The chatter all across the country — from the left and the right — appears to be saying the same thing about the death of Eric Garner at the hands of Staten Island, N.Y. police.
The grand jury blew it when it declined to indict a police officer for a crime when he choked Garner to death.
I finally saw the video last night showing Garner being questioned by cops over his alleged selling of “illegal cigarettes.” Garner pleaded with the police to leave him alone, that he wasn’t guilty of any crime. One of the cops then slapped a choke hold on Garner, wrestled him to the ground.
Garner was heard on the video telling the officers 11 times that “I can’t breathe.” He passed out and then died.
And the grand jury couldn’t find probable cause to accuse the officer of a crime?
What in the world has happened here?
TheĀ difference between thisĀ incident and the Ferguson Mo., case involving the shooting death of Michael Brown, a young black man, by Darren Wilson, a white former police officer, is crystal clear. The Ferguson case had too many conflicting accounts of what happened, whether Brown was surrendering or attacking Wilson. The Garner case is cut, dried and laid out there for everyone to see: The police officer — aided by several of his colleagues — slapped a killer chokehold on Garner.
Could he have lessened the pressure enough to allow Garner to breathe? I believe he could have done exactly that.
Whatever in the world the grand jury was thinking needs to be revealed. As Ricky told Lucy: You got some ‘splainin’ to do.