What can we learn from the Eric Garner case? Many are familiar with the idea that there are multiple truths in any event: One for every participant and witness, each of whom will find different meanings and realities in what transpires. Some find gross injustice the failure of a grand jury to indict the NYPD officer who placed Eric Garner in a fatal choke hold; others will see a man who might have survived had he simply cooperated with the police. So where is the common ground? To the extent that every loss of human life is a tragedy, and everyone (inclusive of officers and the public) are at greater risk when situations escalate, the video of this death can serve as a prompt to revisit officer training in deescalation, the decision to use force, and specific tactics in the use of force. Further, regardless of which reality a person finds in this case, the mere existence of outrage over the lack of an indictment is a reminder of the tenuous (or, in some cases, lacking) trust between the justice system and the community, and, by extension, the distance left to travel in fostering that trust. There are lessons that can be drawn from any use of force incident that can inform continued improvement of police practices. huffingtonpost/2014/12/03/eric-garner_n_6263656.html
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 05:57:13 +0000