Death of Eric Garner Ruled "Homicide by Chokehold"

The medical examiner for New York City

ruled the death of Eric Garner, who died in police custody
after a violent arrest over allegedly selling loose untaxed
cigarettes, a “homicide by chokehold.”

Police apologists often advocate the use of chokeholds neck
restraints, which are banned by the New York Police Department. NPR
explained
last week:

Many police trainers say chokeholds are relatively safe — and
should be used more. These proponents of the method,
it should be noted, hate the word “chokehold.” They say it confuses
two very different kinds of maneuvers: actual chokeholds, which cut
off a person’s air supply, and “lateral vascular neck restraints,”
which don’t.

Missy O’Linn, a former cop and self-defense trainer who is now a
lawyer who defends cops in court, says in a neck restraint, the
officer puts his or her arm around a person’s neck in a “V” —
putting pressure not on the windpipe, but on the sides of the neck,
and on the arteries to the brain.

In the aftermath of Garner’s death, police apologists also went
to the Internet to complain that Garner,  a 400 pound
asthmatic accused, he insisted falsely, of
selling loose, untaxed cigarettes, should have complied with
officers who were attempting to arrest him,
for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.

In a press conference earlier this week Bill Bratton, speaking
with New York City’s mayor Bill de Blasio, said that correcting
your behavior for police was “what democracy’s all about.” Though
his comments were largely wrong-headed, Bratton is correct that the
law against
selling loose, untaxed cigarettes is not a concoction of the
police, but the city that voted for elected officials who have run
the taxes on cigarettes so high as to create a black market in
loose, untaxed cigarettes. And that’s what democracy’s all about,
imposing rules supported by a nominal majority over the every-day
minority, the individual.