Another grand jury declines to indict police for an incident that ended with a Black man dead.
Sounds pretty bad when you say it that way, doesn\’t it? But it\’s not that simple.
The man, Eric Garner, was being arrested for selling cigarettes. He argued with the police and then resisted arrest.
The officer who took him down – Daniel Pantaleo – says he used the technique he learned at the academy….no small task given that Garner was huge, weighing about 350 lbs.
Officer Pantaleo\’s actual takedown of Garner might be construed as choking him, or might be construed as bringing an arm around his neck to get him down, but not pulling it hard across Garner\’s windpipe and leaving it there for a very short time – i.e. with no actual choking taking place.
In doing so, please be advised that the Medical Examiner determined that a chokehold was the cause of death – with Garner\’s physical condition (asthma among other things) a contributing factor.
Here is the video, complete with a commentary – sympathetic to Garner – by the person who created it, who thinks all Garner did was break up a fight (the arrest involved his allegedly selling cigarettes illegally). Decide for yourself what took place.
Now: Do you think this will be used by protesters of various kinds, the same way the Michael Brown shooting was – not to torch the businesses where it took place, but to claim police racism and demand action?
Personally, I would bet on it.
Stay tuned.
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UPDATE: In typical NBC news fashion, Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, teasing his story on the local news show, referred to it as a “chokehold death”. No ambiguity there. No hint that the death due to anything but a chokehold – no contributing factors at all. And no doubt on my part that this will be repeated by other “neutral” journalists.
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FURTHER UPDATE: I just read that the grand jury consisted of 23 members – 14 White and 9 Black.
