THE DEATHS OF MICHAEL BROWN & ERIC GARNER: SAD EXAMPLES OF AMERICAM RACISM

…Michael Brown’s body laid exposed in the street for over 4 hours,

 

The questionable deaths of Michael Brown and of Eric Garner have caused major protests and riots in major US cities.

 

In the killing of Michal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, many of us had questions about how the prosecutor handled himself in that Grand Jury investigation. 

It quickly became obvious that the prosecutor had no intention of indicting a Ferguson Police Officer that he had counted on in his previous court cases.  This was the situation, even though there were multiple eye witnesses that had come forward with statements that were not consistent with the shooting officer’s report.  If it had been anybody but a local police officer, the prosecutor would most likely have just asked for and received an indictment and the case would have then gone on to a jury trial. 

Oh, and the witnesses of this tragic event were not just local young blacks, but they also included some white construction workers that saw the whole event and their witness statements were also counter to the shooting officer’s report.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not making a case for Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson’s guilt or innocence.  But the issue did deserve a fair trial where both sides could argue the police officer’s guilt or innocence of using excessive force, and the situation did demand that every witness, and perhaps the accused, be cross-examined.  Now the only hope for that result is if the Feds get involved or if there is a civil law suite.

So, in an attempt to avoid this questionable issue of police guilt in the future, all the Ferguson Police Officers will now be using dash and body video cameras that are supposed to eliminate the issues that came up in the Michael Brown shooting.  In addition, our president has now asked for millions of tax-payer dollars to provide funding for body cameras for police officers in many of the major US cities.

But if these body and dash videos are supposed to eliminate most of the problems, as became evident with Michael Brown’s killing, what about the tragic death of the unarmed black man, Eric Garner, in New York City?

In that case, there were no body cameras, but instead there was a complete, independent video made by a by-stander of the whole episode.  The smart phone video clearly included an illegal police choke-hold and 5 or 6 police officers against an unarmed man that happened to have some serious medical conditions. 

In this case, the unarmed man was not fighting or threatening the group of Staten Island officers and there was no reason to use an illegal choke hold or to have three or four officers crush his body which the official autopsy showed that both were the cause of death.  And all this effort by multiple Staten Island police officers, which left a father and grandfather dead, was for the police going after a local citizen for his selling loose cigarettes on the sidewalk.

What is initially confusing about Mr. Garner’s tragic death is that even though the coroner called the death a homicide, and that the death was not just due to the illegal choke hold but also from the crushing by the other officers, the prosecutor still gave immunity to all of the police officers except the one that used the illegal choke hold….? 

So, after the Grand Jury watched the video and after the police officer testified for hours to the Grand Jury, the Jury still did not indict the officer.  Therefore, once again, as with the Michael Brown decision, there would again not be a regular jury trial for hearing both sides of the situation and for any cross-examinations to occur.

With just these two case alone, there is no wonder that there are major protests across the country, especially where there are large populations of racial minorities.  These also do not include the many other cases that have now surfaced where the local authorities have not had to answer to their deadly force issues as the rest of us Americans do when we cause tragic or deadly outcomes.

As I had written in my previous article where here in America, we don’t even keep an accurate count as to how many civilians are killed every year by local police officers, we do know that it could be more than ten-fold in excess of any other major industrialized nation.

I also believe this event is one more proof that the so called, “broken window” theory of policing, which holds that cracking down on minor legal offenses — such as selling loose cigarettes — is a key to reducing serious crimes.  This theory is proving to be false and totally wrong-headed.

The duty of the local police officers, whom I personally honor and respect, is supposed to be to “serve and protect” our citizens and our communities.  It is not to rule them using tear gas and military tactics.

Oh, and Mr. Garner didn’t even come close to fitting the current “young black male” category that seems to define the country’s most feared and loathed citizens.  

Mr. Garner was instead an overweight, middle-aged man with asthma. Because of the decisions of the Staten Island Grand Jury, we are now expected to believe that the men that caused the death of this civilian for selling “loose cigarettes”, these police officers did nothing wrong.

Eric Garner’s illegal activities of selling “loose ciggies” should have caused a warning from the police and he should have been directed to stop selling and to go home.  At worst, he should have been issued a citation that required him to show up in court and pay a fine. That’s all.  

 

But unfortunately, as it was with the young Trayvon Martin and with Michael Brown, and as it is with many other men in this country, Eric Garner committed the capital offense of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and being the wrong color.

Copyright G.Ater  2014