Posted on 08/01/2014 9:43:30 PM PDT by bamahead
TOTTENVILLE (WABC) -- The New York Medical Examiner has ruled Eric Garner died from a chokehold used by a police officer during his arrest for selling untaxed, loose cigarettes last month, calling it a homicide.
The autopsy found that Garner, 43, died as a result of compression of neck, compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police.
Mayor Bill de Blasio released the following statement. "On behalf of all New Yorkers, I extend my deepest sympathies to the family of Eric Garner ... My administration will continue to work with all involved authorities, including the Richmond County District Attorney, to ensure a fair and justified outcome."
Contributing factors included acute and chronic bronchial asthma, obesity, and hypertensive cardiovascular disease, the medical examiner said.
"The NYPD has been informed of the preliminary findings by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner as it relates to the death of Eric Garner. We will continue to cooperate with the Richmond County District Attorney's office, which is the lead investigative entity in this case," Police Commissioner William Bratton said.
---SNIP---
The Staten Island district attorney will now determine whether to empanel a grand jury and charge officers in the death of Garner, who lived in the borough. The case is fraught with political consequences for District Attorney Daniel Donovan, a Republican whose office has a strong working relationship with the NYPD and whose constituents are overwhelmingly white and include many officers and their relatives.
If the officers aren't charged, there's fear the tensions surrounding Garner's death could dramatically increase, which is why City Hall wouldn't oppose the federal government assuming the case, according to a senior administration source who talked to the Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at 7online.com ...
Thank you for the post. What a crying shame. One man dead at the hands of the police. Four or five police who failed to be reasonable and targeted a seemingly benign infraction. The police officers, especially the choker, committed crimes and those crimes, much more hideous than selling cigarettes, must be prosecuted in accordance with the laws of the republic. They should spend many years in prison. That will mean the families of the cops will never be normal. The family of the deceased will never be the same. It was all so unnecessary and now justice must be executed. I hate it for all involved, but the police killed him, clear and simple.
I didn’t realize you had a chance to examine the body. You didn’t? So, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, then, do you? How the hell can you disagree with a medical examiner without examining anyone? What you really mean is that you presume medical examiners are guilty of fraud and cops are always innocent of any crime, even when they are the proximate cause of an innocent person’s death.
“The restraining choke was loosely applied...”
Really?
Yep...
I was going to comment similar to yours, but I didn’t have the energy...You summed that up better than I could have.
In a well functioning democracy submitting to an unfair arrest or being killed shouldn't be the only options. It works like that only in a dictatorship.
A democratic society would have at least one more option: to let the man call his lawyer, and wait until the lawyer arrives. It's not like any delay in taking the criminal down could result in thousands of casualties. Unfortunately, peace officers nowadays are not even trained to be maintain peace; looks like they are trained like guards for a high security prison. They are trained to always gain control of the situation - even when that is not the right thing to do. But LEOs do not know what "retreat" means. How many families would survive if both spouses only know how to push forward? If not many, then why would anyone expect this to work in the larger society?
It is actually hard to kill someone with a choke. You can cause them to pass out very quickly and such. But, to kill someone requires cutting off the blood supply and oxygen to the brain for several minutes.
Mr. Garner never lost consciousness while he was being restrained from the hold. As, I said, unless the officer destroyed his trachea, the hold did not kill him. And, I said as of now, from the cursory info I've seen. I'm willing to change my opinion once I see the report.
The edited video shows Mr. Garner having verbal command and consciousness. Those two things are important. Then the video becomes even more unclear. But, yeah, I'm skeptical of the ME.
The Medical Examiner did not rule it as a justifiable homicide. People associated with law enforcement are unlikely to label it justifiable either.
See post 10
Yeah?
Well amazingly, those plicks didn’t find any untaxed cigarettes on his corpse.
Bitches.
For a guy who was selling loose cigarettes? Maybe so.
Or, if they really felt it necessary to arrest him, maybe they could spend a few more moments and try to talk him into a peaceful surrender (after all this was not some kind of crime which threatened public safety) or maybe tase him, or pepper spray him, or, heck, throw a net over him?
For the heinous crime of selling loose cigarettes, it seems like a few things could have been attempted before resorting to excessive force.
Of course, such actions would admittedly have diluted the cops' demonstration of exactly who was boss, and deprived them of the exhilaration they surely feel when executing the forcible takedown of a resisting suspect.
and post 27
“But, yeah, I’m skeptical of the ME”
Yeah, I’m skeptical of you too
“selling untaxed, loose cigarettes last month,
Clearly a capital offense -”
..and he didn’t even get to sit on Death Row for 25 years.
I’m wondering exactly how hard the race pimps will push this. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an outrage against a citizen, not a BLACK citizen.
“The restraining choke was loosely applied...”
Well, his head remained attached.
“Yeah?
Well amazingly, those plicks didn’t find any untaxed cigarettes on his corpse.
Bitches.”
They aren’t allowed AFAIK to smoke on the job, hence, no drop cigarettes.
They left him in handcuffs the entire time on the video. His hands were still cuffed when they put him on the stretcher.
No problem.
The ME at this point isn't giving out enough information. When did Garner die? Was it sudden cardiac arrest, asphyxiation, or an asthma attack? Did his hypertensive disease cause an enlarged heart, which would have made him susceptible to ventricular fibrillation? Except for the conclusion, the ME is being vague.
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