Ted Rall for December 08, 2014

The guy had a lot more health problems other than being fat.Also, 23 previous arrests doesn’t help his case either.Where’s our “Unifying President”?

While racism IS a problem, and cops aren’t any more immune than bloggers, talk show hosts, or the public at large, I HAVE had to tranquilize to safely handle bears smaller than the foks in either MO. or NY.. Cops aren’t allowed to tranquilize, and even “stun” guns don’t always take foks down, and have like potential fatal effects on the unhealthy.

The NY cops did take him down, and administered first aid, calling for an ambulance. It wasn’t a “choke” hold, and it was actually trauma to the chest from compression that caused the complications.

I’d still like to know what in the victim’s history, or earlier in the conversation, that resulted in four officers already being present before they attempted the arrest.

I would venture that at least part of the problem is this apparent culture of thinking it’s ok to run from cops or resist arrest. If a cop tells you to stop or stand still that’s what you do – you cannot win if you resist arrest.

I don’t know how you define wrongful death. I am sure they did not intend to seriously injure the man. He had a long record of run ins with the police, he was committing a crime, he was resisting arrest which is a crime in it self. The fact there were four cops on the scene tells you some time passed talking to him before reinforcements were present. It was a very sad and unfortunate outcome but I am not sure what else the police could do under the circumstances. On the other side of the coin, the police are generally too aggressive and clearly there is a racial bias problem that needs to be fixed.

Another note from the lack of indictment: for the crime to be “homicide” (or Murder one, etc, depending on state law definitions) there MUST BE INTENT. The grand jury must find intent in order to issue an indictment, said intent was not present in New York.

Involuntary manslaughter can be absent intent, but still requires reckless, etc, behaviors. The reckless behaviors in the majority of cases where police use “excessive” force in the eyes of the press and publics, is overwhelmingly initiated by the person being arrested. In court, “blame” must be divided in said cases, and in tort claims, payments to the aggrieved are often reduced based on their own culpability.

Brown and Garner were both more than a little responsible for the events, and outcomes, and that’s another tragedy of strict “black or white” analysis.

With respect to the comment in the last panel, there are lots of police officers and they can communicate via radio. Advantage: Constabulary