Posted on 12/05/2014 5:33:01 AM PST by SJackson
Reprinted from Newsmax.com.
Sources in the mainstream media expressed outrage after a grand jury declined to indict a New York City policeman in the death of Eric Garner, but there are 11 significant facts that many of them have chosen to overlook:
1. There is no doubt that Garner was resisting an arrest for illegally selling untaxed cigarettes. Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik put it succinctly: “You cannot resist arrest. If Eric Garner did not resist arrest, the outcome of this case would have been very different,” he told Newsmax. “He wouldn’t be dead today.
“Regardless of what the arrest was for, the officers don’t have the ability to say, ‘Well, this is a minor arrest, so we’re just going to ignore you.’”
2. The video of the July 17 incident clearly shows Garner, an African-American, swatting away the arms of a white officer seeking to take him into custody, telling him: “Don’t touch me!”
3. Garner, 43, had history of more than 30 arrests dating back to 1980, on charges including assault and grand larceny.
4. At the time of his death, Garner was out on bail after being charged with illegally selling cigarettes, driving without a license, marijuana possession and false impersonation.
5. The chokehold that Patrolman Daniel Pantaleo put on Garner was reported to have contributed to his death. But Garner, who was 6-foot-3 and weighed 350 pounds, suffered from a number of health problems, including heart disease, severe asthma, diabetes, obesity, and sleep apnea. Pantaleo’s attorney and police union officials argued that Garner’s poor health was the main cause of his death.
6. Garner did not die at the scene of the confrontation. He suffered cardiac arrest in the ambulance taking him to the hospital and was pronounced dead about an hour later.
7. Much has been made of the fact that the use of chokeholds by police is prohibited in New York City. But officers reportedly still use them. Between 2009 and mid-2014, the Civilian Complaint Review Board received 1,128 chokehold allegations.
Patrick Lynch, president of the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said: “It was clear that the officer’s intention was to do nothing more than take Mr. Garner into custody as instructed, and that he used the takedown technique that he learned in the academy when Mr. Garner refused.”
8. The grand jury began hearing the case on Sept. 29 and did not reach a decision until Wednesday, so there is much testimony that was presented that has not been made public.
9. The 23-member grand jury included nine non-white jurors.
10. In order to find Officer Pantaleo criminally negligent, the grand jury would have had to determine that he knew there was a “substantial risk” that Garner would have died due to the takedown.
11. Less than a month after Garner’s death, Ramsey Orta, who shot the much-viewed videotape of the encounter, was indicted on weapons charges. Police alleged that Orta had slipped a .25-caliber handgun into a teenage accomplice’s waistband outside a New York hotel.
Lots of interesting facts here. However, the last fact as to who shot the video seems to be irrelevant to me with regards to the subject matter.
12. The Sergeant in charge at the scene was a black female.
That is exactly what struck me too. I learned a lot from most of the bullet points—info I have not seen or read anywhere else. The last two items are, however, gratuitous.
That’s nice. But there is a video. And he was selling a legal product.
If that is true, then for those of us not in the loop some real time clarification would have helped.
At the time of his death, Garner was out on bail after being charged with illegally selling cigarettes, driving without a license, marijuana possession and false impersonation.
________________
now here is a dangerous criminal.
has the liberal media ever told the truth, even once?
I find fact #7 to be downright bizarre. The author seems to be saying that the cop used an illegal chokehold, but it should be excused because the chokehold was “learned in the academy.”
Cigarettes sold by the pack have a tax stamp and are a legal product to sell with a retail license. Loose cigarettes are illegal to sell in many, if not most, states.
Is it legal to stand outside a store and sell products without PERMISSION ?
Charges mean nothing...It's the convictions that count...
Pantaleo’s attorney and police union officials argued that Garner’s poor health was the main cause of his death.
Garner was alive believe he was put into a potential deadly choke hold...Healthy people have been choked to death by police...
6. Garner did not die at the scene of the confrontation. He suffered cardiac arrest in the ambulance taking him to the hospital and was pronounced dead about an hour later.
It was reported that Garner was not breathing while on the sidewalk...Hard to have a cardiac arrest after you are dead...And yet, the cops never instituted life saving techniques after they knew Garner wasn't breathing...
7. Much has been made of the fact that the use of chokeholds by police is prohibited in New York City. But officers reportedly still use them.
Prohibited means illegal...And illegal maneuver by the cops...
and that he used the takedown technique that he learned in the academy when Mr. Garner refused.”
But it was illegal...
10. In order to find Officer Pantaleo criminally negligent, the grand jury would have had to determine that he knew there was a “substantial risk” that Garner would have died due to the take down.
I don't buy it...That would not have swayed me...as long as there was a serious potential risk that would be my criteria...
11. Less than a month after Garner’s death, Ramsey Orta, who shot the much-viewed videotape of the encounter, was indicted on weapons charges. Police alleged that Orta had slipped a .25-caliber handgun into a teenage accomplice’s waistband outside a New York hotel.
Completely irrelevant to the case...
So what if the choke hold wouldn't have brought him down??? Next on the list is a shot to the head???
If I sucker punch a guy in the head who has brain damage that I don't know about, and he dies, I'll be in the gray bar motel...
Had the officer not used an illegal choke hold that cut off Garner's already short suppy of oxygen, the actions of the cop would have been fine...
Bottom line, the officer did not use a ‘choke hold’. The method he used was taught in the academy.
“During his testimony before the grand jury, Pantaleo denied using a chokehold on Garner, saying he applied “a takedown move as he was taught in the [Police] Academy,” London said.”
“He testified in the grand jury that he utilized the techniques that he was trained with in the police academy,” Pantaleo’s attorney, Stuart London, told CBS2’s Kramer. “He was attempting to do a take-down move, which he was taught in the academy. He never intended to apply any force to the individual’s neck, and any contact with the neck was incidental.”
The legality of the product he was selling on the Black Market is irrelevant. He was breaking the law.
Selling loosies would normally go unnoticed.
I think the problem was that he was doing it repeatedly in front of a business (on someone else's property) without permission.
The guy doing the videotaping said that Eric broke up a fight, and that is why the cops arrested him. Maybe there was a fight, but what provoked it ? Was it because of him selling loosies ?
Is it legal to stand outside a store and sell products without PERMISSION ?
If I go fishing and catch more fish than I need, then go stand outside the fish market hawking them, do you think I might draw some attention from the fishmongers and they might call the cops? < /devil's advocate >
Ooooh...we need PERMISSION.
You beat me to it...this has to be the most under-reported “fact” of the entire, tragic incident. As supervisor on the scene, she could have directed the other officers to release Garner, or modify their restraint techniques. And she did neither, because (a) NYC places enforcement of the cigarette sales laws ahead of some forms of violent crime; (b) the hold used by the officer was not illegal under NYPD guidelines and (c) the supervising officer saw nothing wrong with the way Mr. Garner was treated, though her assessment is certainly subject to interpretation.
Finally, I have also heard the supervising officer was granted immunity for agreeing to appear before the grand jury. So, you can make the case that she blew it in handling the Garner arrest and when brown matter hit the rotating, air-moving device, she turned on the other officers to save her own hide.
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