Man killed by police brutality

[Ultimate Paragon]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/nyregion/staten-island-man-dies-after-he-is-put-in-chokehold-during-arrest.html?_r=1

The 350-pound man, about to be arrested on charges of illegally selling cigarettes, was arguing with the police. When an officer tried to handcuff him, the man pulled free. The officer immediately threw his arm around the man’s neck and pulled him to the ground, holding him in what appears, in a video, to be a chokehold. The man can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” over and over again as other officers swarm about.

Now, the death of the man, Eric Garner, 43, soon after the confrontation on Thursday on Staten Island, is being investigated by the police and prosecutors. At the center of the inquiry is the officer’s use of a chokehold — a dangerous maneuver that was banned by the New York Police Department more than 20 years ago but that the department cannot seem to be rid of.

“As defined in the department’s patrol guide, this would appear to have been a chokehold,” the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said at a news conference in City Hall on Friday afternoon.

He referred to police rules that forbid chokeholds and define them as including “any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.”

The Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent city agency that investigates allegations of police abuse, logged 233 allegations involving chokeholds in 2013, making up 4.4 percent of the excessive-force complaints it received. Although only a tiny fraction of the chokehold complaints that the agency receives are ever substantiated, the number of complaints has generally been rising.

A decade ago, when the review board was receiving a comparable number of force complaints, chokehold allegations were less frequent. They made up 2.3 percent of the excessive-force complaints in 2003, and no more than 2.7 percent in 2004.

“My throat was on his forearm,” one man who was arrested in Queens testified in April in an internal police disciplinary proceeding, describing how he “could barely breathe” after an officer allegedly placed him in a chokehold.

It is unclear if the chokehold contributed to the death on Thursday afternoon of Mr. Garner, who was at least 6 feet 3 inches tall and who, friends said, had several health issues: diabetes, sleep apnea, and asthma so severe that he had to quit his job as a horticulturist for the city’s parks department. He wheezed when he talked and could not walk a block without resting, they said.

Nonetheless, the use of a chokehold in subduing a large but unarmed man during a low-level arrest raises for Mr. Bratton the same questions about police training and tactics that he faced 20 years ago, in his first stint as New York City’s police commissioner.

This is worse than Rodney King.

[Askold]

This guy was resisting arrest and they had a probable cause to arrest him, having caught him selling illegal cigarettes. Rodney King hadn't done anything wrong other than try to get away from police (Unless being drunk while on parole was illegal. He wasn't sure and that was the reason why he ran.) The police had not seen him doing anything illegal, they just thought his behaviour was suspicious so they chased him and then beat him severely while he was NOT resisting arrest and was in fact crying for help.

This time the death was accidental due to police brutality and bad luck, the fact that Mr. King survived his dose of police brutality was due to good luck, he might have died from his injuries as well (imagine how bad the riots would have been then.)

So, I still think that Rodney King case was tiny bit worse despite the different outcomes for the victim.

[Ultimate Paragon]

This guy was resisting arrest and they had a probable cause to arrest him, having caught him selling illegal cigarettes. Rodney King hadn't done anything wrong other than try to get away from police (Unless being drunk while on parole was illegal. He wasn't sure and that was the reason why he ran.) The police had not seen him doing anything illegal, they just thought his behaviour was suspicious so they chased him and then beat him severely while he was NOT resisting arrest and was in fact crying for help.

This time the death was accidental due to police brutality and bad luck, the fact that Mr. King survived his dose of police brutality was due to good luck, he might have died from his injuries as well (imagine how bad the riots would have been then.)

So, I still think that Rodney King case was tiny bit worse despite the different outcomes for the victim.

Well, you have your opinion, I have mine.

[Second Coming of Madman]

Paid administrative leave.

[Ultimate Paragon]

Paid administrative leave.

Not really.  Two of the cops involved were outright fired.

[rageaholic]

Oh no, illegally selling cigarettes.  Such a dangerous to society!   

[Askold]

Oh no, illegally selling cigarettes.  Such a dangerous to society!   

The crime he was suspected of does not matter in this case. The incident started when he resisted arrest BUT the real problem is the asshole/moron cop who used a forbidden technique. There were several police officers there. They could have continued talking, they could have used a taser or pepper spray, they could have tried to use techniques that DON'T accidentally kill people they are trying to subdue.

[niam2023]

Maybe the cop is like that Fox Hallow Farm guy, and just likes strangling people to death...

It does seem to me we're getting a lot of police brutality these days.

[Witchyjoshy]

Oh no, illegally selling cigarettes.  Such a dangerous to society!   

The crime he was suspected of does not matter in this case. The incident started when he resisted arrest BUT the real problem is the asshole/moron cop who used a forbidden technique. There were several police officers there. They could have continued talking, they could have used a taser or pepper spray, they could have tried to use techniques that DON'T accidentally kill people they are trying to subdue.

I'm sorry, as serious as this incident is, and as outraged as I am over it, calling a chokehold a "forbidden technique" makes me think of some action show where someone shouts "FORBIDDEN TECHNIQUE: CHOKEHOLD!" and now I can't stop giggling.

[Eiki-mun]

Maybe the cop is like that Fox Hallow Farm guy, and just likes strangling people to death...

It does seem to me we're getting a lot of police brutality these days.

The police are getting more and more brutal these days.

[R. U. Sirius]

Maybe the cop is like that Fox Hallow Farm guy, and just likes strangling people to death...

It does seem to me we're getting a lot of police brutality these days.

The police are getting more and more brutal these days.

I'm not sure that's actually true (though I won't argue against them becoming more militarized). It could just be that we're getting better reporting about cases of police brutality.

[Sigmaleph]

Maybe the cop is like that Fox Hallow Farm guy, and just likes strangling people to death...

It does seem to me we're getting a lot of police brutality these days.

The police are getting more and more brutal these days.

I'm not sure that's actually true (though I won't argue against them becoming more militarized). It could just be that we're getting better reporting about cases of police brutality.

Probably this. We do live in a world where everyone is carrying a portable camera.

[Cerim Treascair]

Oh no, illegally selling cigarettes.  Such a dangerous to society!   

The crime he was suspected of does not matter in this case. The incident started when he resisted arrest BUT the real problem is the asshole/moron cop who used a forbidden technique. There were several police officers there. They could have continued talking, they could have used a taser or pepper spray, they could have tried to use techniques that DON'T accidentally kill people they are trying to subdue.

I'm sorry, as serious as this incident is, and as outraged as I am over it, calling a chokehold a "forbidden technique" makes me think of some action show where someone shouts "FORBIDDEN TECHNIQUE: CHOKEHOLD!" and now I can't stop giggling.

A kiddie version of the Mortal Kombat tv series?

[niam2023]

Maybe the cop is like that Fox Hallow Farm guy, and just likes strangling people to death...

It does seem to me we're getting a lot of police brutality these days.

The police are getting more and more brutal these days.

It is my opinion that people who are trusted with a lot of power to maintain the safety of society and then given more and more power...will become corrupt, violent thugs, little better than the street gangs. They simply get paid leave, rather than jail time, when they gun down someone or strangle someone to death.

They have one motto, and its not protect and serve. It is simply a word "OBEY".

[Askold]

Yeah, no. Not every person who gets power has it go to their head. It is just that the ones who do so can cause a lot of damage and IF the institution gets a culture of abusing power it spreads to new recruits as well and is hard to fix.