So the Grand Jury decided NOT to charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo with the death of Eric Garner.
Ok. evidence shows he died of heart attack, and not from the chokehold.
I can buy that: Don't struggle with police when arrested (and don't break the law) and none of this would have happened.
Eric Garner WAS breaking the law, no matter how stupid you might think the law was (hey, the pack of cigarettes from which those "looseys" came from was taxed, so the State got their money....even if selling a "loosey" was illegal). But lets not discuss that right now.
Do ya know who DID get indicted (and jailed) over this incident? The dude who filmed it. Seems that somehow, Police observed him putting a .25 ACP handgun in the waistband of another person....just before he was searched {Cough THROWDOWN! Cough} and charged him with the possession of a firearm..... Interesting that Ramsey Orta got tossed in jail.....
That'll each people who film incidents involving the police to release their video....Won't it?
Tell me again about coincidences? And that the "Blue Line" doesn't exist? (especially in New York!)
6 comments:
Huh, imagine that. Still, how is it that selling a single cigarette merits any response more than issuing a ticket? WTF is wrong with these people?
Sorry, but I just can't see police officers carrying illegal pistols around with them every day just waiting for a chance to plant one on this scumbag hoodrat a month after the original incident when his video was already out. It's far, far more likely that this scumbag hoodrat was just actually carrying the illegal pistol and events transpired as the officers said that it did. The hoodrat has a motive to lie, the officers don't have a motive to commit felonies and risk their careers to frame him. Small wonder that the Grand Jury didn't buy his claim, even in anti-cop New York City.
@J Bogan:
Because selling cigarettes without the tax stamp is illegal. There is no way for cops to know that the tax has been paid without the stamp.
That isn't the fault of the cops. When people ask for a law like the tobacco "sin" tax, they are saying that the tax must be paid, or the person selling them without paying the tax should be taken before the court. That isn't up to the cops to decide, they are only enforcing the law the way that it was written.
Refusing to be taken into custody forces the cops to use force. Sometimes, that force results in injury or death, whether it was intended to or not.
If the people don't like it, there is a solution: Get rid of the laws that aren't important enough for the occasional death to be worth it. Blaming the cops won't fix it.
Murph:
While I really doubt that cops carry untraceable pistols for planting on people every day, it is not outside the realm of possibility (just as likely as not) for a cop to acquire (or have already acquired) a pistol and to plant it on the dude.
Cops have memories, Cops dislike people taking pictures (too much evidence) especially when they are doing something wrong.
I know cops who would do such a thing. That may not be what happened here, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility either.
I mean, we are talking New York Cops here. Almost as bad as Chicago cops.
Houston cops were informally "trained" to aquire a throwdown as soon as possible. It was a well-known secret in Houston, and cops used to laugh about it.
This from several cops I knew there.
People didn't mind because, you know, only the bad guys would ever be trapped with one, and they deserved it, didn't they ?
This was in the 70s and 80s.
perhaps if cops would/could apply a little common sense to these type encounters...
And then there is Frank's take on the situation
"What's happening today in the performance of some officers can only be described as sheer cowardice. They don't belong in the uniform, and they shouldn't have weapons ..." - Frank Serpico
-Moe
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