Jon Stewart was at a loss of words last night as he too tried to cope with the non-indictment decision handed down by the grand jury in the Eric Garner case.
“I don’t know,” Stewart confessed. “I honestly don’t know what to say. If comedy is tragedy plus time, I need more f*cking time. But I would really settle for less f*cking tragedy, to be honest with you.”
Garner’s death at the hands of a police officer in Staten Island New York, was caught on video and showed an overly aggressive group of officers bringing down and ultimately killing the unarmed man for committing the unthinkable crime of selling loose cigarettes.
The decision not to indict anyone for the killing of Mr. Garner sparked thousands of people to take to the streets in protest calling for justice in the Garner’s death. Stewart echoed those calls, questioning the justice system and our concept of a civilized society.
“We are definitely not living in a post-racial society. And I can imagine there’s a lot of people out there wondering how much of a society we’re living in at all.”
No, the man that killed Eric Garner was not indicted, but the man who videotaped the killing, was. And we call this “justice.”
On Wednesday, a Staten Island grand jury decided not to return an indictment for the police officer who put Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, in a chokehold shortly before his death. A different Staten Island grand jury was less sympathetic to Ramsey Orta, however, the man who filmed the entire incident.
In August, less than a month after filming the fatal July 17 encounter in which Daniel Pantaleo and other NYPD 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.
Another police officer decided to take the law into his hands and appointed himself the prosecutioner, the star witness, the judge and the executioner. He applied an illegal chokehold, ignored the victim’s plea that he couldn’t breathe and held on to the man’s throat until the man stopped breathing.
Today we learned that the police officer, who I must reiterate used an illegal chokehold that killed a man, today we learned the officer apparently did nothing wrong as a New York grand jury failed to indict. In the last two weeks, two police officers who killed two different individuals walked without even a slap on the wrist.
The constant in these two stories is of course, race. White police officers and black victims.
In a statement released after the grand jury found no reason to take him to court, the officer who applied the illegal chokehold, Daniel Pantaleo, said, “I became a police officer to help people and to protect those who can’t protect themselves. It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner. My family and I include him and his family in our prayers and I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss.”
Now I’m not saying that Pantaleo woke up that day determined to kill someone, but if his intention was not to cause “harm” to Mr Garner and instead was to “protect those who can’t protect themselves,” then Pantaleo should have released his illegal chokehold when Garner cried for his life uttering the phrase, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe..” 11 times!
But hey, Pantaleo had the right to “go home to his family,”‘ right? That’s another constant we keep hearing – that the officer has to go home to his family. Or that he was ‘scared for his life’ and needed to remove that threat by choking Garner from behind until Garner’s lifeless body laid motionless on that Staten Island sidewalk.
“I became a police officer to help people and to protect those who can’t protect themselves,” he said, and Eric Garner’s last words were, “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!”
The (AP) reports – A lawyer says a grand jury in New York City has declined to indict a white police officer on criminal charges in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man in July.
Jonathon Moore, an attorney for the victim’s family, said Wednesday he was told there would be no indictment of Officer Daniel Pantaleo (Pahn-TUH’-lay-oh) in the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner. Garner was stopped in Staten Island on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.
Amateur video shot by an onlooker showed Garner refusing to be handcuffed. Pantaleo responded by putting Garner in an apparent chokehold, which is banned under NYPD policy. Garner was heard yelling, “I can’t breathe!”
The 43 year old Jada posted the picture of her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, a few days ago, saying, “Willow took this shot of her grandmother, my mother, emerging from the ocean today. She is 61! I wanna be her when I grow up:) Happy Friday… J.”
Lol… I wanna be like her too Jada. All I can say is WOW!
Another grand jury is about to decide if a white police officer did anything wrong when he applied an illegal choke hold that led to another black man being murdered.
The grand jury decision into the death of Eric Garner will come just days after a St. Louis grand jury ruled that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson did absolutely nothing wrong when he chased after a fleeing teenager named Mike Brown and murdered him by pumping six bullets into the scared teen’s body.
“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe,” Garner cried out after he went down on July 17. Seconds later, the 350-pound man, who suffered from asthma, lay motionless and unresponsive on the sidewalk. An ambulance carried him away on a stretcher.
It happened at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. It happened at a Chinese restaurant I will not be going to anytime soon.
The video shot outside Lucky River, a Chinese restaurant in the city’s Sunnyside neighborhood appears to show a worker slamming slabs of frozen meat on the sidewalk.
