You should know about what's happening in Ferguson.

@milkman: Proving that even with cameras cops would still kill as long as people just accept it silently.

Well if you thought there was rioting and protesting in Ferguson, just wait until NY protesters organize. I'm betting that Time Square is occupied till tomorrow or later. Or a march on city hall. This is really, really bad. Like I don't know what a cop would have to do to get indicted anymore. Would they have to shoot some one for literally no reason? Would they have to shoot multiple people? Would all of it have to be on camera while the cop laughed manically? My uncle is a retired detective in the NY area and when that death happened he was fairly certain that the cop would at least go to trial. Cops are not trained to use the chokehold because of the danger to the recipient. And yet, here we are.

RIP Eric Garner.

The grand jury, again, should be ashamed of the moronic conclusion they came to and United States citizens should be ashamed of them as well. I hope they regret the stupidity of their decision for the rest of their lives.

I don't trust the police whatsoever.

Just so everyone is 100% clear:

Eric Garner's death was ruled a homicide by the New York city medical examiner.

It has been illegal for New York City police officers to use a chokehold since 1993.

The officer was not indicted.

One of these things is not like the others.

@milkman: Eric Garner was also breaking up a fight. He was doing the polices job.

Don't worry guys. NYPD has it all under control.

If you have twitter please tell her to stop lying for me.

That hashtag should actually be "we hear you, we just don't care."

A grand jury declined to indict white officers for the killing of John Crawford.

A grand jury declined to indict a white officer for the killing of Michael Brown.

A grand jury declined to indict a white officer for the killing of Eric Garner.

Police have lied about the killing of Tamir Rice by a white officer, and I won't be surprised if a grand jury doesn't indict.

There are other cases where a white officer is not indicted for killing or injuring a non-white victim. You could even ignore race, there are many cases where police are not indicted causing harm to civilians. All they need to say is "I felt threatened" to justify their actions.

Why do some think they should be mistrustful of police? Probably because some police have caused them to mistrust police. The solution doesn't lie with the people who don't trust the police, the solution lies with the police, the prosecutors, and the justice system.

He could have strangled Eric right in front of the Jury and it wouldn't matter same results. Body cameras mean jack shit if the officers can be seen on tape killing a man yet sti have this outcome of today.

Quick clarification: chokeholds are prohibited by NYPD policy, so any violation would fall under NYPD review. They are not illegal, as in there is not a statute against it. There have been numerous bills up to make it illegal, but they were opposed by the NYPD, for precisely this reason.

Police want no oversight, no restrictions, and we keep giving them what they want. Hopefully, Tamir Rice gets justice.

Body cameras give police more authority.

How so?

They'll be pointed at the citizens and not the police, it will effect our Miranda rights, video footage has just been proven to mean dick when indicting police (Eric Garner), cut footage will be used on the news to smear peoples character and influence public opinion further, it is invasive, it will make people being questioned feel more cornered than ever before, police video evidence will have more merit than public video evidence, and many more issues.

A camera can be an extraordinarily powerful weapon and if it is on the police uniform facing out then in my understanding it is being used to monitor the public and not police action. Its primary use will be against you and I. We should be the ones using our cameras more. We shouldn't be giving the police anything else to use against us. I think that will be an enormous mistake.

It seems like every cop on TV tonight is simply defaulting to an argument of, "All lives are equal, but police lives are more equal than others."

Also a lot of "He should have stopped resisting."

Which, looking at the video, appears to imply you should stop resisting police officers killing you.

It's also super weird tonight to flip between NBC and CNN.

You've got tons of well-to-do white people drinking and dancing in Rockefeller Center for the Christmas Tree lighting while they're serenaded by boy bands and old crooners.

And right outside Rockefeller Center, people throughout New York City are shouting out for a basic chance at justice and fair treatment under the law. Minorities and allies hoping that people might wake up and realize how things are is not alright. They say there just needs to be more evidence, but evidence without accountability is meaningless. Not even a video of a man being killed could get an indictment. Not even a trial.

