Early thoughts on Eric Garner grand jury verdict below-- more coming today (Thursday) at noon from the freedom hut. Yes, I will be back live with you, #TeamBuck and am really looking forward to it. -- First off- anyone who goes on tv and refers to an illegal chokehold is not someone who should be discussing legal issues in front of an audience. This is not the WWE- there is no such thing as an illegal chokehold. Heres the real issue at hand-- use of force by a police officer--- and NYPD policy on it (as a former NYPD Intelligence specialist, I too was governed by the Patrol Guide and am familiar with it) So lets look at the facts and then make the necessary distinctions---- Officer Pantaleo put his arms around Eric Garners neck to subdue him, a violation of the NYPD Patrol Guide, which serves as the codification of police policies for the City of New York. A chokehold, however, is not a violation of New York State law. This is a critical distinction. For an NYPD officer, administering a chokehold in any capacity (even without causing serious injury or death) can result in departmental discipline up to and including termination. This may still happen to the officer. But the chokehold use alone is not a criminal charge. Just like punching someone in the face, per se, is not illegal under New York State law- assault and battery is. Punching- like a chokehold- is an act that can be used for self defense, or for an illegal assault. The question the Grand Jury had to address here is only one of criminality-- did the officer intentionally or recklessly endanger Garners life when using the chokehold? The GJ decided that he did not. There are many more aspects of this to dive into.... We will discuss this in more depth, join me at theblaze/radio at 12ET today
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 05:54:21 +0000
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