When Police Chief O’Neill announced that police officer Daniel Pantaleo was terminated from the NYPD some thought that should be enough to satisfy Eric Garner’s family and the calls for justice. Why it took five years to come to this decision is simple.
The NYPD never wants to find any of its employees guilty of doing anything wrong on/off the job. When you have any organization that investigates itself alone, there should be no surprise when that organization continuously finds no wrong doing on its part, even and especially when someone’s life has been taken away and unnecessarily so.
For too long police have been used to getting away with murder, literally. For too long they have been paid while under investigation after killing someone unjustly while the blue wall rally’s to cover up for it. The mainstream media (also in cahoots with law enforcement) attack the victim’s character, name and/or reputation as justification for an unnecessary killing of an unarmed man (at least six more officers were involved in Eric Garner’s public lynching) while defending the actions of the police saying we must be calm, we’re not to react, we’re not to react with violence, and wait for the wheels of justice to turn.
Defending our selves is a must every second of every day everywhere in this world. Being vigilant, but also relentless in our pursuit of justice and accountability is an absolute must.
A silver lining to this development is that this murdering officer doesn’t get to collect a pension from our tax paying dollars to live on after having done what he did. The other officers involved should have also been fired. Pantaleo’s firing does send a message but is far from doing anything really substantive in the way of restitution to the Garner family. How do you replace a life taken? You simply can’t. There’s no amount of money that can absolve that heinous sin.
What I’d like to see happen afterward is that Pantaleo be personally sued for Eric Garner’s death and held liable to support Mr Garner’s children and widow for the rest of his life. Would that ever happen? Given the track record of how justice has gone for us in America and around the world most likely not.
Is America listening? If we take everything that has been happening since before Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Michael Brown Jr, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray and many more going back to even before Emmit Till, and deeper into the beginnings of the slave trade, we can see a long trail of gun powder leading to a black powder keg the size of a Continent.
Speaking to a friend about the recent rioting and looting going on in Baltimore, we came to the conclusion that this is just the tip of the iceberg. CNN showed images of cop squad cars burning and being attacked. There are lines of police officers some without riot shields standing in a wait for the masses of rioters. An MLB game is cancelled over the concern for safety.
Why should anyone be surprised at the age of the rioters involved in Baltimore? The police have shown they will kill minorities at any age with impunity. What you teach children at an early age will become part of who they are if and when they grow into adulthood.
If you show kids that no matter what they do they are screwed, that there is no justice or recourse for them when they go about things the “right way” what logically should one expect to happen? What are we talking about here? The symptoms of a problem or the source?
The source of all of this isn’t the actions of the people who are rioting. They are the consequence of frustration over inequality of injustice, of poverty, of disenfranchisement, and the increase of awareness to rampant police brutality and murder against the same disenfranchised, poverty stricken, education deprived community.
We are all connected not just in this country but in this world. The problems of one’s neighbors if left unchecked and/or ignored one day become your problems.
If we adopt the attitude that it’s not our concern or that’s “their problem” eventually we will have to deal with the consequences of the ignored coming to where everything is “rosey”. Misery loves company and when there are more miserable people than there are content people, logic should dictate that it won’t be long before the miserable seek out the misery free to spread their experience or exact what they feel is owed.
Destruction of the property in the poor communities is sad but should it be taking precedence over the loss of black lives which has precipitated the violence and rioting. Hopelessness leads to irrational thinking. Some of my fellow contributors to this blog have mentioned it. Accountability is the “elephant in the room”.
Talking about the economic impact of the damage as a result of the rioting and looting again misses the mark. It shows what the real concerns are for the media. “Oh boo hoo, the CVS in these poor communities are destroyed”. Uh do you really think that the people who have nothing, give two shits about a multi-billion dollar corporations branch in their community losing a store? Is that the most important issue at hand? Look at where the media’s focus is. It’s sick. They care more about structures than the people.
As far as violence goes, why do we see people brazenly throwing bottles and rocks or whatever they can get their hands on at the police? They obviously are fed up with the abuse and the injustice. It’s a message to the oppressors “we have had our backs put up against the wall and have nothing to lose.”
