Cig taxes to blame! Just lookin’ at the plain clothes/undercover cops, maybe this guy thought that it was some gangsta’s tryin’ to muscle in on his turf. Believe it or not, there are fake badges out there. And plenty of handcuffs. Were the cops known by this guy from previous interactions? They obviously knew of him. Hands down. Pants up. Comply now. Complain later.
BLACK FEMALE Police Sergeant Supervised Eric Garner’s Deadly Arrest
Imagine if he had been holding a 64 ounce Slurpee.
Outraged? More like indifferently sitting back and observing the idiotic sideshow.
Stupid nanny-state laws, stupid criminal moron, stupid white yuppie protesters shouting “hands up” and getting down with the bruthas.
Don’t care that Fatso is dead. And NYC, which embraced Obama, commie DeBlasio, and homo-marriage, can just go burn to the ground as far as I care.
Although I see the argument that the arrest was over a goofy law and it is absolutely a waste of police resources, I am really not happy with that argument.
Regardless of its source, the law is on the books. And, Garner *knew* about the law, since of his prior 30 or 31 arrests (are you freaking kidding me? 30 prior arrests? How much is that in resources?) at least ONE was for the same deed.
It is the country we live in, it is part of our society that we are a nation of laws and not men or not something else. At least in theory. I absolutely feel for the guy trying to make a buck or two selling cigs. But this flaunting of the law, this ignoring the law, is something his spiritual and political leader, Dear Leader, does on such a regular basis that we have come to expect it of him. And now he is about to ratify the disregarding of the law on the part of millions of illegals. This is very, very destructive. It is possible and desirable and admirable to have any amount of discussion over whether we should change the law according to the specified means of changing the law, but in the case of immigration, the perforce blast the law out of legitimacy by sheer force of numbers is total anarchy and a systematic assault on societal ethics. I don’t mean to sound so preachy. But of all the trivial crap that offends people so masively, like the name of a football team or whether it’s Taco Day at some sorority or whether there’s a Nativity scene on the front lawn of City Hall, this relentless assault on our values by way of nullifying and ignoring laws is a hundred times worse.
There have always been mafias and gangs who were able to establish and preserve their societal or economic advantage over others by force or by dint of numbers of cohorts. But now we have a so-called leader who thinks this is his mission in life. And for those without a strong moral sense, whether by upbringing or they are indeed scumbags, a really crappy example is being set and it makes rule-followers feel like suckers. That is a formula for a societal breakdown.
I’m amazed at all the supposed conservatives calling for the cop’s head. Maybe they’re trying to make up for Ferguson and get in good with the left. They should be blaming whatever government agency made it a crime to sell lose cigs. BTW, I read that the reason the cops were there was that the store owners complained about the cig seller was blocking their entrance.
I was on Zimmerman’s side in the Martin case.
I was on neither side in the Brown case — I think Darren Wilson screwed up, but I also think Brown was an idiot that worked things just right to get himself killed. I’m glad Wilson will no longer be a police officer.
The money shot in this article is the comment about enforcing B-—it laws. There is far too much of that going around. If this continues, everything will be against the law, which effectively means that no behavior is forbidden, just actionable for sanction by our rulers.
Garner, well, the thing that troubles me about that is the use of the chokehold, which has been banned by several police departments around the country due to the potential for physical restraint to turn lethal. That is not even taking into account that most of our local, state, and federal agencies, whether they carry guns or not, are looking at us more and more like they are an occupying army and we are enemies that need to be pacified. That is the largest issue for me and as usual, not even being discussed.
Was a choke hold the only and proper resort at the time?
So this guy has allegedly been arrested 30 or more times in the past, in basically the same location, and was resisting arrest. Gee, he wasn’t killed anytime before this so 30 to 1 odds against it being a racial motive, right?
Garner’s “crime” was selling single untaxed cigarettes so why was there a need to arrest him at all? Couldn’t he just be issued a ticket or summons? Is selling untaxed single cigarettes a now a felony crime in New York that requires arrest? To me it was ludicrous to even arrest the man. That said he did resist arrest, but from the video I question whether the police acted properly.
We had a case in Canada 2007. A large forty year old Polish entrant to Canada was tasered at the immigration offices in Vancouver. He had by an error left in a holding room for eight hours. The poor man went frantic, smashing furniture. Four police subdued him.
Turns out he had absolutely gone "cold turkey" from cigarettes and vodka. He wanted to be fit for a "new life" in Canada. Medical authorities said that two weeks of this set him up for a disaster. He should have tapered off. His system was thus very weak. It started a nation wide furore, of course. Excuse the ramble, but physical condition is the key in many cases. Just bad luck for the police here.
The writer is a liar, “”Frankly, I think everyone on the right is looking to prove “We’re not one of those sorts of people who automatically defends anyone who kills a black person.”””
Mark Steyn and me for instance are not interested in race in regards to this man’s death during a routine, daylight, petty crime arrest.
Every cop has the latitude of discretion in whether to arrest or not and the cop just needs to articulate why he did or did not arrest in the incident report.
Bear that in mind when you think about the Eric Garner arrest.
It seems to me that nowadays, cops are too heavily invested in their ego’s to defer the arrest. They could have sought an arrest warrant, further bolstering their position if the guy stresses out so bad his heart gives out (like in the Garner case). Also, by the time the warrant is issued and they get around to arresting him, would Garner still be as agitated? Would he turn himself in knowing that he would likely be ROR’d or low-bailed with a court date? Either are quite likely.
There are *ALMOST ALWAYS* different options that still serve justice AND protect the public from these dangerous “illegal cigarette sales”.
There are situations that truly demand an escalation in the use of force. This Eric Garner arrest does not appear to be one of them.
I’ve worn it out, but I will keep saying it: We need fewer Barney Fife’s and more Andy Griffith’s.