KPIX showed the video to residents near the restaurant.
“That’s horrible,” said Steve Vender.
“The sidewalks have never been cleaned,” said London Lacey.
As to why anyone would be pounding the sidewalk with frozen slabs of meat, an inspector from the San Francisco Health Department paid a visit to Lucky River and said the worker was trying to defrost the meat.
KPIX checked out the exact portion of the sidewalk seen in the video and found it covered in blackened gum, cigarette butts, and foot-tracked bacteria of all gut-twisting varieties.
The owner of the restaurant told KPIX it was an isolated incident and that the meat was discarded and the cook has since been fired.
“It’s highly unsanitary, I don’t know how they’re gonna clean the meat off after that. They’re gonna wash it but it certainly doesn’t look very appealing,” said Vender.
I admire people who will stand up for something, anything, just stand up… and while you’re at it, raise your hands in support of the movement!
Four members of the Congressional Black Caucus did the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture during remarks Monday on the House Floor, to show solidarity with protesters in Ferguson, Mo.
Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) and Al Green (D-Tex.), referred to the gesture that has come to symbolize the outrage over the death of Brown, the African American teen shot dead by police officer Darren Wilson in August..
“ ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ is a rallying cry of people all across America who are fed up with police violence in … communities all across America,” Jeffries said.
Two of the members of Congress, Reps. Lee and Green, also offered their praise for the five St. Louis Rams who gave the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” signal on the field during a game Sunday night.
“I saw this clip where the Rams players came into the arena: ‘Hands up; don’t shoot’ … this has become the new symbol, a new statement,” Green said.
It is not easy telling the same story, when that story is a lie.
Darren Wilson changed his story following the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown to include events about which he initially denied all knowledge.
Evidence presented to the grand jury and reviewed by MailOnline has revealed a crucial difference between the officer’s first account of events given to his squad supervisor on the scene and his second statement to St Louis County detectives investigating the shooting.
In Wilson’s now very public account of his encounter with Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson on August 9 he has claimed that he asked Brown and Wilson to move to the sidewalk rather than walk in the street.
When they walked on, Wilson has repeatedly stated, he realized they matched the description of two suspects wanted in connection with the robbery of nearby Ferguson Market. A youth matching Brown’s description had stolen a box of Swishers cigarillos.
It was this realization, he stated, that caused him to reverse his vehicle and sparked the car-side confrontation that left Brown dead on the street with six bullets in his body.
But the sworn testimony of Wilson’s squad supervisor directly contradicts this account.
Wilson’s supervisor was the first officer to speak with the 28-year-old cop following the shooting. The men spoke before St Louis County Police had even been notified of the incident and before the medical examiner or investigating officers had arrived on the scene.
At that time, the supervisor said:’He [Wilson] did not know anything about the stealing call.’
When pressed by the attorney questioning him, the officer reiterated that Wilson, ‘did not know anything’.
Asked, ‘He told you he didn’t know about there being a stealing at Ferguson Market?’
Classic case of politics as usual, as Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, the same candidate who recently pushed the Republican Keystone Pipeline travesty to a vote in Congress, is now appealing to the Democrats in her state to save her.
In a new ad, Landrieu is heard praising the successes of the president, while warning the voters that if her Republican opponent wins the run off election next week, then President Obama will be impeached.
From the ad:
I’m Mary Landrieu, candidate for Senate, and I approve this message.
This is Congressman Cedric Richmond. Have you heard the crazy stuff Bill Cassidy, Bobby Jindal, and the Republicans are always saying about President Obama? They have shown our president so much disrespect. They said he wasn’t a U.S. citizen, they even sued him – and if Cassidy wins, they will impeach him. Do you remember when the stock market was at 7,000? Now it’s at 17,000, but they say the economy is horrible. Do you remember how bad the unemployment numbers were under the Republicans? Now, unemployment claims are lower then they have been in 14 years. The president needs you to have his back – now, more than ever.
Now, while I agree that Democrats should always run on their successes when campaigning for another term in office, Landrieu’s coming to the light moment seems a tad bit suspicious. I’ll still urge Louisiana voters to support her in the election, but I cringe at the lack of sincerity and obvious politics being played here.
