You're ignoring his point re: the Democrats & muddying the

Posted on: September 1, 2019 at 22:57:52 CT

waters by comingling so much speculation on a variety of other issues.

The taxation on the cigarettes was put in place by Democrats. The laws against an individual selling loose cigarettes were put in place by Democrats. Democrats were in charge of hiring the police, setting the standards for their hire and training. They also set the parameters for how stringently to enforce the laws, and were the ones who had been pressuring the police to crack down on that activity. They were also in charge of the investigation, how it was to be conducted, and who would be in charge of investigations.

Is someone(s) screwed up, it obviously would have been a Democrat or more than one Democrat.

Your implication that the police deliberately "choked out" Eric Garner because he may have been committing some crime is quite absurd, as even you are probably aware.

Officer Pantaleo probably felt a lot worse about what happened than you do. He was doing his job as dictated by his bosses who had gotten complaints from merchants who had paid those taxes about people undercutting them while standing outside their doors selling to their potential customers.

I really doubt that he relished confronting Mr. Garner and even less did he want to get into a wrestling match on the sidewalk with some 350 lb guy who was resisting arrest. Perhaps he could have done so in a kindler and gentler manner, but I don't think there is any way in hell he was intending to "choke him out".

Mr. Garner had to be in bad physical condition. I don't know if they did an autopsy to see if he had clogged arteries or anything, but he undoubtedly had high blood pressure, was 350 lbs and presumably a smoker. Just wrestling with the police... or even a little kid could possibly cause a heart attack or a stroke.

Obviously, in retrospect, they should have taken him more seriously when he said he couldn't breathe, but when a policeman is wrestling with someone trying to resist arrest I imagine that a lot of people say things like that to try and trick them to relax their grip and then try and take advantage of the opening if they comply. Pantaleo may well have thought, hey, I'm not choking him so there's no need to let him go. Of course, that's speculation, but I haven't read transcripts of court testimony. Have you?