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Original Content at https://www.opednews.com/articles/About-the-strange-behavior-by-Daily-Kos-Cops-Police-Who-Kill_Eric-Garner_Police-Brutality_Police-State-141231-196.html (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). |
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December 31, 2014
About the strange behavior of officers after they killed Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner
By Daily Kos
When someone is killed, few things tell you more about how the the person who did the killing thinks and feels about the deceased than what they choose to do in the immediate aftermath of the killing itself.
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Reprinted from www.dailykos.com by Shaun King
For instance, when Michael Dunn, after shooting and killing teenager Jordan Davis, went back to his hotel room, ordered himself a pizza, fixed a Coke and rum, and went to bed, it gives us a glimpse into the peculiar mindset of the killer--who has since been convicted for his crime.
Scott Peterson, immediately after killing his pregnant wife, Laci, "went fishing," came back home, took a shower, washed his clothes, and, coincidentally, also ate some pizza. On its face, his behavior was out of the ordinary and we later learned that his "fishing trip" was to dump Laci's body, which later washed ashore in the San Francisco Bay.
In real life, or any every television crime drama told for the past 30 years, what a killer does in the immediate aftermath of the killing is extremely telling. It reveals either concern or callousness, sincere compassion or selfishness, humanity or depravity.
As new and extremely troubling details emerge concerning the moments immediately after the shooting deaths of Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner at the hands of local police, it would only be fair to wonder aloud what we can learn from the actions, or lack thereof, of the officers who killed these unarmed men.
How Eric Garner Died
On July 17, Eric Garner was choked to death by Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Staten Island, New York. His death was ruled a homicide.
As brutal as it is to watch, no words can say quite what this video conveys.
The Tragic Aftermath in the Choking Death of Eric Garner
What's equally troubling, but shown much less, is the almost unimaginable seven minutes that an unconscious, and possibly dead, Eric Garner laid handcuffed on the ground while officers stared at him and offered no substantive form of first aid whatsoever. Again, consider a role reversal of any kind in which Eric Garner choked a handcuffed man unconscious and stared at him for seven crucial minutes instead of frantically performing CPR or seeking urgent help from the scores of surrounding professionals.
Or, could you imagine any scenario in which someone you loved (or even liked a little) loses consciousness after some violent injury, doesn't respond to your touch or words, and you, a trained professional, just stare at them not for a few seconds, or even two to three minutes, but for seven crucial minutes? It would NEVER happen.
These three cases were by no means chosen because they are the only three cases on record in which police officers exhibited a willful lack of regard for their victims, but because these all happened in the latter half of this year. Sadly, scores of similar cases exist all over the country and it is nearly unfathomable to imagine police officers, or any human beings with half a heart, behaving this way with anyone they loved or cherished.
Instead of conveying positive emotions of any kind, quite the opposite effect, in fact, is conveyed to African Americans when victims of police violence are treated with the regard one would give a dead rodent. It must be accepted by the wider public that these post-tragedy behaviors only fuel the narrative that racism, be it subconscious or otherwise, is what allows those chosen to protect and serve do anything but.
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