{"id":1192,"date":"2014-12-04T22:02:40","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T03:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2014-12-04T22:02:40","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T03:02:40","slug":"the-eric-garner-case-truth-versus-ideology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/12\/the-eric-garner-case-truth-versus-ideology.html","title":{"rendered":"The “Eric Garner” Case: Truth versus Ideology"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the rough that is contemporary America, the grand jury that just decided that there were no grounds on which to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner is the second<\/em> diamond to be retrieved.\u00a0 The first <\/em>is the grand jury that refused to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown.<\/p>\n

Reactions have been predictable.\u00a0 The misnamed \u201cprotesters\u201d are in reality barbarians for whom such hallmarks of civilization as the rule of law are obstacles to consolidating their power over the rest of us, barbarians, mind you, who block traffic when they aren\u2019t sending other Americans\u2019 dreams up in smoke along with their businesses and livelihoods.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects in the leftist media have been laboring tirelessly to express their solidarity with the vandals.<\/p>\n

More disappointingly, so too have those who should know better, namely those who are often seen as being on \u201cthe right,\u201d both \u201cconservatives\u201d and \u201clibertarians.\u201d Indeed, the emoting and presuming emanating from virtually all quarters has reached epic proportions.<\/p>\n

The facts:<\/p>\n

(1)Eric Garner was not\u2014was not\u2014<\/em>killed because he was selling loose cigarettes.\u00a0 He died because he was resisting arrest. The officers on the scene used such force as they deemed necessary to subdue <\/em>him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But, the objectors reply, Garner was only selling cigarettes.\u00a0 If not for the astronomical taxes that have illegitimately been imposed upon cigarettes, there never would\u2019ve been a black market for the \u201cloosies\u201d that Garner was peddling.\u00a0 In other words, while Garner was <\/em>breaking the law, the law in question was \u201cunjust\u201d or \u201cimmoral,\u201d for adults should be able to smoke without paying confiscatory tax rates (or something along these lines).<\/p>\n

Thus, Garner never should have been confronted by the police.<\/p>\n

Just recently I argued in this column that recreational and\/or other drug use should be decriminalized, <\/em>that laws designed to \u201csave people from themselves\u201d\u2014e.g. drug laws\u2014are radically antithetical to liberty:\u00a0 I am the last person from whom one could expect an argument in support <\/em>of the laws that made Garner\u2019s \u201ctrade\u201d a crime.\u00a0 That being said, it is <\/em>a crime, and, by definition, then, Garner was a criminal. \u00a0He had been arrested at least 32 times. <\/em><\/p>\n

The police do not make<\/em> laws.\u00a0 Their first duty is to enforce them<\/em>.\u00a0 In this case, they were responding to a complaint about Garner, a man who had dozens of arrests already under his belt.\u00a0 If he felt that he was being hassled or arrested unfairly, then Garner had legal redress via the Civilian Complaint Review Board.\u00a0 The now retired Bo Dietl, perhaps the most highly decorated police officer and detective in the history of the New York City Police Department, describes the latter as a \u201cwell-oiled machine [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

The point is that in resisting arrest rather than fighting it later, the 6-foot-3, 350 pound Garner invited a physical confrontation with the arresting officers.<\/p>\n

(2)The officers did not <\/em>kill Garner with a \u201cchokehold.\u201d\u00a0 Officer Pantaleo placed Garner in a headlock, <\/em>a move that is neither illegal nor in violation of NYPD protocols. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The aggrieved and their accomplices in the press, the self-righteous, are having none of this.\u00a0 From the time this incident first occurred to the present day, they insist upon mis<\/em>characterizing the police\u2019s action as a \u201cchokehold.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was no such thing.<\/p>\n

However, as Bo Dietl explains: \u201cTo be a chokehold, there must be constant pressure on a person\u2019s neck, compressing his windpipe or cutting off the flow of blood to the carotid artery, rendering him unconscious.\u201d Yet it is \u201cobvious\u201d from the video, as Dietl notes, that \u201cthe arresting officer put his arm around Garner\u2019s neck to bring him to the ground [.]\u201d\u00a0 Upon achieving his objective, Garner can be heard while he is already on the ground <\/em>claiming that he can\u2019t breathe.\u00a0 It was then <\/em>that the officers called for help.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Dietl refers to a \u201ctop medical examiner\u201d who confided in him that, given Garner\u2019s variety of obesity-related health issues, like heart disease and asthma, it was \u201cvery irresponsible\u201d for the Medical Examiner\u2019s Office to declare Garner\u2019s death a \u201chomicide\u201d by \u201cchokehold.\u201d<\/p>\n

(3)The grand jury that chose not to indict Officer Pantaleo on any of the charges <\/em>on which they could\u2019ve indicted him was composed of 23 <\/em>people.\u00a0 Nearly two dozen strangers were thrown together for an extended period of time and exposed to mountains of evidence of every conceivable type\u2014including the eye witness testimony of the 22 or so people who witnessed the events in question, the video of the confrontation, Officer Pantaleo\u2019s own testimony, etc.\u00a0 Only 12 jurors <\/em>were needed for an indictment to be served.\u00a0 The prosecutor couldn\u2019t even get that.\u00a0 These strangers\u2014as well versed in the facts of the case as anyone, and infinitely more so than most of those now criticizing them\u2014concluded that the facts did not <\/em>warrant an indictment of any sort.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Daily News <\/em>reports: \u201cAfter four months of reviewing the evidence, a majority on the panel concluded [that] there was not enough there to charge Pantaleo with manslaughter, reckless endangerment or criminally negligent homicide.\u00a0 The 23-member grand jury, sources said, was comprised of 14 whites, with the rest being black or Hispanic.\u201d \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

To this, the only objection, as far as I can determine, is that the grand jury is wrong.\u00a0 From Al Sharpton to Charles Krauthammer to others of a libertarian bent, with one voice this is their cry.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ridiculous.<\/p>\n

As even the left-leaning Christian Science Monitor <\/em>concedes, it is \u201cnot difficult\u201d for prosecutors to secure indictments.\u00a0 Citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 2010 numbers, it reports that prosecutors sought indictments in approximately 162,000 <\/em>cases. In all but eleven <\/em>of these, grand jurors failed to deliver.<\/p>\n

In a country that was more devoted to individual liberty, perhaps Eric Garner would still be alive.<\/p>\n

And if critics of the grand jury decision not to indict Officer Pantaleo were more devoted to truth, as opposed to their own ideological fantasies, perhaps they would recognize that justice was indeed served. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the rough that is contemporary America, the grand jury that just decided that there were no grounds on which to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner is the second diamond to be retrieved.\u00a0 The first is the grand jury that refused to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the death of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe "Eric Garner" Case: Truth versus Ideology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/12\/the-eric-garner-case-truth-versus-ideology.html\" 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