Response of force should be proportionate to the crime. Instead of arresting him, he should have been given a ticket, max, and told to move on. Instead, a force of several police officers were called in, resulting in a violent take-down and the man’s death.
Was it murder? No, but it was clearly involuntary homicide, as their actions resulted in his death. If an individual that was not a police officer did the same thing, you can bet charges would have been filed.
That was my initial reaction when I heard that he was being arrested for what was basically a tax violation.
Apparently there was more to it than just that. From what I've read, it was the local store owners who called the police to the scene -- not because he was selling untaxed cigarettes, but because he was harassing the customers entering the stores and strong-arming the store owners. If that was the case, then the police CANNOT simply give the guy a ticket and walk away.
If you watch the entire video, it's obvious from the beginning that the police officer and Garner know each other from Garner's prior legal troubles.
This might be an interesting case in which the grand jury refused to indict the cop because they think he did the neighborhood a huge favor.
Mind one thing, I mostly agree with you. However, a “regular citizen” is not expected to detain people or put themselves at risk doing so. If you confront someone and they turn aggressive, you walk away and call the police. LE doesn’t have this option, they HAVE to detain a lawbreaker in most cases. I understand that it’s a very difficult line to judge... what is proportionate force? It cannot be defined and every person will make different decisions based on circumstances... not to mention, we’ve had a lot of time to think about it, unlike the cops at the time. We also need to remember that this wasn’t the guys first offense, or even the first time he’d been in trouble for this same exact thing. I’m guessing he’s also resisted in the past, the cops know these things when they run your name, it’s in the notes. I’m obviously speculating here, but it’s all stuff we need to keep in mind when we watch the video. They may have also been there for 45 minutes trying to negotiate his surrender and that could have led to the large number of officers on the scene. We only get to see a minute or 2 of the interaction. Anyway, I’m still not taking the side of LE on this one, I’m just agreeing that there was no *criminal intent* here by the officers.
The problem with that scenario is that he had an outstanding warrant.