There Was An Indictment In The Garner Case–The Person Who Taped It
[su_right_ad]No police officer suffered consequences in the choking death of Eric Garner, but someone did: the person who videotaped the deadly encounter, Ramsey Orta.
In August, less than a month after filming the fatal July 17 encounter in which Daniel Pantaleo and other police officers confronted Garner for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes, a grand jury indicted Orta on weapons charges stemming from an arrest by undercover officers earlier that month.
Police alleged that Orta had slipped a .25 caliber handgun into a teenage accomplice’s waistband outside a New York hotel. Orta testified that the charges were falsely mounted by police in retaliation for his role in documenting Garner’s death, but the grand jury rejected his contention, charging him with single felony counts of third-degree criminal weapon possession and criminal firearm possession.
In Garner’s case, on the other hand, jurors determined there was not probable cause that Pantaleo had committed any crime. A medical examiner ruled Garner’s death homicide in part resulting from the chokehold, a restraining move banned by the NYPD in 1993.[su_csky_ad]
Hirightnow December 4th, 2014 at 7:55 am
Oh, but that’s not the least bit suspicious…
mea_mark December 4th, 2014 at 9:00 am
Injustice because law enforcement in America has become a corrupt institution.
Suzanne McFly December 4th, 2014 at 9:17 am
It’s not a black or white issue, this is a blue issue. They act without any repercussions for wrong doing and it’s just gonna get worse.
R.J. Carter December 4th, 2014 at 9:53 am
Encounters like this one shouldn’t even happen. Most of the tension between officers and citizens comes from the fact that they aren’t sent to do community crime prevention, but are used as a revenue collection system. “Hey, he’s getting around taxes. That’s a crime, get him.” Not to mention cities in North St. Louis that actually budget for increased traffic fines. If police could actually focus on policing, there’d be a lot less intrinsic tension to the relationship with citizens.
mea_mark December 4th, 2014 at 10:03 am
You realize the best way to do that, would be to raise taxes so the police departments are not funding themselves. It would be government acting like government and not a private, for profit enterprise.
R.J. Carter December 4th, 2014 at 10:13 am
Or maybe they could just not spend as much money.
When Northwest Plaza was open in this area, there weren’t as many traffic stops. When the mall closed, suddenly the strip of interstate became a “travel safe zone” where the fines double. A stop in that zone for speeding is a guaranteed $300+ fine.
mea_mark December 4th, 2014 at 10:37 am
Good policing, preventing crime and reaching out to the community is going to cost more money, but should cost less in lives lost or ruined and a lot less in prison costs. It really is a matter of where and how you want to spend the money.
Suzanne McFly December 4th, 2014 at 10:58 am
They will have to spend money to save money and that never seems to be understood.
R.J. Carter December 4th, 2014 at 10:14 am
(And raising taxes is exactly what some places, like Jennings, are trying to do, since they’ve been called out for their aggressive use of traffic fines as a relied-upon source of revenue.)
Suzanne McFly December 4th, 2014 at 10:54 am
Well we know we can’t close tax loopholes and bring in revenue the sensible way so we do it the easy way and tax the poor and disenfranchised.
crc3 December 4th, 2014 at 10:50 am
Total bull! Of course they are going to say it had nothing to do with the video but anyone with half a brain knows that is a totally false…
Bunya December 4th, 2014 at 1:50 pm
If the chokehold restraining move was banned in 1993, why are these cops not indicted?