Stupidity must be catching because a prosecutor in the borough of Staten Island, NYC did what the prosecutor in St. Louis County, Missouri did, used a grand jury to avoid charging a white police office involved in the death of a black man – from the BBC Eric Garner: No charges in NY chokehold case.

The medical examiner ruled the death of Eric Garner was “Homicide”, which means it wasn’t “Natural Causes” or “Death by Mischance”, not that it was “Murder”, “Manslaughter”, or any other violation of the Penal Law of the State of New York. If a death is not the result of old age, illness, or accident, it is called a homicide. Even if the death is the result of illness or accident, criminal charges may be filed.

After looking at the video, the officer used his forearm as a block across Garner throat while attempting to control him. It was a stupid move that isn’t effective at controlling a suspect. The standard police ‘choke hold’ has nothing to do with breathing. It applies pressure to both sides of the neck to close the carotid arteries which renders the suspect unconscious very quickly. Cutting off the air supply can take minutes to be effective, and the suspect will almost immediately go into full scale, brain stem panic mode, which will generate injuries.

Mr. Garner had asthma. Asthmatics are a special class when it comes to breathing. Most of them tend to be claustrophobic, and they will panic at having anything over their face, including oxygen masks. They also panic at anything restricting their breathing. By applying the throat bar, then forcing him flat and kneeling on him, the cops triggered a fatal asthma attack.

Apparently Mr. Garner was confronted by multiple police officers for the heinous crime of ‘selling untaxed cigarettes’, which appears to mean he was selling individual cigarettes from a pack. I’m having a hard time believing that such a law exists, much less that the NYPD bothers to enforce it.