Ferguson Again

   Welp, ladies and gentlemen, I'm an asshole. Yup, I was the person a couple posts ago (the two-sided coin one about Ferguson if you're keeping track) that said after Ferguson, something LIKE Ferguson would likely not happen again.

    How dumb was I?

    Eric Garner was caught on tape being a citizen of the United States in New York state. He was then strangled to death by a cop--also on tape. That cop was not indicted by a not-from-Ferguson Grand Jury.

    Here are the "facts that have come out so far"--I'm putting this in quotes for two reasons: 1. It's all on tape. You can pretty much judge it all yourself, because it's all right there on tape. 2. Because that's what people who are "on the fence" about the situation are saying--Fact 1. Eric Garner was selling loose cigarettes. 2. He was told not to, then told to go somewhere else. 3. He stood his ground and said that he wasn't doing anything (he WAS doing something) 4. He was not frisked. 5. Multiple cops came to the aid of the first cop. 6. One of the cops decided to put Eric Garner in the sleeper hold; however, he was not applying it right. Wanna know how I know? Because 7. Eric Garner was thrown to the ground and said he couldn't breathe, so, uhh, he wasn't sleeping. and 8. Eric Garner died.

    My stance: this case is a SLAM DUNK--the cop from NY should be indicted. Unlike with the Michael Brown case, there was a lot of evidence that was tampered with. There was also evidence that was inconsistent with OTHER evidence. With the evidence that was PROVIDED, I understood the decision of the Grand Jury; however, I was seriously unhappy with the flaws in the system that allowed for this to happen. Unfortunately, there was no incriminating video evidence for either side.

    I will not apologize for what I'm about to say: If you honestly believe that the Grand Jury made the right call, or that the video evidence was not enough to IDENTIFY that an unarmed/un-malicious black man was unjustifiably murdered by police AND that the cop in question was justifiably NOT indicted, then YOU are a part of the problem. YOU ARE a part of the reason that this country is not doing so well. YOU really need to THINK about what you're content with in this country. The people have every right to protest. I know everyone wants peaceful protests, I am an advocate of the same, but I'm not surprised if it gets ugly out there. There are CLEARLY fewer places in this country where the American people can trust their authoritative officials. You don't like that they're getting violent? Then make sure the police aren't unjustifiably killing its citizens.

That is all.

- Pat