Some think you can provoke unrest and expect people to sit passively and just take it. A reaction to the language of violence and injustice should be expected from any human being suffering from it. For those who say violence isn’t the answer. Well what is the answer if the justice system has shown its willingness not to deliver justice to the same affected people?
Ask the question, how did America get it’s independence again? Was it by being passive and hoping the monarchy of Great Britain would give them redress in the courts? I think the answer comes out a resounding NO!
Liberty or Death. Justice and Equality for All.
I encourage everyone who has read this to this point watch and listen to the Malcolm X Oxford Debate you can find on https://youtu.be/S3H2eul-50k and his speech on the House Negro and The Field Negro https://youtu.be/7kf7fujM4ag
Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: The Day’s Climate: NYPD & Protests For Justice
I took the following photos during the day on weekends during this winter’s street protests in the city following both the grand jury’s in Ferguson, MO and NYC failing to indict officers in the killings of unarmed black males Michael Brown Jr. and Eric Garner.
The biggest difference between the two cases being one of the killings was actually captured on video in its ENTIRETY. There can be no justification or excuse as to why after seeing that video his killer is not charged but allowed to continue receiving a paycheck and go about his daily life.
We don’t condone the recent killings of two NYPD officers murdered in cold blood in their patrol car over the weekend. However, this is what was alluded to in previous posts. Now that killings of NYPD have happened people want to have “real serious dialogue” about race relations, the police, their interactions and policing of minority communities as well as Accountability.It’s important to note that with regards to Michael Brown Jr. he gets lumped in as a “man” even though he was only 18 yrs old because of his size, & ethnicity. Legally Michael Brown Jr. would be considered an adult at 18, but for all intents and purposes most reasonable people acknowledge that being 18 doesn’t make one a “man”. He was a kid. He was not perfect and he did make mistakes in his life as we all have.
The question is, does that mean he deserved to be gunned down in the streets like a wild animal and then be blamed for his death? With regards to 12 yr old Tamir Rice, there is no justification for gunning down a 12 yr old playing with a toy gun in 2 seconds. Can we recall a year hotter than 2014 for the police with the continued rampant reports of their killing of unarmed black males and youth?
Akai Gurley is yet another recent example. This man was shot dead in a stairwell by a police officer who then waited six minutes to call not an ambulance but his union rep while Akai lay dying. Tensions are boiling over and little is being done to quell the emotions of those who are unstable or unwilling to wait for the wheels of justice to turn in their direction especially when justice seems not to turn in their direction at all. Whether we like to admit it or not there has been a war waging for a long time against the disadvantaged and/or the poor. Addressing the symptoms or consequences of inequality, prejudice as well as injustice, instead of the source of these issues is part of the problem. The question is where does NYC and the nation at large go from here?
All images are the property of THEJNSREPORT.com (c) 2014
Have Eric Garner’s last words become a punch line? I thought this a proper question to ask when I saw the following while riding the subway this morning.What are your thoughts on this?
Is it truly a sign of the times? Or is it something more? Within a several week span we now have yet another murder of an unarmed black male at the hands of the police this time down south.
It appears there is a competition ongoing between the Northern and Southern states to see who can kill as many black males as possible and get away with it.
Both the deaths of Eric Garner and now Michael Brown Jr at the hands of the police occurred in broad daylight. No rioting occurred after Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman was set free to kill again.
No rioting occurred after the murder of Jordan Davis and his killer Michael Dunn found guilty of 3 counts of attempted murder due to the survival of his friends.
If he (Dunn) wasn’t charged with attempted murder he too would be free under the same “Stand your ground” self defense claim.
The precedent was set. All one has to do to justify murder is blame the victim and claim fear of imminent great bodily harm. Everyone ignored the fact that a grown man murdered a teenager because the teenager was black and claimed he was “afraid”.
The media has helped to portray and perpetuate this notion that black men are something less than human and worthy of being feared like big game animals in the wilds of Africa.
No rioting took place in the immediate after math of Eric Garner being strangled/choked to death in broad day light by police either.
Instead calls for calm and investigations were at the forefront. Talk of the victim’s arrest record were used as a red-herring to what actually happened.
