I Knew Loose Cigarettes Gave You Cancer...But This?

When covering a major event, it is always good sometimes to take a step back, and not react until you have all the facts, and after the past few weeks and last night, I have taken enough steps back to say…”WHAT THE FUCK?"


There are things that have already been addressed ad nauseam concerning the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner. And in the many comparative analyses there are a few questions that I believe have been ignored. One being how the governor of Missouri called out the National Guard the day before the grand jury announcement, and yet nothing was done to stop the looting and fires?
It’s almost as though they wanted this to happen so that it could end up on national television, and there would be no sympathy for the community; only scorn and a negative image of these people that cannot control themselves so they burn their own buildings down.

Eric Gardner affects me even more. This happened in my city, and I am embarrassed. Now here is something I have never said because I do not like to pull this card, but: As an attorney, I am completely shocked at this decision by the grand jury. There is no video of the actual incident leading up to the death of Michael Brown, there is documented evidence of the scene after the shooting, but anything that happened to cause it was something that, at least the general public, never got to see. 

In the Gardner case, regardless of how long he might have been arguing with the police, we see when Officer Pantaleo got behind Gardner, put him in a choke hold, got him on the ground and kept the hold on him even while he repeated “I can’t breathe” at least 11 times.

I saw Congressman Peter King of New York (who kinda looks like Don Francisco from Sabado Gigante doesn’t he?) saying that “It wasn’t a legitimate choke hold, if it was, he wouldn’t have been able to say he couldn’t breathe.” Are you fucking stupid? Now here is another card I hate pulling: I hold two different black belts and have been involved in fighting for over 30 years of my life, and if you are breathing your last fucking breaths you can find a way to talk if you think that there is hope that the person choking you isn’t a homicidal maniac. If you can’t speak, you tap the person or you tap a wall, you find any way to communicate your situation. Gardner attempted to do exactly that. How can you say he was not in some form of distress? I doubt Mr. King has ever fought for his life during close quarter combat.

Even their own coroner ruled that the death a fucking homicide! How do you not indict?

 

And is anyone even remotely fucking concerned that within the past two years, three men sued Officer Daniel Pantaleo and the NYPD, over allegedly unlawful, racially motivated arrests? In the first lawsuit, settled by the city in January, two black men accused Pantaleo and other officers of arresting them without cause and subjecting them to a "humiliating and unlawful strip search." In a second lawsuit, a man accused Pantaleo and other officers of misrepresenting facts in a police report and other documents to substantiate charges that also were dismissed.

On a positive note, we New Yorkers may be considered rude, but at least we know how to protest peacefully. This is due in no small part to our Mayor Bill DiBlasio and Governor Andrew Coumo getting in front of this situation right away and actually encouraging people to express their outrage, but to do so peacefully. I may be ashamed of our criminal justice system today, but I am still proud to be a native New Yorker. Yes there were a few arrests last night, but nothing amounting to looting or violence. And no one yelled “Fuck CNN” in front of any cameras. Well, that would have been kinda funny.

SPORTS

In keeping with the theme, I am going to do something that I usually never do, and that is applaud the NFL for not punishing or fining the 5 St Louis Rams players who held their hands in a “Don’t shoot” gesture honoring Michael Brown before last Sunday’s game. This is not the wrong color of shoes, this is a political statement, and sanctioning these men would have been totally contrary to the spirit of this nation. Shades of Tommy Smith and Juan Carlos.

But attention must be paid to the fact that after the St Louis police asked the Rams to discipline the players and the Rams in a statement politely refused, the authorities issued a statement saying that the accepted the Rams apology. What? To which the Rams replied that they never apologized.

Look, I know this may seem trivial, but lying about things like this is what repressive regimes like North Korea and China do. Don’t take this lightly either. Spin is one thing, but an outright lie in a feeble attempt to save what little face you have left just serves to further compare you with dictatorships and police states.

One of the things Charles Barkley is loved for is that he always speaks his mind, so you can’t turn on him so quickly just because he disagrees with you. I may not totally agree with everything he said or how he said it, but like it or not, he made his points very well, and he had a learned opinion about the subject matter. And he is right about one thing: Unless we are willing to actually disagree with each other, we will never be considered equal.

THIS WEEK’S REASON WHY TERRORISTS WANNA KILL US

Mr. President, if you are reading this, I just want to tell you that I proudly voted for you in 2008 and in 2012, but your reactions to these incidents have been at best, a disappointment. How long before you visit Ferguson, Missouri? Or how about Staten Island? I appreciate your words, but we need more than that now. George HW Bush visited Los Angeles after the riots. Bill Clinton went to Oklahoma in 1995.  Even George W. Bush visited New Orleans after Katrina, and he was the first president with Down Syndrome.

Even I protested last night...and I am just about un-inspirable. Proving yet again that me and my good friend HVM can't just go out for a quiet drink after work without some crazy shit happening.