Riot erupting in St. Louis after police shooting of Ferguson youth

[marceline]

Tell that to the coroner who ruled it a homicide.

See this is the problem. You folks won't hold BAD cops responsible for what they do then accuse those of us who try to of being anti-cop.

[GregNYC]

Many cities became worse when the economy improved nationwide. For example, Detroit became much worse. You can't just credit the economy improving nationwide for NYC improving.

[DRW50]

Detroit had longstanding problems, the main difference with New York City being the decline of what helped make Detroit what it was (the auto industry). They also had a governor who was bound and determined to make sure that part of Michigan was left destitute even if the rest of the state was built up.

Even then, a lot of NYC's improvements were mostly a veneer that Guiliani could skate by with before spending a decade on a quixotic Presidential campaign and palling around with model citizens like Bernard Kerik.

[alphanguy74]

Of course.. as wrong at the police were in the Eric Garner case, the obvious reason the man had a heart attack is because he smoked cigarettes and weighed 400 pounds.

[DRW50]

And here we have Putin's Mayor blaming the whole thing on Obama.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/giuliani-obama-hate-the-police

So either he is incredibly delusional (which, given his past, would make sense) in believing that a man killed his girlfriend and two cops because of Obama, or he is crassly exploiting the deaths of two police officers so he can keep getting that Fox News salary.

If he gave a damn about New York City he would spend more time trying to help, and less time grandstanding to far right hucksters who have always and will always hate him.

So much for that.

[marceline]

I'm guessing he wouldn't have had a heart attack that day if he hadn't been strangled. Again, the coroner ruled it a homicide.

This is what I'm saying, you folks refuse to hold the cop responsible for killing that man even though it's on video. Don't tell the rest of the world there's a difference between good and bad cops when you won't acknowledge it yourself.

[katie_9918]

Just for the record, I would have supported the Ferguson Grand Jury had they decided to indict Darren Wilson on something less than murder and I thought the New York Grand Jury was dead wrong in not indicting at all.

But that is NO excuse for some psycho using the names of Mike Brown and Eric Garner (and that's exactly what this psychotic loser did) to ambush and assassinate two innocent police officers in New York after shooting his girlfriend in Baltimore.

Elected officials have the same right to have and express their own opinions just like everyone else in this country, but they also have an obligation to stand up for those who AREN'T bad apples.

[marceline]

Nobody's saying it is except, of course, for the people who dislike the protests and are using this as an excuse to denounce them.

A good way to do that is to hold the bad ones responsible for what they do. We haven't seen that.

[alphanguy74]

True... but there would be a big chance he'd have one in the next 5 years. People get held in chokeholds all the time, but don't die from them. It's like when a lifetime smoker dies in their 50's from pneumonia. Yes, the pneumonia killed them, but if they had never smoked, their lungs would have been strong enough to fight it off and survive. If he just wouldn't have batted them away when they were trying to cuff him, YES.. I realize he said he was doing nothing wrong, and perhaps he wasn't. But you know, later on when your'e safe, you can argue that. People get into trouble because they got no control over themselves. Even if I was in the right, I would NEVER yell at a cops, or slap my hands at him, because I KNOW it would end badly.

[marceline]

The coroner called it a homicide.

Everything else you wrote is alternate universe apologist fanfic designed to absolve the person who killed someone and it's a perfect example of why you can't be taken seriously.

[katie_9918]

I think what you're forgetting is that the chokehold was BANNED, by the New York Police Department itself. Maybe Garner's heart attack was a result of the chokehold, maybe it wasn't, but the fact remains that the officer involved should have been severely disciplined for using a banned tactic.

I have no issue with the officers subduing someone trying to resist arrest as Garner was doing, but I do have a major problem with the tactic with which they chose to do so. There was NO REASON for that chokehold, especially with so many of them around. I don't normally second-guess police officers, but this instance was excessive and most likely unnecessary.

Of course, none of that is a good reason for the murder of two NYPD officers who were doing overtime trying to help out a high-crime rate area.

So Much Disappoint (SMD) all the way around here.

[alphanguy74]

It's not designed to absolve someone, the Cops WERE in the wrong. it's meant to say that people need to be PRAGMATIC when it comes to situations like this. Would you rather be right? Or dead?

[alphanguy74]

I thought has was disciplined, just not indicted. Something being against policy, does not make something punishable under LAW. In this case, not sure about the legal ins and outs, but being against policy and against the law is not one in the same.

[katie_9918]

While I admit to being someone who will support the police nine times out of ten, I also have the ability to look at each case, try to dissemble the facts from what the media insists on spoon-feeding us in order to rile up the public (which in my opinion directly led to yesterday's assassination of the two innocent officers who were merely doing their jobs in their patrol car and never had a damn chance against their murderer), and come to a conclusion.

I can live with the Darren Wilson decision. The guy obviously felt threatened by a criminal and responded accordingly and the Grand Jury obviously thought that his point of view was backed up by the facts they were presented with. The media also jumped on this case and continue to perpetuate the myths that have since that tragic day been disproven and debunked by the clear forensic evidence. They've proven that Mike Brown never had his hands up, yet these idiot protesters insist on using the "hands up, don't shoot," quote that has been debunked.

Eric Garner is another case entirely. While I would never throw around "police brutality" even for this case (because Garner was resisting arrest after someone in the neighborhood called the police on him; the police were NOT simply walking around looking for a black guy to harass), the officer was obviously wrong in using a banned method and, given the coroner's ruling, should have been indicted for something (probably less than murder, but SOMETHING), because with so many other officers around, Garner was never a significant threat to any officer's life, which is one of only two excuses or reasons for deadly force on the part of the police, the other being a significant threat to public safety.

[GregNYC]

Protesters shouted, "What do we want ? Dead cop!"

http://nypost.com/2014/12/21/there-is-blood-on-hands-of-those-who-demanded-dead-cops/