I just watched the Garner video and had some thoughts on the problem. Here’s my take. And, this is my opinion. Please no vile or vulgar comments-I will just block you if that happens as that is no way for civilized people to have a debate. I don’t think the police officer specifically went out and targeted an African American to attack, I think he would have done that to anyone he felt threatened by-perhaps he was more threatened because Mr Garner was African American and a large man, that I don’t know. I think the officer was wrong no matter what, dead wrong. There are few similarities with this and Ferguson-at Ferguson you had conflicting testimony which made the truth hard to figure out, the grand jury had more evidence that I didn’t see but this isn’t about the Ferguson case-this is about Mr. Garner. I haven’t commented on Ferguson because it is hard to tell who is telling the truth in the ‘he said, she said’ testimony. The problem in the Trayvon Martin case was an untrained person carrying a weapon, not race. George Zimmerman should have never been carrying a weapon and the death of Trayvon would not have happened if a person with some common sense had been there instead of a rent a cop with a gun. A seasoned police officer would have diffused the situation without pulling his weapon I am convinced. I think the NYPD is a great police force tasked with a very hard mission of protecting NYC-I think overall they do a great job. I think the overwhelming majority of police officers are doing great jobs. I greatly admire them and the job they do. However, this murder should have never happened. What tape was the grand jury watching? This was a guy not being violent, to jump on him and put a chokehold on him was horribly premature. A seasoned officer would have never done this, this isn’t about police against people of color in my opinion-this is about bad cops doing dumb things. I could be wrong, this is just my opinion. I was sick watching this video, I can’t believe the grand jury let this officer off. However, I don’t know the instructions given by the judge. I watched the whole OJ Simpson trial while overseas (only English TV I had access to) and I thought OJ was guilty but based on judge’s instructions I would have had to vote innocent because the prosecution didn’t prove it despite my belief OJ did it-this was per judge’s instructions on how to base a verdict. Perhaps this is what happened-judge’s instructions influencing the jurors, I don’t know. I will say this, those that loot are looters-not protestors. Dr King and Nelson Mandela both would not have condoned more sickening and criminal behavior to protest. To burn a person’s business down is no way to protest. Does the system need changed? Yes, I thought the answer was police with cameras-but this was video taped and still it is ‘all harm and no foul’ as Jon Stewart said on his show last night. My only answer to the police officers who have done dumb things is better training. Being from Texas, there is nothing worse than going through a rinky dink town and being stopped by some local ‘Barney Fife’, you know this person has not been trained properly-and while they may be a good police officer, they could also be a goof with a gun. These guys give good cops bad names and this cop who choked out Mr. Garner has given good cops a bad name. I don’t blame the protestors-I, too, think this was wrong. Just please, protest in a way that something changes and against the right people-not burning down people’s lives because at that point you are just a law breaker also. Catch all the thoughts and views from both Michael Cole and I on our podcast at EpicTimes
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 00:49:25 +0000