[Watch] NYPD cop in Eric Garner chokehold death not indicted. Commentaries

The Daily Dose

 

"I couldn’t agree more with the following statement from Charles Krauthammer said. “The timing is unfortunate,” he said. “This has no connection with what happened in Ferguson. From looking at the video, the grand jury’s decision here is totally incomprehensible. It looks as if at least they might have indicted him on something like involuntary manslaughter, at the very least. The guy actually said, ‘I can’t breathe,’ which ought to be a signal that the guy was unarmed, and the crime was as petty as they come … He was selling loose cigarettes, which is in and of itself almost absurd that someone has to die over that,' ”

 

From the NY Times

This from The Volokh Conspiracy: Will the Justice Department expeditiously investigate Eric Garner death? Mike Brown’s?

"I want to focus on the Attorney General’s promise that the Garner investigation will be “expeditious.”  Sadly, the Department’s track record in recent highly-publicized cases — i.e., the Michael Brown case and particularly the Trayvon Martin case — does not inspire confidence. We still have no decision from the department about whether it will file federal charges in these cases even after it appears that it has collected all significant evidence." ...

Andrew C. McCarthy: The grand jury may have gotten it wrong.
 

 

... "In any event, others counter that Garner could be heard repeatedly telling the police he could not breathe. While this actually undercuts the claim that a banned chokehold was used (since, if it had been, Garner would have had great difficulty speaking so audibly), Garner’s pleas suggest that the police used excessive force — a problem that makes the chokehold debate nearly irrelevant. In the absence of any apparent threat to the police, critics forcefully ask, shouldn’t Pantaleo have stopped whatever hold was being applied?" ...

..."But it’s not that simple. Carefully examined, the ME’s homicide finding may have hurt more than helped the argument for indictment." ... (Emphases in the original)

The Actual Facts of The Eric Garner Case  "Unlike the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, Missouri, there is excellent cause for concern here. But that concern does not mean that facts of the case ought to become irrelevant."

 Why my Staten Island isn't Ferguson ... "Most of us feel compassion and sorrow for Eric Garner's family and I am just as perplexed by the outcome of the Grand Jury. I am encouraged by their statements that far from inciting violence like Michael Brown's relatives, they are simply expressing their sorrow, disappointment and shock. There will probably be legal recourses that they can pursue and I expect them to take them. There is definite evidence that the NYPD and EMT were negligent in responding to Mr. Garner's medical emergency. There are idiot cops on Staten Island but most of them do the best they can do in preserving the Island's reputation for safety and low crime." ...

Eric Holder And His Little Racially-Tinged Federal Civil Rights Investigations  "It is obvious that holder and the Obama administration are trying to make a white-on-black violence case, but where is the outrage, and where is the federal investigation into the  2012 shooting death of a white man, who was killed by a black police officer in Mobile, Alabama?"

Thomas Lifson: Grand jury does not indict NYPD cop in death of Eric Garner; Mayor de Blasio blames 'racism'   ... " Owing to availability of the internet video showing the choke hold, many commentators across the ideological spectrum, including Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren, Andrew Napolitano, and Charles Krauthammer, expressed shock, with many expecting an indictment for at least negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter.  But the grand jury transcripts remain sealed, so we don’t know what medical evidence was heard relating to the cause of death (Garner was obese and suffered from asthma), nor do we know what else was presented to them."