“Yet Garner died. Something is wrong here. The police need to re-examine their procedure on how to take down and control a large uncooperative suspect. In particular, they need to look at how a knee is applied to the back of a person who’s on his stomach.”
Stuff happens. It is an imperfect world. A major part of our problems in the United States is that it is compared to a fantasy of perfection, not other countries.
This case is an example of that. Because of a multiplicity of problems, which can be blamed on big government, police procedure, illegal merchandising, resisting arrest, and, perhaps most importantly, pre-existing serious medical problems, this man died.
I do not see any bureaucratic fix for the police. Possibly for the EMTs, but they have a difficult job to do as well.
If we fixate on perfection, the system gets so bound up in rules and liability, that people do nothing in order to protect themselves.
You make many good points in your post. The more bureaucratic rules there are, the less gets done. And soon people are afraid to do anything.
But I think there is a fix in this particular case. As I mentioned in my post #26, I'm guessing that the knee-to-the-back technique is what killed Garner by restricting his breathing. That technique needs to be reexamined.