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The medical examiner ruled that his death was a homicide and that the officer did indeed preform a choke hold, not a head lock.
Homicide as a cause of death on a death certificate simply means the cause of death was attributable to someone else - it does NOT automatically mean someone else is liable for their death from a legal standpoint.
The biggest problem is the lack of respect. That starts in the home. If this big oaf had showed a little respect for the law he would be alive today taking in 10,000 calories and selling illegal smokes.
You are right, the officer was just being reckless and stupid.
For the sake of argument lets just agree with this statement. That is still ridiculously different than the death penalty sentiment expressed in the original post.
Should our governments go ahead and legitimize what Pantaleo did? Should the death penalty be the prescribed punishment for disobeying an agent of the state?
Let's be real, dude.
The officer had no knowledge of his asthma, or other health conditions, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, why didn't this thug cooperate with the police???
This guy was HUGE, and would not obey the officers commands to put his hands behind his back.
As in the Michael Brown case, there are an awful lot of people assuming they know more than they do, and making up their own versions of who Garner was, and ignoring a lot of facts.
Unless you heard the Grand Jury testimony, you know absolutely nothing about this case.
Sit down and shut your mouth! We don't need more race baiting than we have already gotten from the likes of Holder, Obama, and the other usual suspects, like Al [the charlatan] Sharpton.
Some thoughts....random and in no particular order...
Mr. Garner would be alive if he didnt resist arrest.
Mr. Garner would not have been resisting arrest if the government (not the cops) didnt make cigs so expenisive in NY.
No one should die over selling a single cig...
Pantaleo didnt kill Mr. Garner. He didnt use a choke hold...
Mr Garners death may very well have been a result of ALL of the police on the scene not taking action once he was on the ground and unresponsive. (neglect after being subdued).
Now to answer the general question.
It really depends on what "disobeying an agent of the state looks like.
If a person refuses to cooperate with a police officer in the line of duty, and that person is then arrested, the police should take care of things in this order:
1. Their own protection. NO cop ought to die because some person decides they dont want to be arrested.
2. the innocent people that are in close proxemity to the situation.
3. The person being arrested.
You dont shoot someone for doing what Garner did. but you do have to arrest him and you do have to control him. BUT once subdued, you take care to make sure he is ok. In this case, the police did right to arrest (only because they are forced to...even though the laws that are in play are really really stupid uber-progressive-idiotic-government-overreach...
I wouldn't say I support him- I believe he should at the very least be fired posthaste and never work as a cop again- but I can see how the grand jury reached this decision as they were only allowed to consider criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter charges. What happened here doesn't technically fit either charge. Had the DA brought lesser charges, which he should have, they may have gone forward with indictment.
What gets me is that ever since Mr. Garner died we've had any number of homicides here on SI where the victim was black, also assaults and shootings where the victims (black) survived but were seriously injured. I bet no one here has heard of a single case, because in these cases the perps were black too & the media only cares when the alleged killer is white (or in the case of zimmerman, a pretend white).
It's as though a black man's life doesn't matter unless he's killed by a white man. That kind of thinking is sick but is absolutely prevalent in our society. Every loss of life through violence is tragic.
If the police just wrote him a ticket for selling cigarettes, Garner would still be alive today. The police overreacted with this situation and the end result was killing a man. Of course in NYC it is very easy for a cop to get away with murder.
You don't just write someone a ticket who is guilty of a crime, has been in trouble before (at least some 30 previous arrests) and has been charge in drug dealing too.
Laws must be enforced and violators ought to be arrested. When arrested, they are not to resist (which is also a crime).
a crime is a crime, period!!~!!! and when you people realize that, life for you all will be a whole lot easier....
You don't see upstanding citizens getting in trouble with the law....this guy was arrested 30 other times....
If I were arrested even once, I'd loose my job....loose respect from so many people....doesn't matter what the crime would be, I'd then be a criminal, and so it should be....
making excuses....how bout all the cops that have been killed by blacks...? Huh? What about that?
This is pathetic, that you and others think it's A-ok to commit a crime and get away with it....Eric was a criminal....he wouldn't allow the police to arrest him, doesn't matter why they were arresting him, he was BREAKING A LAW! PERIOD. Eric bought this on himself.....
This was buried...unarmed cops are at a disadvantage daily too.
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