Dear Joseph:
Maybe you should get your facts straight regarding Eric Garner.
First off, Eric Garner died from a heart attack; he wasn’t choked to death! A chokehold is when your hands and thumbs are together squeezing the person’s larynx. Garner was in a sleeper hold. The pressure is on the Carotid arteries, cutting off blood to the brain, causing the person to pass out, which Garner did. Police officers are well-trained to use this procedure on people resisting arrest. A number of law enforcement people have pointed out all these things, including my son who is a police officer in the L.A. area.
Secondly, when you start pushing away and swinging your arms against a police officer, it’s resisting arrest.
Finally, if Eric Garner wasn’t breaking a number of laws and had just cooperated with the police officers, he’d be alive today. You don’t argue with police officers! You don’t push a cop away!
Trafficking in illegal cigarettes is big business and easy money for criminals like Eric Garner. Trafficking in illegal cigarettes is not a petty crime, as you and others are trying to make it out to be. It’s big business, very profitable and illegal!
Bottom line: Eric Garner died due to the unintended consequences of his own illegal behavior.
Richard Meixner
