December 4, 2014, - 12:29 pm
Eric Garner Might Still be Breathing If . . .
New York City Comrade-In-Chief Warren Wilhelm, Jr. a/k/a “Bill De Blasio” (yes, he changed his name to sound less Nazi-esque . . . or something) said, yesterday, that he had to train his half-Black son to be prepared for police reacting to him the way they did to Eric Garner. And he said it in a negative/against-the police way. But Wilhelm/De Blasio apparently didn’t train his son to do something that Eric Garner’s (and Michael Brown’s) parents also didn’t train him to do–something much easier and less likely to incur a bad result: obey police and respect authority.
Yes, it is tragic that this father of six died, but Eric Garner, who died after a New York police officer used a chokehold (which didn’t cause his death, by the way), would be alive today if . . .
. . . he obeyed the police who approached him.
. . . he answered their questions about allegedly selling unlicensed cigarettes.
. . . he put his hands up and didn’t resist arrest.
. . . he wasn’t a morbidly obese asthmatic prone to specific medical reactions when under stress or in trauma.
None of these things are mentioned nor are they taken into account because throngs of Black and racist, self-hating, far-left White protesters want to bitterly cling to their hateful fantasy that America is a racist country and that White people are evil. They want to think that a morbidly obese man with a criminal record who resisted police is the same as an innocent Black man in the Jim Crow South decades ago. Heck, I even had people tweet at me (follow me on Twitter) that Garner’s experience was like Nazi Germany, which is patently absurd. Most of my family on both sides cooked in the ovens or died of hard labor in brutal conditions in Nazi camps. To compare these officers to Nazis or Eric Garner to Holocaust victims is outrageous and disgusting. Had he calmly complied with police, he’d probably still be here . . . or maybe not since he was a morbidly obese asthmatic who was walking on eggshells with his health. Having six kids to support and a criminal record can’t have helped his stress level, with the latter item being a reason why he didn’t exactly submit to police.
Eric Garner was suspected of selling unlicensed cigarettes (which is also what Hezbollah does, FYI). He was approached by police who had a lawful right to approach him and ask questions. He resisted them and he’s a big guy–over 300 pounds. Yes, it looks bad on the video that there are several people and at least one has his knee on Garner. But, again, he’s giant. Were they overzealous? Maybe. But it took several officers to subdue him. Every single one of the 50 states allows police to use force to effect a lawful arrest. And there was nothing illegal about the arrest. Yes, it is true that the officer in question, Daniel Pantaleo, used a chokehold, which is against NYPD policy, but NOT a crime. And there is no evidence whatsoever that this is what caused Garner’s death. In fact, just the opposite. The autopsy and other evidence showed no crushed windpipe.
Do I think Eric Garner deserved to die? No. But I don’t think any of the cops who arrested him wanted that either. I don’t think any of them thought that would be the result. It’s just not the expected result . . . unless the arrestee has a medical condition that is not visible or known. And that’s probably what happened here. A morbidly obese guy with asthma and six kids is under a lot of stress and trauma just walking on the street or even sitting. But when you add to that resisting police and struggling with them, even if he ultimately was down on the ground, that adds a lot more stress and trauma that exacerbates the situation.
Another thing to consider: Eric Garner was not new to police. He knew the drill. He had a history of arrests–31 of them from the age of 16–dating from the 1980s to the day he died at age 43. He was arrested for assault, resisting arrest, grand larceny, driving without a license, pot possession, and selling unlicensed cigarettes multiple times. He was not new to the criminal arrest procedure or to police. He knew better than to resist police instead of calmly speaking with them and maybe submitting to arrest. But he also knew that if he was committing a crime and selling illegal, single cigarettes, of which he was suspected, he might do jail time, given his long rap sheet. And that’s probably why he resisted.
If you look on Twitter, where an estimated 30% to one-third of participants are Black, the trending terms and hashtags as I write this are: #CrimingWhileWhite, #AliveWhileBlack, and #ICantBreathe. All of these are sympathetic to Garner, and the first two are racist, attached to mostly race-baiting, racist, and race-grievance tweets. Did Garner’s death have anything to do with race? There is no evidence of that. The fact that the cops were all White and Garner was Black does not mean there was racism . . . except in the minds of those who see racism everywhere. Yes, there is still racism in America, but most of it is sadly coming from the most racist group today, Blacks. They have affirmative action, a Black President, minority set-asides, and a Justice Department and White House focused almost exclusively on telling us (and they mean White people) how racist we are.
Is it racist to point out Black crime rates (versus that of Whites) and the high percentages of Black victims of those crimes? Yes, because truth is racist and racism in today’s climate. Is it racist to teach your kids to disrespect and resist police and other authorities, when you know your kids are of one race and most police in your community are of another? Doesn’t that say that you are racist?
My parents taught me to respect police and other authorities and to do what they say (something a lot of Black parents–most of them single parents–probably don’t teach their kids). And, strangely enough, I’m still alive and breathing. Yes, I am not a Black male, but I also am not a 300 pound asthmatic man with six kids to feed (and an extensive criminal record). Yes, there are some bad police, but they are the minority, the very small minority. We’re not talking police who asked someone for sex or bribes in the Garner case, but police who legitimately approached a man whom they believed was committing a crime. And there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that any of the police here had any bad intent. It’s just what the minority and Raaaaaaaycism! crowd want to believe. Facing the truth is bad for their agenda.
Bottom line: if Eric Garner were not 300 pounds and asthmatic, if he had calmly responded to and answered police, he’d probably still be here.
That’s not a Holocaust. It’s not Nazi Germany. It’s not police hunting Black men. It’s just a tragic incident in which a life was unnecessarily, tragically lost, and six children lost their father.
All because of the way he reacted when police approached.
Eric Garner, Rest In Peace.
***
One other thing: there were many Black jurors on the grand jury that voted not to indict Officer Pantaleo. I wonder, if we polled the jurors, one by one, if their votes went along racial lines or not.
Of course Debbie is 100% correct in all aspects except the notion that all but a tiny minority of cops are good citizens.
In fact, many cops, I would say fully a third, conservatively, are sociopaths and/or psychopaths who have found a legal outlet for their aggression. They pray for the opportunity to kill “on the job” and are gleeful that they actually get paid for it. They delight in abusing citizens and bask under the cover of supposedly protecting society, which in fact they hold in contempt.
Absolutely Garner asked for it and absolutely many cops are grateful that there is an endless supply of morons like him.
DS_ROCKS on December 4, 2014 at 12:48 pm