On this day, 17 July 2014, Eric Garner, an innocent Black man, was murdered by white NYPD officers while arresting him after they suspected him of illegally selling cigarettes. He was choked to death while he pleaded with officers, telling them that he couldn't breathe. On December 3 of that same year a grand jury decided not to charge the NYPD officer who put Garner in a lethal chokehold. The event sparked protests and rallies across the USA. On July 13, 2015, an out-of-court settlement was announced in which the City of New York would pay the Garner family $5.9 million. Just yesterday, federal prosecutors decided not to pursue any charges against the killer.
Pictured: Eric Garner with his wife Esaw

Do you think it should be made clear that the person who took the cell phone footage, Ramsey Orta, went to prison on weapons and drug charges, not for filming this? Or that Eric Garner could have put his hands behind his back, been handcuffed, and walked away peacefully? And that according to the wiki entry, "The arrest was supervised by a female African-American NYPD sergeant, Kizzy Adoni, who did not intercede. Adoni was quoted in the original police report as stating, 'The perpetrator's condition did not seem serious and he did not appear to get worse.'"

In other words, this is misleading as hell. He did not "have the life strangled from his body". If you're lying on the sidewalk talking about how you can't breathe, you're breathing.

I don't defend the police for using a hold that was prohibited by their own manual. But the medical examiner's report conceded "even 'a bear hug' could have had the same effect as the choke-hold, given that Garner weighed 395 pounds, suffered from asthma and diabetes, and had a heart twice the size of a healthy person's heart". Furthermore, after he collapsed, he was still breathing, and you don't perform CPR on a breathing person.

I know I'm going to take a shitstorm for this. But here's the deal. This individual had been arrested numerous times because he had committed numerous crimes, out in public, where the police are paid to do a job and keep order. In prison, officers don't go out of our way to "harass" individuals, but when they keep doing the same thing over and over, we do our jobs. And if a prisoner resists getting handcuffed; well, that's not a choice. The cuffs are going on.