as it relates to mr. garner s part in that disorder, that it s been singled out and put aside as if it was a singular event selling loosies. loosies for the greater public should understand that in new york the state loses over $100 million a year because of untaxed cigarettes being sold as loosies. a lot of tax revenue seems very minor. but when you take it in the context of everything else that was going on in everything of that park, why was it such an attraction? because they could buy loosies, because they could buy drugs. the misbehavior going on there was in some days chaotic. on the day of the police response to the park, mr. garner himself had evidently attempted to break up a fight in the park between several individuals. and so that you ve got that circumstance. the loosy aspect of it as it relates to mr. garner, he was out on bail for an arrest for a
guy, he was known to police, eric garner, for selling untaxed cigarettes, loose cigarettes. they call them loosies. and there are some who say that that didn t seem to warrant any response. maybe he needed a ticket or a citation of some sort that could have been served on him. how did we end up with a guy suspected of selling loosies with a whole bunch of police on him using a chokehold? let me come at that with two responses. one, the commissioner in the lead-up to his decision went into great detail about the circumstances in that public park in statin island that the police department and the community were attempting to address including violent crimes, including continuing disorder to the extent that people in the neighborhood could not use the park because of the people hanging out in the park dealing drugs, using drugs, defecating, urinating, the disorderly behavior, the assaults. so they were destroying that neighborhood and the community was asking that something be done abo
feel like something that shows up in that video that we ve all seen of a whole lot of cops taking eric garner to the ground with him yelling audibly i can t breathe . like at some point some say untax cigarettes, whether or not that s actually the case doesn t equal that scene we saw. but to some people you got to take action. how does that square? how do you sit there with african-american minority communities who do live in unsafe neighborhood who want proper policing but are saying after don t go after a guy for selling loosies. what the new research suggests is that in new york city actually is a case study is that there was an increase in social service organizations in the city, that the decrease in crime was followed by that increase, not by broken windows. they can actually measure actually led to a measurable decrease in crime. so again the safest communities don t have more police, they have more resources.
preponderance of the evidence more likely than not. here s what i m going to argue. i can never ever argue that i understand what it s like to be a black man in america, i can t. and nor can some people who look at this case and try to assume what it s like to be a police officer in the city of new york. new york city has 35,000 police officers, the most diverse police department in the country. they are a model of restraint. what officer pantaleo did that day was respond to a call from a senior that suggested that he arrest a man for breaking the law. the law was minor, right? he was selling loose cigarettes, loosies, as we call them, which means they were taken outside of a pack of tax-stamped pack. penny-ante crime. but that was the law. and he was responding to that. when eric garner said don t touch me, please stop and you re not doing this to me today, he s 6 3 , 350 pounds, he didn t attack the officers, but he refused to comply with lawful
i think it s frightening and scary when you can for loosies lose your life. he was breaking up a fight several witnesses have testified and he was not selling anything but he had before that been cited by the police for selling cigarettes. let s take the worse case scenario. he was selling untaxed cigarettes and therefore you have a right to drag him to the ground and choke him to death. when we look at the whole circumstance are we that far where policeman can cause a fatality and not be taken off the force and not less known be prosecuted in the court of law. i think that is why you ve seen the kind of outrage that we had thousands of people marchi inin five years ago. a lot of us are concerned today because we see the human value of eric garner s life is a lot