Independent journalist Blake Walley takes a tour of the Orange County Rally in Huntington Beach, California. Residents there are protesting the shutdown orders of Governor Gavin Newsom during the Covid-19 Crisis.
Let’s think about it another way: Let’s pretend you are the Mayor of New York, and you have an opportunity to prevent the shootings from happening… except there’s a catch: you won’t have any idea of who, where, or when. All you know is that two cops will die in retaliation for the Garner verdict. So how would you stop the shooting? Make the police stay home?Prohibit protesting? Declare Martial Law? Put the whole city under lockdown? Or would an overreaction risk a far worse outcome? The point is, how could you possibly micro-manage that many moving parts in a city of 8 million people? Can we sincerely blame this all on the Mayor? Even if we really want to?
Of course it would be easy to put all the blame the shooter, right? Except it’s an obnoxious oversimplification, and overlooks one obvious problem: the murder wasn’t just some random action, it was an act of retaliation! So if this crime was a matter of cause and effect, what caused the effect?
But did the jury get it right? Of course not! And they didn’t even have to determine guilt, they just had to decide whether the case deserved a second look! But they couldn’t find a good reason for it? Seriously? And no explanation was even necessary? Agree or disagree, at least Bob McCulloch (the Ferguson prosecutor) made a lengthy prime-time statement, and took the time to answer questions! But who was held accountable in New York? Apparently no one… Welcome to Staten Island, what are you gonna do about it?
But what do you think? Did they get the decision right or wrong?
Whether you want to call that resisting arrest or not, the excessive use of force seems severely uncalled for. Especially when it amounted to trivial tax evasion. And was it really necessary for several more officers to pile on top of him on top of it? For peddling piddly loosie puffs? Are you kidding me?
Then the initial press conference comes, and the head of the police union (straight out of central casting) blames the victim for “resisting” and “lack of respect” for law enforcement!
Where is the justice? Where is the humanity? There wasn’t any of course; this was all about protecting their own, regardless of the facts and circumstances. Can you believe the balls on this guy? Their head goon (Patrick Lynch) just excused the entire event, blamed the victim, and used it as a warning to the rest of us to keep in line!
To make a point, let’s imagine that the Eric Garner decision went in a different direction: the prosecutor announces that the case merits a more thorough examination, and outlines the following list of suggestions for the family’s future trial:
Conviction of six months for involuntary manslaughter
a transfer by the officer to another department
another six months of training to earn his badge back
a 3 to 5 million dollar settlement for the Garner family
a re-evaluation of appropriate use of force for the NYPD
And for what purpose? Think about how much easier this whole situation could have been if the New York “justice system” could just admit they got this wrong and give a simple apology? Would it have been that big of an issue to put oneblue-privileged policeman into a white-collar resort for a few months? And pay the Eric Garner family a few million dollars? While simultaneously saving themselves from the hassle of indefinite protests and bad publicity? And the unintended consequences that led to the deaths of two peace officers?
Apparently not, and that’s why the blood is on their hands. The legal system is a disgrace… now what are they gonna do about it?
I don’t have time to write a full article for this, so I’ll get right to the point: Does the following video resemble the America you knew growing up? Or does it look like something went terribly wrong instead?
And if you missed the first two challenges, I will link to them here (#1) and here (#2).
Okay, on to the video…
By the way, I want to emphasize that I’m not sharing this video with any intention of using it to demonize law enforcement. After all, I got the sense that at least some of the officers in this video were embarrassed and ashamed of what they were forced to do. Besides, what can one reasonably expect them to do? Be the hero that disobeys their orders and throws their career away over a lemonade stand? Hopefully they at least thought about it, but perhaps decided that the cause just wasn’t important enough.
However, I can’t speak for all of the officers since it appeared that some of them were enjoying themselves a little too much… that woman’s behavior specifically should give everyone the chills. Does it make you feel better knowing there are officers like that who mindlessly follow orders and abuse their authority no matter how absurd it looks? Nah, me neither… hey lady, don’t forget who you are supposed to be working for… and that’s we the people!
We are truly living in some crazy times… I’m just glad someone got this on video because I never would have believed this story without it!