Eric Garner

Sometimes I feel like what’s the point about talking about this issue anymore.  The issue of police violence against poor people, especially brown people.  But how can I just sit by and not call out what I see? 

Eric Garner’s case seems to be the most clear-cut of the ones we have seen recently.  His “crime” was selling loose cigarettes.  You can argue about whether that should be a crime or not, but you can’t argue he was not engaged in anything violent.  He didn’t attack the police; he just expressed frustration with being arrested again.  Why is this an offense that requires arrest anyway?  Can’t they just fine him?  There’s no violence, no theft. 

We have a video, so we know what happened.  There’s no question regarding the behavior of the police or Mr. Garner.  In the Mike Brown case, you can wonder if he really reached into the police car as the police claimed, and we know (pretty certainly) that he shoved that clerk at the convenience store.  There’s no video to show if he was coming toward the officer or not.  But in the case of Mr. Garner, there is no question.  They choked him to death because he didn’t want to be arrested.  And because he was a large black man, which means dangerous, no matter what he does. 

And now he’s dead.  I think sometimes when we see these news stories so often, we forget he doesn’t get to go on.  His family doesn’t get to see him at family dinners and holidays.  He doesn’t get to contribute his perspective to society.  It’s over for him.  And no consequences for the police officers who killed him.  What message do you think that sends to other people who have interactions with the NYPD?  Do they trust them to protect their rights? 

What are the police doing?

I am writing this after the non-indictment of Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner.  Since we have the video in this case, it just goes to show how hard it is to get an indictment against a police officer.   There’s no disputing the facts.  Mr. Garner probably was selling tobacco illegally.  He may have argued with the officers arresting him for selling this tobacco.  He was choked to death by the officer.  The person recording the interaction was charged for filming what happened, but the officer who choked Mr. Garner is not going to be charged?

White people need to understand, the protests are not so much about an individual case as much as the fact that every week or so, there’s another case of an unarmed person being killed by police over something non-life-threatening.  And that person being killed is overwhelmingly likely to be black or brown.  It’s not just that it happens, but that it keeps happening.  I don’t really know how to solve this problem, but it seems to me that it should start with providing each child with the same opportunity to get the best education they can, no matter who their parents are.  Helping each child to have nutritious food to eat, no matter where they live.  To stop incarcerating people for minor drug crimes where no violence was done, so that they can get a job and participate in our civil governance.

I don’t know how we expect people to be contributing members of society when we keep them in schools with so few resources to teach them the skills they will need in this new global economy.  What do we expect when older brothers are fathers are locked up in prisons set up for private profit.  How often do they see the system working to make their lives any better?  What are they supposed to do if the school they attend doesn’t have the textbooks or the teachers to prepare them for life?  You have to have bootstraps before you can pull yourself up by them!