Posted on 12/12/2014 5:53:59 PM PST by Enza Ferreri
As the protest over his death has reached London, we can say that what happened to Eric Garner, whatever his faults, is certainly, tragically terrible. If I had been a police officer I probably would have stopped holding him down when I heard "I can’t breathe!", but then I'm not a police officer used to dealing with criminals lying all the time, including Garner himself who - as is shown in a distressing video that includes his altercation with the police before his arrest - had possibly been lying to the police until a few seconds earlier, when he was claiming he was doing nothing. It was probably a case of cry wolf.
And New York City policeman Daniel Pantaleo was supposed not to let go of Garner, it was his job not to do so.
Garner did not die from strangulation. According to city medical examiners, he was killed by neck compression, along with "the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police". The cops were holding him down by sitting on him, with an arm around his neck, which contributed to, but did not cause, his death.
Contributing factors were his obesity and various ailments, including bronchial asthma, heart disease, hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Without them, as Rep. Peter King said, he would not have died.
After Garner was handcuffed and had passed out, the police did no Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Garner because, they say, he was still breathing, and it would be improper to do CPR on someone who was breathing on his own.
The police maintain that, before Garner passed out, there was no reason to believe that he was in serious condition, because they assumed that, if Garner was unable to breathe, he would also have been unable to speak. The medical examiner found no damage to Garner's windpipe or neck bones.
He was put in an ambulance, where he suffered cardiac arrest, and was pronounced dead at the hospital about an hour later.
This is what Pat Buchanan says in "Racist Cops—or Liberal Slander?":
Why would a Staten Island grand jury not indict Pantaleo for murder or manslaughter in the death of Eric Garner? In a word, intent. Did Pantaleo intend to kill Eric Garner when he arrived on the scene? Did Pantaleo arrive intent on injuring Eric Garner? No and no.I think that the New York case - Garner's death - is more nuanced than the Ferguson one, but the grand juries' decisions were right in both cases.Pantaleo was there to arrest Garner, and if he resisted, to subdue him and then arrest him. That was his job. Did he use a chokehold, which the NYPD bans, or a takedown method taught at the police academy, as his lawyer contends? That is for the NYPD to decide. The grand jury, viewing the video, decided that the way Pantaleo brought down Garner was not done with any criminal intent to kill or injure him, but to arrest him.
Garner’s death, they decided, was accidental, caused by Pantaleo and the other NYPD cops who did not intend his injury or death, with Garner’s asthma and heart disease as contributing factors. Now that grand jury decision may be wrong, but does it justify wild allegations of “racist cops” getting away with “murder”?
This reflexive rush to judgment happens again and again.
Given the outrage that dominates much of the mainstream media over a grand jury's decision not to indict officer Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, here are 11 crucial facts about the Eric Garner case that the media are not going to tell you:
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.
Very clear thinking and writing.
If they had tased him, he might be alive.
Now, let’s get rid of the stupid laws against “loosies”.
Disagree. While the Ferguson officer were innocent, this was very clearly murder. There was no reason the situation should have escalated like it did.
Oh please. You don’t even know the definition of murder.
Sure there is. Eric Garner escalated it by resiting arrest.
You don’t get to disobey a police officer, sorry.
I would be deeply troubled if one of my family had been ganged up on and brought down like that, all over a cigarette sale. Yes, he pushed them into high gear when noncompliance equals resistance.
Based on his list of medical ailments, if they had tasered him, he might have died quicker.
You mean other than resisting arrest and assault on a police officer ?
Typical of someone with a vowel at the end of their name (and not in la coda nostra) to reflexively support the police. White trash tax glorified collectors strangle black trash all for selling untaxed cigarettes. FTNYPD.
Do you know how many times the cops had to gang up on him and bring him down before ? He was out on bond and committing what he knew was an arrestable offense.
This was not about selling one cigarette. Actually , it was a fight the police were called to break up. The participants had fled, leaving Garner and his buddy and various onlookers around. The store owner wanted Eric out of there because he had been involved in the fight AND was STILL trying to sell 'loosies' which came from black market tobacco (imported with no tax payments) and provides profit to ORGANIZED CRIME.
He repeatedly stood in front of the store and harassed customers, and was taking away sales from the store itself. He repeatedly refused to obey the law.
If you had a business, would you put up with someone like this in front of your store, harassing your customers and cutting off your legal income ?
It is unfortunate that in all the exertion in the 'fight' and then the struggle with the police that he had an asthma attack, which led to lack of oxygen to the brain, which led to cardiac arrest.
The guy couldn't even walk one block without being being 'out of breath' and near death.
I would suggest that if any of your family have heart disease, sleep apnea, obesity, severe diabetes, and asthma that they not get into a wrestling match with anyone, no matter how minor the 'crime'. They should save their breath and cooperate with being placed under arrest.
Thanks for the info. I didn’t know he was out there harrassing customers or passersby. That makes him a public nuisance.
It was not a “tragedy” either.
13. [Rodney Lee, manager of the Bay Beauty Supply, where Garner was killed] said he was threatened after the Garner video emerged because it was reported that he called the cops.
"I'm Asian, working in a beauty supply shop and it happened to a black guy so people just assumed I called the police, which I didn't," he said.
Whoops. There goes the "shop owner called the cops" excuse for the cops. Maybe Garner was selling "loosie" packs of beauty shampoo & conditioner. Or wigs. LOL! :)
14. The witness from the park [who was standing next to Pantaleo in the park] told the grand jury the same thing that the guy on the video said:
Garner broke up a fight
This was not about selling one cigarette. Actually , it was a fight the police were called to break up. The participants had fled, leaving Garner and his buddy and various onlookers around. The store owner wanted Eric out of there because he had been involved in the fight AND was STILL trying to sell 'loosies' which came from black market tobacco (imported with no tax payments) and provides profit to ORGANIZED CRIME.
He repeatedly stood in front of the store and harassed customers, and was taking away sales from the store itself. He repeatedly refused to obey the law.
If you had a business, would you put up with someone like this in front of your store, harassing your customers and cutting off your legal income ?
========
And now,the REST of the story:
[Rodney Lee, manager of the Bay Beauty Supply, where Garner was killed] said he was threatened after the Garner video emerged because it was reported that he called the cops.
"I'm Asian, working in a beauty supply shop and it happened to a black guy so people just assumed I called the police, which I didn't," he said.
Whoops. There goes the "shop owner called the cops" excuse for the cops. Maybe Garner was selling "loosie" packs of beauty shampoo & conditioner. Or wigs. LOL! :)
Not sure the Founding Fathers would have shared your slavish adulation for officers of the King, chris...
See my posts #15 & #16.
Don’t hand me that horseshit, pal.
An officer gives you a lawful order, you are obliged to follow it, or you go to jail.
That’s it, that’s all, nothing else.
He made his choice.
Too damn bad.
If you can’t breathe, you can’t say “I can’t breathe”!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.