“Eric Garner was lumbering along a sidewalk on Staten Island on a July day when an unmarked police car pulled up. The plainclothes officers inside knew Mr. Garner well, mostly for selling untaxed cigarettes not far from the nearby Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Mr. Garner — who was 6 feet 2 inches tall and 395 pounds was hard to miss — recognized them, too. Everyone did, at least among those who hawked cigarettes and cheap goods on that stretch of Bay Street along Tompkinsville Park. For years, they played a cat-and-mouse game with the New York City officers who came to arrest them. As the officers approached, Mr. Garner, 43, shouted at them to back off, according to two witnesses. He flailed his arms. He refused to be detained or frisked. He had been arrested twice already that year near the same spot, in March and May, charged both times with circumventing state tax law. But on that sweltering day in July, the officers left him with a warning. It was the first time I ever saw them let him go,” said John McCrae, who watched the encounter near the park. Mr. Garner took that experience to heart, Mr. McCrae said” (Baker, Goodman, Mueller). The topic to my essay is on police brutality.
One of my reasons to support my claim is that police officers use aggressive force for example in the Eric Garner case the officer that killed Eric Garner used a banned chokehold and what was the cause he was selling untaxed cigarettes. The evidence to this is in the article “Hands Up Don't Choke” when the text said, “No, his apparent crime was selling cigarettes without paying taxes on them. And for that, he was killed” (Davis). What the author is trying to say by this is that the officer killed Eric Garner for such a ridiculous reason. For example there are people that do crimes even worse than what Eric Garner did and don't pay the price of death. This evidence supports my claim because it explains that the officer shouldn't have done what he did since he used a banned chokehold. People might say well you shouldn't have resist the arrest i think this isn't as strong because many people resist arrest but aren't treated with the same aggressively force that was used on Eric Garner. Although I agree that resisting an arrest does require stronger force than in the beginning but not using banned moves. Another thing people might say is that officers can't just pretend like it didn't happen I agree with that.
Another reason is that policemen kill people for reasons that are unfair for example in Eric Garner's case it was unfair and injustice to kill him and some of miht be sayin Eric garner shouldn't have resist the arrest well Daniel Pantaleo a.k.a the officer who killed Eric Garner shouldn't have used a choke hold which was banned for a couple of years already. And you might be thinking well Eric Garner must have done something really bad to be a victim of a banned chokehold well no Eric Garner's crime was selling untaxed cigarettes now i know a police officer can't just walk away but using a chokehold for that little reason is unfair. The evidence to this is in the article “Hands Up Don't Choke” when the text says, “As the video shows, the officer clearly caused the death of Eric Garner, who was alive until the officer put him in a chokehold, a move which is banned by the NYPD for good reason. And why did the police department ban chokeholds? Here’s an article on the subject from 1993, when a previous police chief banned the practice” (Davis).
Police officers should be held accountable for the bad things they do. You should care about this issue or else officers will start to feel superior and that they can do what they want. Something we should do is tell the government that officers should receive the same punishment we get. 
No comments:
Post a Comment