The Garner incident.
I’m weighing in and really have a hard time fathoming the bad luck everyone concerned had. Garner a thirty time loser with police
seemed to work every angle he could to get arrested. It is unfortunate that our society has people like this.
The cops, including the cop behind Garner, Pantelleo, were
acting upon store owner complaints of Garner harassing customers and selling
cigarettes illegally. Excuse me if I
simplify the incident. Police answer
the call and evaluate that Garner is not going to be arrested easily, for
whatever reason they are reluctant to Taser.
They decide on a back-up of officers and what I saw on the video looks
to be four competent police officers confronting a giant of a man. Garner was not submitting to the
arrest. This is a fairly common
scenario. The exception is a suspect
that weighs 350 pounds and is very capable of injuring anyone trying to
apprehend him.
The only thing in common with the Ferguson event is a very
large man, angry and capable of maiming any police officer within reach. Garner does not appear to be aggressive,
however he is not compliant. This
passiveness is not something taken as permanent and the situation can change in
a fraction of a second. The arrest is
inevitable. Police don’t just
arbitrarily call for back-up. Officers
that respond are not happy with officers calling for an assistance without just
cause. In this case Garner’s size is
enough to speculate the damage he could physically do. I believe they were trying to apprehend him
with as little physical harm as possible. That is why they chose the multiple
officer arrest procedure.
Police, really desire to go home to their loved ones after a
tour of duty. A very rough physical
confrontation with an adversary can change that. It is nothing anyone looks forward to. It is evident that Garner was surrounded and would be overcome
and handcuffed. I did not see any blows
struck and it was mostly all about restraint.
I think any cop watching knew Garner was going to be grabbed by the neck
by the officer behind him. One officer
approached from the front drawing Garner’s attention, the officer behind grabs him for control. Two other officers await until the struggle
ensues, it is all about restraint. At
this point everything is very professional, taking him down,
incapacitating, hand-cuffing, and
neutralizing the situation.
The physical contact begins and Garner is saying that he
cannot breath, as a doctor said to me, “If he could not breath he would not be
talking.” Someone choking in a
restaurant gurgles or gasps they do not recite two sentences. Garner falls victim to other physical heart
problems, asthma and overweight restrained breathing, compounded by physical
exertion, anxiety of the event and chest pressure of being held down. The autopsy revealed that Garner’s tracheal
airway did not suffer damage, apparently indicating he was not strangled. Pantalleo is the alleged cause of the death. But, I have not heard anyone say that he was
ordered by the police officer supervisor at the scene to not act in the manner
that he did in effecting the arrest.
That would indicate to me that the supervisor approved of the conduct or
would have testified at the Grand Jury that the police officers were acting
contrary to instructions.
It is an unfortunate event, we need to be careful what we
take away from it. It is only racial
in the eyes of a racist. Angered
physical contact between human beings, even in a sporting event like football
has some traumatic consequences. This is
not a sporting event, but foreseeable with the medical problems and not
submitting to arrest. Unless there is
information I am not privy to, I would agree with the grand jury. There was not any specific intent or
negligence just a very unfortunate event.
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