A Life With No Value – The Sequel “Me & My Lying Eyes”

I’m sorry somehow I must have slipped and fell into Mr. Peabody’s Way Back Machine because I could swear I’m living in Jim Crow era 1932. Yesterday it was announced that a Grand Jury would not hand down an indictment for the police officer who killed Eric Garner in New York last summer…apparently videotaped evidence is meaningless. I found it strangely bizarre because as you know these are post racial times in which we live…at least according to certain Supreme Court Justices. Seriously all this talk of having cops wear cameras would be a complete waste. A better idea may be to tape these crazy ass secret Grand Jury proceedings to see what the hell is going on with them. Or perhaps it’s time to bypass the Grand Jury altogether and take these cases directly to a federal prosecutor. It seems apparent, well at least to me that there is a conflict of interest with state and local prosecutors and police officers. Why are these police officers allowed to be investigated by the very people they work with every day? In the case of Michael Brown in Ferguson the prosecutor purposely presented the Grand Jury with as much conflicting evidence as he could and ignored the witnesses who stated he was shot with his hands up and any others whose version conflicted with that of Officer Darren Wilson as he deemed their testimony unreliable. In both the Brown and Garner cases the police officer was allowed to testify to the Grand Jury, which no competent lawyer would ever allow his client to do…unless perhaps there was an immunity offer or a guarantee of no prosecution. Of course neither of these officers was cross examined either.

If you have not yet seen the video please check it out here and listen closely to the audio, I’ll wait. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ka4oKu1jo . There is little doubt as to what happened and the problem is obvious, it’s one of constant harassment of poor and minority citizens and it has created a culture of killer cops. This man was not an immediate danger to anyone, as we so often hear from police and no one feared for their life. He was not armed or threatening and as far as resisting arrest he was never told he was under arrest to begin with and even if he was, the degree of force used was definitely unwarranted. He simply asked to be left alone as he had been harassed numerous times by the police for the horrific and heinous crime of selling untaxed loose cigarettes…by the way he had no cigarettes on him at the time of his death. This was cold blooded murder plan and simple. In fact the coroner ruled his death a homicide so can someone please explain to me why this officer was not indicted. There were no conflicting witness statements, there were no outrageous claims of Eric Garner charging the police it’s all right there on the video. Let’s put aside the use of the illegal choke hold, this officer jumped on Mr. Garner’s back as if he was some wild untamed animal and brought him face down on to the concrete. Then the entire team of officers, who apparently just happened to be out on tax evader patrol, piled on him like they were trying to recover a loose ball fumble.

Here’s the thing, everyone talks about simply cooperating with the police when stopped to avoid confrontation but it’s not that simple. If I’m stopped by the police I’m going to ask why, now maybe that’s just me and it may piss off some hot headed police officer but you do have a right to know why you’re being arrested. If you watch the video it’s apparent from the conversation that the officer speaking to Eric Garner knows him from previous arrest for selling cigarettes but Mr. Garner wants to know why he was being harassed that day. Where were the cigarettes he was selling THAT day? This apparently wasn’t the first time he had been harassed which is why he was upset and fed up as he stated “it ends today” ironically moments before he was killed. Avoiding confrontation works both ways. These officers are supposedly trained so why did Rambo who jumped him from behind in mid conversation with the other officer continue to choke him with a knee placed in his back as he pleaded “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe” over and over? The man was obviously obese did you not think cutting off his air supply would cause serious damage and ignoring that, why wasn’t CPR administered when it became apparent he wasn’t breathing? Why the arrest for the simple crime of selling untaxed loose cigarettes to begin with? Loose cigarettes you can get at your local liquor store for 50 cents apiece…untaxed. This was not some perilous life or death  situation where there was no time for these questions to be answered and certainly not a situation requiring the death penalty. So again, why no indictment? If not for murder why not manslaughter or even negligible homicide, why nothing? Why is it that the killing of Black men by White police officers is continually judged as justified?

As a side note, the young man filming the incident was indicted the following month by a Grand Jury on a charge of weapons possession. He’s Latino and says he was set up by the police in retaliation for filming and posting the video but the Grand Jury decided to indict him anyway…no surprise there. Of course the police wouldn’t resort to framing and railroading this guy just for filming and making public their illegal and fatal arrest.  Oh, and just one more thing, fuck you Charles Barkley you should stick to sports commentating…dumb ass.

“I'm minding my business, officer, I’m minding my business. Please just leave me alone. I told you the last time, please just leave me alone. Please, please, don't touch me. Do not touch me.  I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe.”