People don't need to "stop resisting". When police keep killing them and the system continually fails them, resisting is the only just thing for them to do.

Which is ridiculous. If I'm being choked, I'm definitely going to be resisting, even if it's a cop. Maybe even more so now that I think they'd get away with it.

So cops are able to kill unarmed civilians without legal punishment, and video evidence doesn't count anymore?

What's next?

They'll monitor all our phone calls and read our emails. Oh wait.

There's another serious problem with this. How the hell do two prosecutors completely fail to get an indictment unless they didn't want an indictment to begin with? Neither of them will consider convening another grand jury, since they already have the outcome they wanted.

I think that's why many people think potential police crimes should be handled by special prosecutors instead, as regular prosecutors have to work closely with the police everyday and obviously have a conflict of interest in investigating them. The system is inherently biased toward police officers, as they are given priority.

As a white acquaintance told me recently, "Police are the good guys putting their lives out there to protect these thugs." There's a public and systemic bias toward holding police to a lower standard simply because they do put themselves out there, and the suggestion that police be treated like any other citizen, which they are, by the law seems to come off as something more absurd than sensible.

This is insane just insane. You could not have more evidence than what the video of Eric Garner shows.

A Not Guilty verdict is one thing, but to not even go to trial.....

What is happening to this country?

Crazy thing is, this is an improvement over where we've been as a country. Yet, clearly, this is still unacceptable. That things have been consistently worse in the past does not excuse how dysfunctional and unequal things still are.

I thought Ferguson was overblown. But after watching the NYPD video... yikes, nothing there is good.

Improvement perhaps over 40-50 years ago, but I wouldn't say this is an improvement over 10-20 years ago. Not saying things were good then (they weren't), but this feels worse

The Rodney King Cops at least went to trial and they didn't kill him.

After the Seattle WTO protests in 99 and 9/11 Police seemed to have really gotten more violent...

That's fair. Overall, I'd say it's still better now in most cities than 20 years ago, but it's true that the militarization of many police departments and counter-terrorism efforts have made these issues even more potentially deadly.

For what it's worth, the Justice Department has opened up a federal investigation into the Eric Garner case. Who knows if anything will actually come out of it.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/justice-department-investigating-eric-garner-death/story?id=27348210

With police cameras, we'll finally get to witness everything cops do as they continue to not be indicted. lord

A bit corny but still got me.

Jesus, that's some scary shit. Really makes me not want to visit America anytime soon if the cops there are allowed to just arbitrarily kill you for no reason and no repercussion. That's some dystopia level shit right there.

I think there's actually a chance here. The video evidence, the officer's history, and the whole NYPD's history lends a good chance we may see federal action. Ferguson may not end up yielding any arrests, but this may. There's precedent.

An important consideration is what country you're coming from and whether you are white. Also, would a person possibly consider you "imposing" and thus inherently threatening? While police do sometimes use excessive force that kills white Americans, they more often at least get a trial after doing it.

I thought that's what Internal Affairs was supposed to be? Maybe we should be expanding the reach and scope of that agency because this is just out of hand.

Want another reason to get pissed off and not trust police? Read the comments.

Internal Affairs is literally an internal body tasked with looking into complaints and compliments. It's a form of police attempting to police themselves. When police issues are found to be potentially widespread in a department, -then- a third party investigator may be brought in. A special prosecutor may be brought in to make sure the local prosecutor which works with Internal Affairs is not biased toward the department he is close with. That generally doesn't happen for cases involving individual officers.

The most common defense of dramatically low indictments of police by local prosecutors is that they are thorough and make sure to only indict those "truly deserving of it", unlike the general public which can get indicted based on little to no evidence. Most prosecutors seem pretty transparent about how close they are to local police, but that doesn't excuse a system which is aware of that fact but still allows it to be a matter of course. The system itself is rigged in police's favor, and for many, that's by design and appropriate.

Wait, are you saying it's the guy's fault for getting murdered?

Jeeeeeezzzz...