Darren Wilson resigned as a police officer. Why do people think this is some kind of victory? Did you really expect him to go back to work as a Ferguson police officer? Seriously? And why would he bother when he can now make six figures for an interview? This is America folks. Where you can kill a black kid and justified or not (NOT!) you will then become a millionaire through interviews and book deals and film rights. Not to mention the right wing talk radio show Wilson will probably be offered as he fits in perfectly with all of the talentless slobs in that business.
This is your capitalist system at work. No laws that make this illegal. A cop can actually kill someone on purpose if they want, because they get away with almost anything, with the knowledge that they can then quit their shitty job that nobody with a brain would want anyway, and become rich. What a country! These are the times when I want to get the next flight available and head to any other country. I truly need to get out of this lunatic asylum.
There were reports that Wilson may have received a half million for the ABC News interview with George Stuffituphisass. Georgie boy asked the obvious questions, feigning true emotions as he inquired about Wilson’s actions and if he would do anything differently. He went through the motions of asking about Brown being far away from Wilson when he shot him several times or with his hands up, but basically he just allowed Wilson to tell his side. Hey, who else did that without question? Oh yeah, Bob McCulloch!
The interview with ABC wasn’t an exclusive. Meaning the killer, Wilson, now has an agent who negotiated the deal, and other news agencies can also pay six figures for future interviews. It’s just that ABC was the most aggressive whore this time. To think I used to work for them. Makes me feel like I need one of those showers they gave to Karen Silkwood at the nuclear power plant.
But there will be other media whores that will throw big money at Wilson. Meanwhile Michael Brown’s family is left with nothing. No son and no justice. Yes the more money Wilson makes the more they can get from him in a civil suit but that’s even a long shot since a jury won’t side against a cop even in that setting. Against O.J. Simpson yes, a cop no. Funny how all of those white people who were up in arms about Simpson getting off are so joyous about Wilson getting off.
Meanwhile this sham of a verdict with the Grand Jury, which every legal scholar has torn apart especially since the transcripts were released, has really brought the usual right wing vicious scum out of the closets. None worse than Rudy Giuliani who continues to live in 1990’s New York City when his police department was regularly violating the civil rights of blacks. He won’t stop talking about black on black crime which he incredulously correlates to the need for an all white police force. Also he won’t talk about how the people who commit those crimes almost always go to jail, unlike cops who commit crimes. Black on black crime, which has gone way, way down takes place in black neighborhoods as white on white crime takes place in white neighborhoods. Makes sense no?
Look, let’s remember who Rudy is shall we? He is the guy who bullied the New York City emergency response center into One World Trade Center after the first terrorist attack there even though the people who knew better were against it. We know what the result was of his power grab. He also took away vital firefighting gear which led to the deaths of many fire fighters on 9/11. Because you see Rudy always gets what Rudy wants.
But wait there’s more. He is also the guy who hired Bernie Kerik as police chief. Kerik the felon. He also recommended the soon to be felon for Homeland Security Director! This is Rudy Giuliani. A man who is still worshiped by some idiot New Yorkers yet despised by his own children. A guy who cares more about the welfare of the New York Yankees than Americans.
Anyway I truly digress. Darren Wilson is becoming rich. Rich off the killing of Michael Brown. Can you just imagine what Brown’s parents are going through? I can’t. They have to hear about these interviews, maybe even watch them. I hope they don’t. Wilson’s story would be given zero stars by any reviewer if it were made into a film because it is that unbelievable, actually laughable if the result wasn’t so tragic. But seriously folks, even if you are brain dead enough to buy his depiction of the events that led to him killing Brown, you can’t believe that he should become rich over someone else’s death. To make money that he wouldn’t make in a full career as a cop from one or two interviews.
Or maybe you are so brainwashed by the out of control capitalist system you live in that you think it’s all just fine and dandy. If so I feel sorry for you and have disdain for you in equal measure. This is one of those things that truly would never happen in any other country.
She went on a Facebook tirade against the Obama daughters calling them classless abd advising the teenage girls to “try showing a little class.” But according to reporting from The Smoking Gun, it seems Elizabeth Lauten also had some dealings with the law when she was a teenager.
Elizabeth Lauten was arrested at age 17 for misdemeanor larceny after she allegedly stole from a Belk Department store in North Carolina, according to court records reviewed by The Smoking Gun. The charges were dismissed since Lauten was a first-time offender and she didn’t get into additional trouble.
Lauten resigned as the the communications director for Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN) on Monday following backlash over a Facebook post about the Obama daughters’ attire at the White House turkey pardon ceremony.
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