Eric Garner’s body was left handcuffed even as he lay dead on the sidewalk after saying at least 10 times he couldn’t breathe. He was left handcuffed even as an “EMT” attempted (and I use that word loosely) to check for a pulse.
The latest killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown Jr. has sparked riots down south according to news reports and to me this should be expected, because open season has been declared on black people but especially black men.
Modern day lynchings are happening in broad day light. Our lives are mere trifles and after-thoughts to the police patrolling our neighborhoods and cities.
There is little to no faith/ trust left for many of us in the justice system because too often the system has failed us and let murderers of our people walk free to receive congratulations and pats on the back.
How can you expect peace if there is no justice? Too many of us are dying unarmed and for no reason. It’s like an older gentleman once told me. We hope for the best but expect the worst.
Growing up as a kid when I was picked on in school I only found that I was respected and left alone when I stood up for myself and fought back against my attackers.
This was and is my code. I held true to that code even as I was labeled as the problem child and blamed for my being bullied.
Bullies fear when the bullied stand up and say no more! Bullies are punks and cowards and only pick fights with those who they perceive can’t or won’t fight back.
We’ll have progress and real dialogue when the same thing starts to happen to cops at an alarming rate.
We’ll have calls for calm and stop the killing of unarmed citizens when it’s not just black teens, men and women being killed and forgotten about. It’s the way of the world.
Who are we as people, human beings, and citizens within the supposedly wealthiest nation on earth? Are we in fact living within modern day Babylon? Are we in fact living in the hellish prison system sectors where an ordinary citizen can have his/her life taken from them for no “real” or “legitimate” reason (In BROAD DAY LIGHT) right in front of all of us by those sworn to protect and serve us?
Are we worthless grotesque creatures loathe of respect and dignity? No we are not. We are people, we are human beings, we have minds, souls, bodies, and the ability to create and live to do wonderous things.
Yet there is this constant battle going on within each of us. To know truth and lies, to know good from evil, and to that end live our lives with a basic tenet God told us to live by which is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. How simple is that?
We are doomed as people to destroy ourselves when we ignore that basic principal. Killing breeds more killing. Retribution is every bit a part of human nature as any other emotion we experience and/or endure.
I’ve heard the typical view point whenever a black man is killed by police that somehow they brought it upon themselves. In no universe I know of would it or could it ever be conceivable that killing an unarmed human-being supposedly for past business transactions is justification for harassment and murder.
What were his misdemeanors for? Selling wait for it wait for it… “Untaxed cigarettes”. Are you f&*%Kn kidding me? Real bad guys are getting away with every crime under the law, hiding behind the blue wall, fully armed with guns & badges. The criminals even higher up the food chain wear $2000, $5000 suits and sell a hell of a lot more than “untaxed” cigarettes.
The fact of the matter is the cowards that killed and assisted in the killing of Eric Garner including that trifling & heinous actress calling herself an EMT and her cronies all need to be fired, stripped of their shields & guns and tried for this man’s murder.
The female EMT knew Eric Garner was dead. She I’m sure, if we were to check her credentials to be a licensed EMT must know how to properly check for the carotid artery. She would know how to check breathing not rubber neck a yeah he’s breathing. Her hand placement to check his pulse was casual and careless at best. And those cops huddled over his lifeless body propping him on his side, and nudging him to make it appear as if he’s still moving didn’t (nor could they)fool me for a second.
Eric Garner did nothing to warrant what happened to him and plead his case. He didn’t resist the police. And why is it they always need about 10 to 20 cops for one black man? That’s what cowards do (get together and literally) “gang” up on people they feel they are better than or more powerful than.
Eric Garner chose to stand up as a man for himself, demanded respect and to be left alone. What he got was murdered for his decision. What will we the people his people do now?
Are we willing to cower and let the police continue to get away with slaps on the wrists, desk duties, and eventual promotions for their evil? I pray to God that we are not.
R.I.P Eric Garner and the many other strong black men we’ve continually lost to the murderous methods and ways of the “police”.
We have a right to be here…ALL of us human beings!
R.I.P to Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant and all the black voices silenced from this world.
You know you are on the right path when the world hates you. They hated God too. When all the good people are gone from this world what will you have left?
