KLAMarine said:
You're missing the point: you want to intentionally take multiple lives away as retribution for a death that was unintentional. Doesn't seem fair to me to punish an unintentional act as though it were intentional. In courts of law, they are treated differently: if you accidentally kill someone, courts will not treat it as though it were intentional. That's how it is in many things in life: when I was a kid, if I accidentally hurt someone on a playground, I was given a warning and made to apologize to the unintended victim. If I intentionally hurt someone because I was being a brat, I would get the belt or detention, whatever the case may be. That's how I was raised as a matter of fact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzySgv6tx4g Clip starts at around 2:02. The chokehold lasts about 20 seconds (2:40-3:00 being generous) which, even if it completely cut off breathing for a whole 20 seconds, the hold was not maintained for long enough to kill. Hell, everyone here should be able to hold their breath for 20 seconds and beyond.
I agree but my worry is that some may believe the chokehold itself was responsible for the death but it was in fact a multitude of factors including Garner's health problems which were unintentionally aggravated by the confrontation. Notice I don't place blame solely on Garner's health nor on the confrontation. You needed both for Garner's passing to occur. |
Some things to think about:
1)You don't need to die from asphyxation to be choked go death. A lack of oxygen in the blood stream during a highly stressful situation can cause you to get a heart attack which would lead to cardiac arrest, especially when you're burning thru it during stressful situations... Which is what looks like what happened here.
2) He wasn't exactly given time to "hold his breath" and as soon as they got him down they dogpiled on him, possibly smothering his breath (longer than the 20 seconda you're going on about) enough to prevent him from getting sufficient oxygen as til he passed out. The fact that he was laying there unresponsive for over 7 minutes while no one was assisting him after he passed out trying to make it known that he couldn't breath puts the blame squarely on the officers.
3) Contributory factors are NOT Causal factors. He was vulnerable to their particular assault (the chokehold) but the very reason the chokehold was banned by the NYPD is because it is KNOWN to cause death in people. He rolled the dice using a banned move known to cause death. And Garner paid the price with his life.
They didn't "aggravate his condition". You need to get that BS out of your head. You're making it sound like Garner was already suffering from a heart/asthmat attack and the chokehold+dogpile just made it worse. Yes, His condition made him particularly vulnerable to their attack. But he wasn't suffering from a heart or asthma attack until the cop decided to choke him.
4) Like someone already stated. Murder is any bodily harm that results in death. A banned move known to cause death being used on a person causing that person to die sure sounds like that to me.
