hipsterlibertarian:

And yet the cops who choked unarmed Eric Garner to death on video, in broad daylight, over a few pennies of cigarette tax using a tactic prohibited by their own department were not indicted.

This is not a coincidence.

It is not an isolated incident.

It is not just a few bad apples.

While it is incredibly difficult to avoid indictment as a regular citizen, as shown above, it is next to impossible to be indicted if you are a police officer. Thus the decision for Eric Garner’s killers was all but made before their grand jury trial ever began. You and I and Garner live under a very different standard of justice than the farce of a legal system which accused police must face.

New York State’s legal code defines second-degree manslaughter thus:

§ 125.15 Manslaughter in the second degree.
A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when:
1. He recklessly causes the death of another person; or
2. He commits upon a female an abortional act which causes her death,
unless such abortional act is justifiable pursuant to subdivision three
of section 125.05; or
3. He intentionally causes or aids another person to commit suicide.
Manslaughter in the second degree is a class C felony.

As has been amply demonstrated here, this at least should have been the charge returned by the grand jury for Eric Garner’s killers. Mind, it is not the responsibility of the grand jury to decide if a crime was committed, but rather to decide if there is enough reason to go to trial. As explained by SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia, “It is axiomatic that the grand jury sits not to determine guilt or innocence, but to assess whether there is adequate basis for bringing a criminal charge.”

In the case of Eric Garner’s death, there unquestionably is.