Posted on 12/04/2014 3:37:33 PM PST by robowombat
Eric Garner Would Be Alive If He Was Not Obese, Says Rep. Peter King, Thanks Grand Jury For Decision By Suman Varandani@suman09s.varandani@ibtimes.com on December 04 2014 12:44 AM Dec. 3, 2014. Reuters/Stephen Lam Peter King
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said Wednesday that Eric Garner would not have died from the chokehold if he was not obese. Facebook/Peter King NY protests
Rep. Peter King said Wednesday that Eric Garner would not have died from a police chokehold if he had not been obese. (He was 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 340 pounds.) King’s comments come after a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Garner, a move that has triggered protests across New York City.
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The U.S. representative for New York's second congressional district reportedly said during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Garner’s health was to be blamed for his death. King also dismissed video evidence that showed Garner repeatedly saying he could not breathe as officers tackled him to the ground and choked him, stating that "police had no reason to know that he was in serious condition." The chokehold has been blamed for suffocating Garner, causing his death.
"If he had not had asthma, and a heart condition and was so obese, almost definitely he would not have died from this," King reportedly said.
"The fact is if you can't breathe, you can't talk," King reportedly added. "If you've ever seen anyone resisting arrest, I've seen it, and it's been white guys, and they're always saying, 'You're breaking my arm, you're choking me, you're doing this,' police hear this all the time."
In August, the city’s medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide and one that was caused by pressure to his neck and chest. Garner’s acute and chronic bronchial asthma, obesity and hypertensive cardiovascular disease were contributing factors in his death, the medical examiner ruled.
Garner was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes on Staten Island in July when NYPD officer Pantaleo put him in a chokehold.
King also took to Twitter on Wednesday thanking the grand jury for its decision.
Wednesday’s decision sparked unrest in New York City and has drawn comparisons with last month’s grand jury decision not to indict white Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Missouri.
Protests continued Wednesday night as several demonstrators marched the streets of New York, while some blocked roadways and torched several vehicles, including a police cruiser. Police reportedly said early Thursday that a suspect had been taken into custody for setting fire to vehicles.
Police reportedly closed New York’s Triborough Bridge, officially known as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, in an attempt to block protesters. Late Wednesday night, reports also emerged of police arresting protesters who were staging a sit-in on the Brooklyn Bridge, blocking traffic in both directions.
Too much gov’t and too many useless/petty laws played a much bigger part
Corrected it for you.
I didn’t say it was a fight.
The Administration may make all the properly "politically correct" noises, but it's secretly pleased to see this sort of example made of one who dared resist State authority.
To the people who make them, it's not "too many" laws -- it's multiple redundancy to make sure nobody slips through the net:
There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kinds of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of lawbreakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.
Anyone who has had an asthma attack can tell you that they can still get out a few words but they would still describe their problem as "I can't breath."
I have a question for ya. Suppose my law abiding friend Jamal is walking home from work one night when he passes a bar. Out stumbles a 350 lb drunken off duty cop who for no reason whatsoever strikes him in the face and threatens to rip his head off. They scuffle. Fearing for his life, Jamal gets the off duty officer in a choke hold. The officer says “I cant breathe!” a few times and dies of asthma, heart attack or whatever. Jamal is shocked because he wasn’t even holding him that tight.
What will happen to Jamal? Think they will fail to indict him for murder? Will anyone care that the cop was overweight and had asthma?
The legal doctrine for such situations is called the "eggshell skull rule":
The “eggshell skull” or “eggshell plaintiff” rule states that someone who harms another must pay for whatever damage the injured person suffered, even if it was much worse than anyone would have expected.Of course, the notion that there is one law for all (as opposed to one law for lords and a much stricter law for us peasants) is more theoretical than real at this point.The "eggshell skull" rule is named after the example frequently used in law schools. The example describes an imaginary person who has an extremely thin skull that is as fragile as an eggshell, even though he looks completely normal. This person is hit in the head by someone else. A normal person would only have been bruised by the hit, but the person with the eggshell skull dies. The "eggshell skull" rule says that the person who hit the eggshell-skulled person is responsible for the much greater harm caused by the death, not just the amount of harm that a normal person would have suffered....
Obese is the polite term for “FAT”. (additional rant self-deleted)
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