Can everyone agree that White American police officers are above the law? - No indictment in Garner case......

[SocialistSlayer]

-CraZed- said:

SocialistSlayer said:

-CraZed- said:
No we cannot agree about that.

However, we can agree that the case in New York is a travesty. Anyone who has seen that video has to see how overly aggressive that arrest was. It looked like a pack of hyenas jumping on a wildebeest on the Discovery Channel. Yes, he was refusing to comply with their demands but the officers escalated the encounter with overly aggressive force.

While I do not think they (the cops) intended on hurting or killing him and it wasn't racially motivated they acted negligent and all of the officers involved should face some sort of disciplinary actions. But the officer who actually drug him down buy his neck should have been indicted for negligent/involuntary manslaughter. They know the choke hold is a prohibited technique in taking down a suspect and more so since this guy wasn't acting aggressive or physically threatening in any way.

If the DA doesn't step up and pursue charges then I surely hope the citizens of New York are ready for their tax revenue to go to a very large wrongful death suit. Hell, even if he does and the officer is found guilty in a trial, they'll probably still get a nice settlement from NY.

The other tragedy of this case is that people are already trying to link this to Ferguson as if the two situations are even comparable other than the race of the individuals involved. Which had no bearing on either case. And it gave more fodder to the race baiting hucksters' raucous rhetoric about how this country is a seething pit of deeply seeded racism.

Furthermore, I think this is what happens when you have a nanny state. And New York is a nanny state. New York has made illegal the resale of individual cigarettes because they aren't taxed. How effing ridiculous. There are so many laws in New York and frankly all around the country no one can assuredly know them all and most of us will just as assuredly if inadvertently break one of these laws at any given moment. We have gone so far overboard that grown men die over being arrested for selling a cigarette because the state wants to tax them to the point that they are so expensive that it creates a black market for them.

TL;DR: No this doesn't mean White police officers are above the law but it is a travesty of justice, the case hurts race relations in America and we have too many damned laws!

awesome post, except one small thing, the type of "choke hold" the officer used wasnt prohibited, as it was not the type that restricts oxygen but rather blood flow.

and to add, it. in 2013 mayor nanny bloomberg implement new penelties for selling untaxed cigerettes, and the nypd police chief ordered police to crack down on these illegal cigerettes. so encroaching government and stupid laws are largely to blame

It absolutely was phrohitied. He wrapped his arm directly around the man's neck and proceeded to lock his arm in place, rode him to the ground and did not let go until he was on the ground in the prone and even then he placed his upper body weight onto the man's head onto the pavement. You can even hear in his voice an almost seal like barking sound when he first tries to tell thim he cannot breathe. It is called stridor and is a sign of an acute choking or severe narrowing of the upper airway.  For someone with an overreactive airway as in asthma, occluding or causing even temporary trauma to the airway can lead to laryngospasms and ultimately to death.

And if you are correct in that one is okay over the other (which i have no reason to doubt) that is just rather ridiculous for several reasons.

No.1 the anatomy of the neck is such that the airway and surrounding blood vessels are in such close proximity that occluding one can and usually does occlude the other. For example in CPR or ACLS training you are taught to check the carotid pulse (the artery in the neck) on the side you are on so as to not inadvertently narrow the victims airway. Now, if just pressing two fingers onto someones neck can cause a narrowing of the larynx (and it can) what do you think an entire arm would do?

No.2 Occluding either the airway or the blood vessels "restrict" oxygen.

No.3 If an officer is not competent enough (which they aren't and shouldn't be required to be) to recognize when a person is truly in respiratory distress while they are in his/her custody and get them immediate medical attention (which probably could have saved his life and we wouldn't be talking about this today) then they shouldn't be restricting blood flow or oxygen!

well i guess we will have to agree to disagree

The “Chokehold.” At issue in this case is the so-called “chokehold” used by Pantaleo. Chokeholds have been banned by the NYPD entirely since 1993; chokeholds are typically defined as holds that prevent people from breathing. Thanks to the video showing Garner stating that he cannot breathe, many pundits have wrongly suggested that Pantaleo was “choking” Garner by depriving him of air from his windpipe. Bratton himself suggested that Pantaleo used a “chokehold,” which is defined by the NYPD as “any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.”

 

 

That does not appear to have been the case. Garner did not die of asphyxiation, as the head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association noted at the time. The preliminary autopsy showed no damage to Garner’s windpipe or neck bones.

 

 

So what was Pantaleo doing? He was applying a submission hold, which is not barred by the NYPD, and is designed to deprive the brain of oxygen by stopping blood flow through the arteries. So say the experts on submission holds.