HOW TO MOVE FORWARD FROM THE ERIC GARNER NYPD CASE. Truth can be elusive, to our detriment. We gripe and moan about how the country is in a state of constant emotional fisticuffs and every disagreement accelerates to a kind of nuclear political war, but, really, aren’t we all like that, at least a little? Take the controversy over the grand jury’s decision on Wednesday not to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for putting a chokehold on Eric Garner, a suspect he and other cops were trying to arrest for illegally selling cigarettes on the streets of Staten Island last July. So many people take to their political/moral/emotional corners, passionately arguing their side, and dismissing the other side as either racist or no-good thugs and troublemakers. The truth of this case, like most of life, stands in the center of the ring, not in the corners. I am NOT making an argument here that officer Pantaleo should or should not have been indicted. That’s not the point of this post. Besides, the grand jury didn’t indict the cop, and now the feds will look into this as a civil rights case. The rest of us have to live and move on, and figure out what lessons are to be learned. I’m thinking about the narrow framework of those 10 or so minutes on July 17, when Dan Pantaleo and his special anti-crime unit arrived on the scene to question and then arrest Eric Garner. In that short time frame, each side made decisions that escalated what should have been a routine police stop into a deadly confrontation. And each side – and I can hear the shouts of anger directed at me now – each side bares some responsibility. What parent – black, white, brown, yellow, red, purple, rainbow – hasn’t told their kids that when they get stopped by the cops, it doesn’t matter if the cops are wrong, or revengeful, or right and just, they have the power and they have guns and they can use physical force and they can arrest you? So be polite. Be nice. You can redress your grievances later, but in the instant of confrontation, attitude is everything. Especially when the other guy(s) have guns that shoot bullets. I’m sure Eric Garner had his grievances and anger with police officers. He was no saint – he had a criminal record, lots of run-ins with the law. But he wasn’t a murderer or an armed bank robber; he was selling cigarettes, one of those quality of life issues that police, rightly, want to stop under the proven law enforcement theory that minor infractions lead to major infractions. And, alas, this was indeed a minor infraction. But what if Garner had been cool? What if he had taken his summons and fought it in court? Did he think that by refusing to be arrested the situation would just go away? Did he think he was taking some kind of stand as an African-American, sick and tired of getting busted by the cops? I’m also sure Dan Pantaleo didn’t wake up that morning and think he would go to work, lock his arm around a guy’s neck, fall on top of him, and the suspect would end up dying. No one thinks he did. And I’m also pretty sure that, if he had to do it over again, he and his colleagues would do this differently, and they wouldn’t leave Garner handcuffed, on his stomach, unconscious, dying, after he had said nearly a dozen times, “I can’t breathe.” I’ve looked at the cell phone videotapes made by bystanders dozens of times, and each time I stop it and wonder, hey, fellas, dial it back, r-i-g-h-t t-h-e-r-e. So many opportunities for both sides in this ill-fated confrontation to have dialed this back, and prevented the deadly outcome. Both sides. Don’t scream at this post. Please. Each side is to blame. If one side is screaming louder it’s because one side died. If the officer had been killed, then the police would be screaming louder. I promise they would. It is time to leave the corners and walk towards the middle. The police are pissed off at Mayor de Blasio, who has taken this grand jury decision personally. He and his wife have had the conversation with their son, Dante, about what to do if he’s stopped by the police, and how to act polite, no matter if he thinks he’s being wronged. Iron it out later, they’ve advised. I’ve done the same with my kids. Most parents have. The Mayor and his police commissioner, Bill Bratton, and President Obama, are all trying to use this deadly tragedy – and the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, as teachable moments. Eric Garner cannot be brought back to life on Staten Island, but maybe other lives can be saved. Maybe by opening lines of communication, by retraining police officers, by everyone being aware that we all look situations differently than the person next to us – maybe Eric Garner’s death, and the upending of Dan Pantaleo’s career and life, perhaps forever – won’t have all been for naught. There is so much fervent passion and anger – thankfully nothing like the out-of-control rage we saw last month in Ferguson – but it’s time to start moving in from the corners, towards truth, and, most importantly, towards a better future. We have to.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 21:02:16 +0000
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