Eric Garner was confronted because he was allegedly selling cigarettes on the street tax free, since in New York the tax on cigarettes is about $6.00. I watched the video before the cops tried to arrest him, and Garner kept saying, "leave me alone", as he had been confronted by the police on multiple occasions before. He claimed he was not doing anything wrong and just wanted to be left alone. He began to get upset and loud, when the police eventually attempted to arrest him. He tried to fight off the handcuffs and wanted the police to get away from him. It was then that Officer Daniel Pantaleo jumped on Garner's back in an attempt to restrain him, using an illegal choke hold, rather than the legal restraint of a headlock. The other officers present aided Pantaleo in his attempts to restrain Garner, while Garner continuously repeated, "I can't breathe, I can't breathe". It was also reported that another officer compressed his chest while he was on the ground, which the coroner reported also contributed to his death. The combination of the choke hold and the chest compression is said to be what killed Garner, but the NYPD claims that his obesity, high blood pressure, and asthma also contributed to his passing.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-video
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/05/police-chokehold-eric-garner_n_6277790.html
This is a really great and nonpartisan summary of what happened! I'd love to see a little more about the reaction. Not a lot of people have been talking about it right now, but the protests in Berkeley at the moment are getting a little out of hand - two of my friends said they had to run away to avoid tear gas and they'd been pushed around when police tried to lure the crowd to Oakland PD's jurisdiction. I saw on Twitter one professor stated that any students tear gassed or injured otherwise would have extensions on their finals.
ReplyDeleteCheck out some pretty powerful photos: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/photo-gallery-150-arrested-berkeley-protests-police-brutality/
Interestingly enough, this didn't gain much traction until the hearing of the case, which happened last week. I'm sure there have been many more cases of racial profiling/police brutality; why is it that the topic is only surfacing greatly now? Or is it that people are paying attention because of the wide usage of social media?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post Kaya! This case is also very well known because a grand jury decided not to indict the officer involved, even though the crime was caught on camera. This decision came about a week after a grand jury announced no indictment in the famous Michael Brown case, and the two cases have sparked protests across the country. Marches and die-ins have been held in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Boston, along with many other cities. Many politicians and famous sports players have also expressed their concern (some players have worn "I can't breathe" shirts and there was one football team that walked onto the field with the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture). These cases can be seen as evidence of racial prejudice still existing in America today, as both were crimes done by white police officers against black victims. I'd love to know what everyone else thinks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing attention to this Kaya! The case took a popular turn when the jury decided not to indict Pantaleo and a recent big protest happened during the annual Tree Lighting Ceremony in Rockefeller Center. Protesters were heard chanting "I can't breathe" during videos of the performances and making #shutitdown (in reference to the tree lighting) a worldwide trend on Twitter. It's also interesting how the jury ruled the case as homicide and how the person who filmed the video, Ramsey Orta, got indicted by a grand jury on weapon charges just a month after the video went viral.
ReplyDeleteAmazing post Kaya! This case has sparked a lot of outrage across the country and there have been major protests near the bay area. This week in both Berkeley and Oakland protests are still very strong. Yesterday, Highway 24 was blocked and all traffic on the highway was stopped for miles. The Bart also stopped all trains. Two days ago in Berkeley, the subway station was shut down and more protesters in that area shut down Interstate 80
ReplyDeleteThanks for discussing this topic in our blog setting, Kaya. Although it may be a stretch, the recent events relating to police brutality against African Americans reminds me a bit of the Ku Klux Klan and what they stood for. They used terror tactics and violence, much like the violence that has caused several specific cases to come under the media's radar, and certainly numerous other cases that are not as widely reported upon.
ReplyDeleteThis got me thinking about the reaction to racist violence in the past, so I researched the public's reaction to Ku Klux Klan activity. I found out that in 1964 and 65, widespread opposition to the brutality was partly what pushed for the Civil Rights Laws during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Additionally, the FBI dedicated more work force to investigating and putting an end to KKK activity.
I was wondering if anyone thought that this kind of government intervention should be implemented nowadays to combat race crimes.
Source:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan/the-ku-klux-klan-0
Hey Kaya, good post. One thing I appreciated was how you stayed objective throughout the post. In such controversial events, it's easy to stay one sided, even if you don't necessarily mean to. I don't know a lot about what happened. The fact about the high New York tax on cigarettes is something worth while to point out. I read somewhere that some politicians were against the tax so as to avoid the inevitable increase in illegal sales of cigarettes. A good question to ask would be if the tax had not been increased, would Garner still have found himself in that situation?
ReplyDelete