Eric Garner, Cattle, and Bill O'Reilly

Eric Garner, Cattle, and Bill O'Reilly

The Gist

Eric Garner died after he was put in a choke hold, banned by the NYPD since 1993, by police officer Daniel Pantaleo who believed Garner was selling black market cigarettes. Although the grand jury was able to see the video that caught the whole incident (where Garner is heard to say “I can’t breathe” numerous times), they still didn't think it appropriate to indict Pantaleo. In order to indict, 12 of the 23 jurors on the grand jury must find the evidence presented to them is both legally sufficient and provides reasonable cause to believe that the defendant has committed the crime. A grand jury is considered a tool for prosecutors, who can offer a certain version of a story and do not have to present evidence that could exonerate the perpetrator. Defenders of Pantaleo allege that he was not using the choke hold (which he testified to at the grand jury), but rather a technique taught at the police academy and, had Garner not suffered from asthma and heart disease, he would have survived the incident. Others, say the chokehold/appropriate-police-academy-taught-maneuver was grossly disproportionate considering Garner had his hands up, was outnumbered and did not threaten the police officers. The Atlantic wrote a fascinating story that asked readers the following:

“imagine that Eric Garner had been white….the police hassled Garner because he had a history of selling untaxed cigarettes….the kind of big-government intrusion that drives Tea Partiers nuts…[this case] bears some resemblance to that of Cliven Bundy, the…rancher who…prevented Bureau of Land Management agents from impounding his cattle after he refused to pay government grazing fees. Like Garner, Bundy was engaged in a form of commerce he believed the government should not tax… [he] resisted law enforcement’s efforts to punish him for it. For many conservatives, this made Bundy a hero….” 

One does have to wonder why the grand jury decided decided not to indict when such polar opposites as Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart agree it should have…and now you know the gist.