03 Dec 2014

Two More Examples of Police-Inflicted Deaths With No Charges

Police 12 Comments

I understand how people could think Michael Brown is not a martyr. But check out the video of the choke-hold takedown of Eric Garner (no indictment even though coroner ruled it a homicide), and to be absolutely stunned, look at how slowly this 19-year-old woman was driving past (not at) a cop who decided to take out his gun and shoot her to death. The reason he was trying to stop her? Not because she had just robbed a bank, or planted a bomb. No, she was at a party where the cops thought underage drinking was occurring.

The crucial thing with these examples isn’t that the police  sometimes kill people while taking them into custody. With thousands of police, you might expect that to happen from time to time. No, the shocking thing as that nothing serious happens to them even when the deaths are clearly inexcusable, and caught on video.

12 Responses to “Two More Examples of Police-Inflicted Deaths With No Charges”

  1. Enopoletus Harding says:

    No, the shocking thing as that nothing serious happens to them even when the deaths are clearly inexcusable, and caught on video.

    -Exactly, Bob.

  2. Dan says:

    I would’ve been shocked if either of these cops got in trouble. The State has very little incentive to charge their henchmen with crimes.

    • Enopoletus Harding says:

      Very good Public Choice analysis.

      • Delphin says:

        These seem to have been a cases of Grand jury nullification.
        It’s funny to watch some here call for trashing the rule of law from one side of their mouth, and decry that happening out the other.

        • Enopoletus Harding says:

          I never called for this.

        • Bob Murphy says:

          I know. It’s like these nutjobs simultaneously get angry at potheads being thrown in a cage, and at a police officer killing a docile man. Split personalities perhaps? I have no other explanation for this combination of views.

          • Delphin says:

            You did not, in the nullification post, advocate ending marijuana laws. You advocated ignoring the law when you can get away with it. Ha, ha can’t catch me is the logic behind the jury nullification you advocate and this nullification.

            Nullification has another bad effect. The logic of King’s approach, and Ghandi’s, was to demand the enforcement of unjust laws, especially against sympathetic objectors. This to prick the conscience of the majority. Nullification undercuts that. It is like plea bargaining, which I believe you dislike, for the same reason.

  3. Raja says:

    I am telling you Bob. You need to bail out of the Land of the Free with family and head up North. We await you with open arms.

  4. Scott D says:

    No, the shocking thing as that nothing serious happens to them even when the deaths are clearly inexcusable, and caught on video.

    Equally astonishing is how many people seem completely unmoved by these events. It’s like the reaction you would get from a natural disaster. I really think it comes down to cognitive bias and denial. People want to believe that everything is alright. They don’t want to think about something like Ferguson happening on a national scale, so they convince themselves that these events are isolated or exaggerated. That was my own reaction, initially, but seeing these incidents come up again and again, I could not hold onto that delusion for long.

    • Enopoletus Harding says:

      Something like Ferguson did happen on a national scale, fifty years ago (cf., Watts riot and related Black riots). Not surprisingly, the least racist cities were the most affected. Remember, riots don’t happen because of injustice, but because people have stopped believing authority will prevent them or that they will have much to lose from participating in them.

  5. Major.Freedom says:

    Don’t worry, we can just choose to at least stop financing these murderers to continue murdering people, and nothing bad will happen to us right?

    Oh wait…

  6. Delphin says:

    From a report:
    >>Referring to himself in third person, Brockman said he “knew the operator, Samantha Ramsey, was about to kill him” after she hit him, “causing him to jump on the hood.” He said he ordered her to stop and he felt the car picking up speed.<<

    She ran over the edge of his foot. That might anger him enough to jump on her hood but it cannot be said to have caused him to do so.

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