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Comments on the Outrageous Staten Island Grand Jury Decision

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I can’t even tell you how angry and disgusted I am at this (No Indictment in Eric Garner Chokehold Case for N.Y.P.D. Officer). Is there rule of law in this country or not? If you’re not white and/or wealthy, the fact is that the justice system is massively biased against you in this country, and has been for…ever, basically. How on earth is that acceptable in the United States of America in the year 2014?!? It certainly isn’t to me, that’s for damn sure. Anyway, here are a few comments that sum up how I feel right now, also believe are worth passing along. Also, check out that video and wrack your brain about how a grand jury wouldn’t even send this on to be heard in a court of law. I’m just speechless.

Booman Tribune:

It’s legal to kill black people in this country if you are a police officer. This is not hyperbole…The whole thing can be captured on film. An illegal chokehold can be used. It doesn’t matter. If you’re a police officer, you won’t even have to explain yourself in front of a judge…The police killed a man and it means nothing. Essentially, it never happened.

New York Times top-rated comment:

Chokeholds are banned by NY Police rules. Yet this officer used one to kill someone.

And yet he’s not even taken to trail by jury, out in public. And people wonder why African-Americans protest? He killed a man for selling loose cigarettes, because it upset local business owners. This is what our country has come to. Rule of law? Hardly.

Top-rated comment at the Washington Post:

“Body cameras won’t help if cops aren’t being indicted for strangling a man to death on camera.”

One of the smartest people I know, on his Facebook page.

This is a tragic day for the American system of justice, as a NY grand jury declines to indict NYPD officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a man whose only crime was selling loose cigarettes on the street. Combined with the recent Ferguson decision, today’s ruling sends the worst possible message, not only the African American communities across the nation, but to the public in general-that police are allowed to answer any perceived breach of order with deadly force, and without fear of prosecution.

This goes beyond a misstep, or simple bias, this is a clear and resounding affirmation that the police are considered not simply part of the legal system, but are immune from prosecution under it. What recourse does the public have within the rules of a system that refuses to purge itself of bad cops?

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand:

While this decision is shocking, I want to echo the statement of a wide range of leaders inside and outside of government who are urging that protests remain peaceful in the aftermath of this decision. The death of Eric Garner is a tragedy that demands accountability. Nobody unarmed should die on a New York City street corner for suspected low-level offenses. I’m shocked by this grand jury decision, and will be calling on the Department of Justice to investigate.

Balloon Juice:

I got nothing.  This is not a justice system.  This is not policing in any form that I understand.  This is how law serves as cover for power when the forms but not the substance of civil society are all that is left.

Hot Air

Lots of conservatives whom I follow on Twitter are shocked by the failure to indict. Here’s a good question from Red State’s Dan McLaughlin. Did the prosecutor ask for manslaughter at all?

Shakesville (breaking my no-profanity rule for this one)

Today, a grand jury failed to indict the NYPD officer who killed Garner, Officer Daniel Pantaleo. On camera. Illegal chokehold. Ruled a homicide. No charges. I am hardly the first person to ask: If even this killing does not result in an indictment, what the fuck will?

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