Just Choking!
If you plan to choke a man to death in New York, you'd best get employment as a police officer first.
UPDATE: Moving Harry Siegel New York Daily News column on Garner's cop-caused death:
As he lay dying, he was treated like a piece of meat. By Pantaleo. By the other cops on the scene. Even by the medical technicians.Had Garner been treated with basic human dignity after he was violently, and needlessly, taken down, he might not be dead.
I'm no lawyer, but this is section 125.15 of New York's penal code: "A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when: 1. He recklessly causes the death of another person."
So I'm stunned, and saddened, by a Staten Island grand jury's decision to level no charges against Pantaleo.
Anyone unsure why so many people of color are upset with the police, and suspicious of the American justice system, put your politics down, open your eyes and watch the videos.
There's more to be said on another day about broken-windows policing. Garner was known to cops for selling loose cigarettes, though he wasn't doing that when he was arrested and killed.
And some important points from law prof Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit:
(1) His initial crime: Selling "looseys" -- individual cigarettes -- in violation of NYC tax law. When you pass a law, however trivial, you are providing an opportunity for police to use lethal force. That's why I favor fewer laws, not more.(2) I saw someone on Twitter saying that if you expect a Staten Island grand jury to indict a cop, then you don't know Staten Island. That may be the case, but it shouldn't be. If police can't be accountable for their use of force, then we shouldn't have police. Fire 'em all and privatize. We're not supposed to have titles of nobility in this country.
Finally, there's this tweet, also via @instapundit:
@charlescwcooke
Government is simply a word for the things we decide to do together. Like choke men to death over rules governing the sale of cigarettes.
Now see this, unless the grand jury evidence varies in a major way from what we have seen of this case - this should be the hill people make their stand on about police brutality. Ferguson, not so much.
gooseegg at December 3, 2014 1:45 PM
The rules are applied differently if you're a cop and that's just the way it is. Here's another example of "blue privilege":
http://www.businessinsider.com/police-officer-will-not-be-charged-in-killing-of-napster-executive-2014-8
parabarbarian at December 3, 2014 11:02 PM
Privatize?
Wow, that's stupid.
Radwaste at December 4, 2014 3:58 AM
Gooseegg nailed it: This appears to be a case that calls for marching in the streets. But the idiot Ferguson protesters, and their pals in government and media, have already let the air out of that balloon.
Cousin Dave at December 4, 2014 7:00 AM
"this should be the hill people make their stand on about police brutality. Ferguson, not so much."
I agree, gooseegg. I'm a lawyer, and FWIW, I can at least understand how the Ferguson grand jury came down the way it did. The Garner case is something else. But also FWIW, I live in NYC and everyone I know is upset about the Garner decision. Here, at least, I think it will be the hill we stand on.
I've watched the Garner video a couple of times, and am still boggled by it. Half a dozen police officers --one using an illegal chokehold -- to bring down one non-violent, non-threatening, clearly unarmed, out-of-shape 43-year-old man who at worst was selling loose cigarettes? Yeah, not OK.
Gail at December 4, 2014 7:51 AM
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE GARNER CASE:
IMHO, the grand jury in the Garner case tried the case instead of merely evaluating the evidence to see if the case should go to trial.
The Garner case should have gone before a jury. I think the officer would have been exonerated, but at least a jury would have heard it.
==============================
The governments of New York (city and state) have taxed cigarettes to the point that there is a thriving market for black market cigarettes.
The police were enforcing New York's monopoly right on cigarettes.
It seems like such a trivial reason for a man to die, yet the government has authorized police departments to use deadly force, if necessary, to eliminate cigarette rivals.
This is what can happen when you let the government use deadly force to secure and hold a monopoly, any monopoly.
Ready for DOE SWAT raids on home schools?
==============================
And it was such a trivial reason for Garner to resist arrest. Seriously, dude.
He was getting 50¢ per cigarette. And he died for it?
Of course, to him, that was his living, his means of putting food on his table for his family. To the police, it was a nuisance crime, but one they had to enforce.
==============================
The guy who trucked the cigarettes in from a state with lower (or no) taxes is still running around free.
It would take considerable effort on the part of law enforcement to get that guy.
So, let's get the guy selling them for 50¢ a pop instead.
Conan the Grammarian at December 4, 2014 3:17 PM
I support the Goosey/Gail/CD power axis... With the qualifier that government of all colors and contexts had been treating Ferguson so badly that it should expect no shelter from facts or contexts. (Not kidding.)
The lede of this story is one of the most heartbreaking things I've read this year.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 4, 2014 7:43 PM
Also-- Weather in December is sedative for these things.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 4, 2014 7:45 PM
Cousin Dave: "This appears to be a case that calls for marching in the streets. But the idiot Ferguson protesters, and their pals in government and media, have already let the air out of that balloon."
I think the idiot Ferguson protesters, and their politically correct, progressive pals in government and media are unable to see the moral and qualitative differences between what happened to Garner and what happened to Brown. All they can see are the skin colors.
Politically correct progressives, especially white ones, seem unaware that black people have other qualities besides their race. They aren't able to intellectually or morally evaluate a black man's words or actions because all they can see is his skin color. If a white cop shoots a black man, politically correct progressives think the cop shot him because he's black; because in their eyes everything, and the only thing, that a black man is, is black.
Ken R at December 4, 2014 8:11 PM
"The state is about violence. You can talk all day about how 'government is just another word for those things we do together,' but what makes government work is force, not hugs." ~ Jonah Goldberg
Conan the Grammarian at December 5, 2014 8:50 AM
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