I mean, these are the kind of police officers who feel like commenting on a site like that while most are out just doing their best to enforce the law, but man...

I missed his initial comment, but it does read like he's implying that he was already going to die if the cops didn't do the deed themselves. I'm not sure how stress equates to him having asthma and being choked so he couldn't breathe. Skinny people can have asthma too. If this was a skinny guy with asthma who was choked to the point he passed out and died, would he really pin it on his "poor life choices." This comes off as blaming the victim.

@datajack: A life is supposed to be a life in America regardless of what you think about what he does with it.

True, good point...I will certainly meditate on those EXACT words while listening to the trading of gunfire again tonight in my neighborhood. It's been a little over a week since the last person died from gunfire, due for another.

He didn't die of a heart attack from the stress. His death was ruled a homicide by excess compression of his chest and neck compressions by the chokehold. Lacking either, he quite likely could have survived. If someone cuts off the ability of your lungs to expand and restricts your airway, you are not going to survive no matter what shape you're in. For two decades, the NYPD has prohibited the use of such a hold for this very reason.

That a person may be unhealthy or old is not justification for killing them, and it is not less of a loss or any comfort that he wasn't in the best of health. I was dying a few years ago, and that fact didn't mean there would be less tragedy in my being killed. Fortunately, I've survived a number of years now, and if given the chance, this man might have, as well.

As you said, those 6 kids are now without a father, and I imagine that's what is bothering them the most. If you seriously think people aren't trying to improve the standard of living and culture in minority neighborhoods around this country today, you don't understand the reality. There isn't just a silver bullet for decades of oppression and poverty, and while progress has been made, it is still clearly far from where we need to be.

What are you arguing for?

No, you're right, he didn't die of a heart attack from the stress, never even stated that he did. Just merely pointing out the facts of his own lifestyle were largely contributing factors to him passing unexpectedly from the confrontation with the police, and not the "mob-rule" line of voluntary manslaughter to borderline pre-meditated murder that most are wanting...begging..to believe.

Again, never stated that his loss of life was justified, and I take great offense that you would even suggest otherwise. Sorry to hear that you've had your own health issues in the past, but I would also risk to assume during that time you didn't personally resist arrest, partake in any misdemeanors or performed in any felonies either?

And I never said that people aren't trying to improve the standard of living and culture in minority neighborhoods, but only being pushed aside during this period in the limelight where it could do the most good. Apparently it's more important for people to decree law enforcement, government, and the judicial system as the evil empire enemy, but never turn the eye back on themselves to think: Why was this man repeatedly arrested for decades...what could've we, as a minority community, done to keep this man's fate from happening again with another?

Its again just the standard Age of Entitlement, pass the buck to others, the self is never to blame.

Peace out, back to gaming.

I'm sorry, but the way you're writing makes it sound like you think the level of forced used against him was justified and that we shouldn't question authority when we feel like it's being abused but should instead focus on ourselves first. And how can you say that you aren't saying that people aren't trying to improve quality of living and culture of minorities, but in the next sentence say that that isn't happening?

How can you say that we can't hold law enforcement accountable for things that they did just because the people aren't perfect?

The NYPD’s internal report prepared right after Garner died didn’t mention a chokehold and insisted he had not been in “great distress.”

That's a quote by nydailynews and we shouldn't question law enforcement practices?

I mean they choked the man and slammed his face into the concrete. In the video you can see them push his head into the concrete. All this because he broke up a fight, sold cigarettes, and for saying "don't touch me?"

This isn't about "entitlement" or whatever you're spouting, but societal issues deeply ingrained in all of us. But I guess it's just the minority's fault. Never those in charge or with power.

@datajack: Just because he's an overweight smoker who broke the law doesn't mean his life was less valuable then someone else's. Maybe you're not trying to justify his killing, but you're certainly trying to diminish it by shifting blame and throwing shade. Sure, maybe his decisions would have eventually led to an early death, but yo they didn't, being strangled on the street by a cop did.

I didn't even think of it that way, but damn, you're right.