here. the highest ranking officer at the scene was an african-american female sergeant. at the scene of eric garner s death. absolutely. she was there the whole time. secondly, the reason that the cops were there that day was not on their own, but local merchants, this is a minority neighborhood, these are minority business people went to the police headquarters and the chief of the department was african-american, they complained brown was garner. i m sorry. eric garner was disrupting the area and preventing people from coming into the store. they were there at the request of minority shop owners at the direction of an african-american police chief and under the direction of an african-american sergeant. and this was a man our viewers should know had been arrested 31 times according to the police. he was a convicted felon who had been in and out of jail several times over the past ten years. however, granting all of that and everything you just said, the response from the
have agreement first. do we all agree that there is a need for change? yes? absolutely. do we all agree that it must come if our political leadership? yes? in part. it has to come from we the people. not just political leadership. paul is right. what is the role of political leadership here, kevin madden and is it getting done effectively? i think the president is taking a very measured approach. in some of the remarks he made when the president said this is not a black problem, it s not a white problem, this is an american problem. think if you take out whether or not he s an african-american or whether he s white, or take out whether he s a republican or democrat, that s a statement that so many americans would agree with. and so many americans i think would say at part of how we understand the problem and how we go about fixing it. so in that sense i think the president s measured approach while it may not please everybody might be the right
knowledge of the case there is no elements of racism and there was no intent by the police officer to cause deadly or physical harm to the decedent, mr. garner. the senior officer at the scene was african-american female sergeant. she was there the entire time. certainly during the time we see in the video. secondly the reason the police officers came in to make this arrest is because the local business people in the minority community went to police headquarters and said that brown was causing disturbances over the previous several weeks and was driving customers away. he had become a problem in the neighborhood and the police went in to stop him and he resisted arrest. this would have been a misdemeanor arrest. the police made a quarter million misdemeanor arrests last year in the city and this was the on fatality. they wanted to bring him to the ground and subdue hip as quickly as possible when he resisted
hakeem jeffries, he s a member of the house judiciary committee and incoming whip of the congressional black caucus. let s take on the big issues, what s your reaction to the grand jury not deciding do indict. yogi berra once said, it s like deja vu all over again. we see a young, unarmed african-american male killed by a white police officer without justification and we see our broken criminal justice system fail at this point to deliver accountability and consequences for the excessive use of police force, it really is a stain and a blow to the credibility of our democracy. we are all entitled to equal protection under the law. but apparently, when it relates to an encounter between the police and an african-american gone wrong, that results in a death, that does not always apply. right, but congressman, you don t have a prosecutor saying i m not going to charge, i don t think there s anything here, you have a grand jury, a democratic
neck. if he had not been obese with diabetes and asthma this probably wouldn t have happened. the cops didn t know that, and i m sure nobody feels worse than the police officers other than the family themselves. the last thing they want to do is cause an injury, certainly the family. martha: why do we have a law that you can t sell loose cigarettes on the streets. police have plenty to keep them busy in new york city. don t blame the cops for that. this is the local community. it s a quality of life thing. if you allow poem to flagrantly violate the law . martha: what are they saying he was doing. it was the chief of the department who is african-american who told the police go in there. by standing outside the store was disrupting the community and