By “bad call”, do you mean when they used an banned choke hold to pin down Garner in the first place? There’s a reason why that hold was banned.
10 Likes
1 Like
Feels a lot like how the similar events in London were reported.
6 Likes
1 Like
Not that complicated in this case - it’s pretty clear that the police deliberately injured him in a way that resulted in his death, i.e. murdered him. It’s part of a pattern of behavior by local police, in fact. That’s not a “bad call.”
14 Likes
Anyone see Jenelle Tillman’s short account of a group of white people yelling slurs and attacking protesters?
It’s manslaughter for sure - did they intend him to die? Possibly they wanted to rough him up but didn’t expect him to die. It’s still sickening. It happens too frequently and there are never consequences for the officers involved. Fuck them, until they’re arrested for manslaughter America is self-evidently lawless, there’s no difference between lawless police officers who can kill recklessly, and lawless rioters.
4 Likes
The looters are bad apples, the question is are they a few bad citizens or a few bad cops. If cops, are they going propaganda vigilante, or are they acting under deniable but official orders. Unfortunately this is not an uncommon tactic to seed protests with agents provocateur, they prefer military grade footware.
American society seems unable to improve without a threat, MLK only had power in non-violence as an alternative to Malcom X’s violent uprising which was mostly a call to armed community self defense for unprotected communities.
2 Likes
Hi @nomore, welcome to BoingBoing, hope you stick around for more than this one thread.
I also hope you are not a pathetic astroturfer here to dump some party’s official propaganda into this discussion. To the content of your post.
Restraint checklist, follow it or get fired. If a pilot fails to checklist his aircraft, especially when carrying a passenger, he is criminally negligent, not making a bad call. Zero tolerance is only acceptable for carrying the important people?
To have a culture of not safety harnessing shackled prisoners for a rough ride is intentionally injuring and could easily be argued to be deadly force.
To unlawfully shoot a firearm at a person injure but instead causing death is murder, why not this action?
As a paramedic I was often pretty jaded, it didn’t mean I ignored protocol and the lowest levels of fast food employee professionalism to intentionally or with criminal negligence injure my patients.
11 Likes
I’d be interested in hearing from Boing Boing’s african-american readers/contributors about such incidents that trigger theses unrests.
what makes you think you haven’t already?
9 Likes
Is this because there is so very much looting going on? Entire counties laid waste by savages out of control? Personally I think somebody at Reuters was relieved to find at least one example of looting because they can now make that the main story.
Remember Katrina? Somebody broke into a grocery and handed out water to folks whose homes were destroyed - and the media cried “looting.” In some neighborhoods the same behavior would be called relief work.
For some reporters, it is vitally important to shift your attention to crimes against property, away from crimes against people.
7 Likes
Except everything you’ve said makes perfect sense; as long as you ignore the part where Freddie Gray was alive and well until his arrest, then he was beaten to death by the police.
3 Likes
Your narrative only makes sense where police officers behave within the law and their own rules.
Officers who break either are criminals.
Officers who stay silent (or attack citizens trying to reveal that criminality) are criminals.
How can I trust any officer while the criminal cops remain at large?
3 Likes
The crime of murder does not require that the person intend to kill the victim, only that the act of violence be intentional and that the act resulted in death. The cops committed murder, no doubt about it.
6 Likes
In my Facebook world, where I have many right leaning friends, it’s been a big WIN for the right who are gloating over the chaos. Here’s the kinds of posts I’m seeing from my right leaning friends - and generally silence from the left.
Here’s a link one woman shared:
and another link from another right winger:
1 Like
Sounds like I meant 2nd degree murder - eg violence in which death was a possibility but not the obvious intent - rather than manslaughter
3 Likes
From a local urban artist
I keep seeing comments aimed at the protesters stating ‘Violence is never the answer" or some other feel good cliche’ . Guess what? Agents of the government didn’t get that fucking memo. After decades of complaints, cries, pleas, protest, and every other route conceivable to have the stream of deaths, beatings, civil and human rights violations falling on deaf ears and the Blue Wall standing in the way of justice we reach a boiling point and a short lived outburst in response to decades of far worse crimes committed against civilians by the police. So at what point is it considered insanity to continually peacefully lie down and watch those around you killed?
- Evolve Art aka G. L. Jackson
8 Likes
Condolences on your feed. That’s incredibly unsympathetic.
1 Like
