* Some libertarians are making the case that the problem behind the Eric Garner cause célèbre is “too many laws.” Here’s Stephen Carter in the Tribune…
On the opening day of law school at Yale, I always counsel my first-year students never to support a law they are not willing to kill to enforce. Usually they greet this advice with something between skepticism and puzzlement, until I remind them that the police go armed to enforce the will of the state, and if you resist, they might kill you.
I wish this caution were only theoretical. It isn’t. Whatever your view on the refusal of a New York City grand jury to indict the police officer whose chokehold apparently led to the death of Eric Garner, it’s useful to remember the crime that Garner is alleged to have committed: He was selling individual cigarettes, or loosies, in violation of New York law.
The obvious racial dynamics of the case — the police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, is white; Garner was black — have sparked understandable outrage. But, at least among libertarians, so has the law that was being enforced. Wrote Nick Gillespie in the Daily Beast, “Clearly something has gone horribly wrong when a man lies dead after being confronted for selling cigarettes to willing buyers.” Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, appearing on MSNBC, also blamed the statute: “Some politician put a tax of $5.85 on a pack of cigarettes, so they’ve driven cigarettes underground by making them so expensive.”
The problem is actually broader. It’s not just cigarette tax laws that can lead to the death of those the police seek to arrest. It’s every law. Libertarians argue that we have far too many laws, and the Garner case offers evidence that they’re right. I often tell my students that there will never be a perfect technology of law enforcement, and therefore it is unavoidable that there will be situations where police err on the side of too much violence rather than too little. Better training won’t lead to perfection. But fewer laws would mean fewer opportunities for official violence to get out of hand.
I don’t necessarily disagree. We do have way too many laws that unnecessarily imprison people in this country. They couldn’t have just written the guy a ticket?
* But while we may have too many petty crimes actively policed at the bottom of society, there are too few laws governing the top. Matt Taibbi…
That was economic regulation turned lethal, a situation made all the more ridiculous by the fact that we no longer prosecute the countless serious economic crimes committed in this same city. A ferry ride away from Staten Island, on Wall Street, the pure unmolested freedom to fleece whoever you want is considered the sacred birthright of every rake with a briefcase.
If Lloyd Blankfein or Jamie Dimon had come up with the concept of selling loosies, they’d go to their graves defending it as free economic expression that “creates liquidity” and should never be regulated.
Taking it one step further, if Eric Garner had been selling naked credit default swaps instead of cigarettes – if in other words he’d set up a bookmaking operation in which passersby could bet on whether people made their home mortgage payments or companies paid off their bonds – the police by virtue of a federal law called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act would have been barred from even approaching him. […]
But the policy looks worse when a white yuppie like me can live in the same city as Garner for 15 years and never even be asked the time by someone in uniform. And at the very highest levels of society, where corruption has demonstrably been soaring in recent years, the police have almost been legislated out of existence.
- Carl Nyberg - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 2:48 pm:
There were probably fewer petty laws 50 years ago and fewer still 100 years ago.
Do you think cops messed with Black people less 50 years ago? 100 years ago?
I’m all for greatly reducing the number of people incarcerated. I’m for reducing petty laws.
But let’s not avoid the underlying issues with blue on Black violence. It’s racism, a culture of violence & a culture of impunity.
We have cops who can act with impunity b/c a big chunk of the politicians want to access this power when they want it and another chunk of politicians are scared of the cops.
It’s not like US society couldn’t reduce police violence if that was a serious goal.
- Under Further Review - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 2:56 pm:
Eric Garner was not choked to death by the cop. He actually suffered a heart attack, one hour after being placed in police custody.
Nonetheless, I agree that this case must be investigated by the NYPD notwithstanding the grand jury decision not to indict. The policeman’s actions may not have risen to the level of a crime, but were it still remains to be seen if he acted appropriately.
It should also be noted that there are loose cigarette sales in Chicago. Local taxing bodies also raised taxes on loose tobacco when they learned that people were saving money by using rolling paper to make their own cigarettes.
- A guy... - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 2:59 pm:
The law on the books for “mopery”, the act of moping around, as a mope was repealed. They should have kept going. Imagine how many people who could get locked up for that one these days.
- Black Ivy - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:01 pm:
Over-zealousness, poor judgment, and, yes, a confluence of unnecessary ordinances and outdated laws contributed to Eric Garner’s demise. This was a preventable tragedy…
- Jerry the dentist - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:02 pm:
Taibbi = WORD
- And I Approved This Message - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:08 pm:
Under Further Review - Where are you getting your information? Eric Garner died on the sidewalk where the police confronted him. He was put in a chokehold that is illegal for police to use. The coroner ruled his death a homicide caused by compression to the chest and neck “during physical restraint by police.” Your comments couldn’t be more wrong. Maybe you should subject them to “Further Review.” Sheesh.
- Nobody - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:08 pm:
Some 21,000 children die every day around the world.
That is equivalent to:
1 child dying every 4 seconds
14 children dying every minute
A 2011 Libya conflict-scale death toll every day
A 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring every 10 days
A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every 11 days
An Iraq-scale death toll every 19–46 days
Just under 7.6 million children dying every year
Some 92 million children dying between 2000 and 2010
The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. Despite the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.
- Wordslinger - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:11 pm:
Writing a ticket would have been the rational thing to do.
But let’s not give these cops a pass. They flipped. There were five of them, for crying out loud. They couldn’t get bracelets on him?
We’ve all seen the tape. Cops subdue and arrest a lot more dangerous and violent people than Eric Garner all the time, everywhere.
FWIW, I’ve been arrested a few times, and I never for a moment thought I was in any physical danger, at all. I was just being processed for being an idiot.
That’s not the case for some people in this country.
- Gooner - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:13 pm:
A couple notes –
First, Rand Paul, from a tobacco producing states, is against taxes on tobacco. That’s a shock, isn’t it?
Second, Paul now wants to focus on one death in order to get rid of a tax. Part of the reason that the tax is high is to discourage people from slowly killing themselves through the use of the product. Is that system perfect? Of course not, but it does seem to have an impact.
Apparently, in order to save one life from an overly aggressive police officer, Rand Paul wants to put many others at risk from a slow and from I hear, very painful death. Rand Paul has his priorities.
Let’s be honest here — the NYPD has an unfortunate history over the past 10 years of overreacting. If we are going to legalize every act allegedly done a person to which a NYPD officer overreacted, pretty soon the criminal code would be blank.
This is not a tax issue. It is a police training issue.
We’ve had some problems in Chicago, but we rarely have problems like that. Chicago POs are simply better trained and better managed. There are not perfect, but they are far better than most.
- Wordslinger - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:22 pm:
Taiibi is on target, but Carter does the usual Libertarian thing and brushes by the dead guy on the ground to get up on some hobby horse.
The issue is the dead guy and the lack of consequences, not some minor law.
There isn’t a big daily body count around fhe country for the enforcement of tax laws.
If the tax laws were killing people, than there would have been a bloodbath out in Nevada with that deadbeat rancher and his gang of armed seditious crazies.
- qcexaminer - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:25 pm:
“Chicago POs are simply better trained and better managed.”
Really?
It wasn’t that long ago that a Chicago police commander was convicted and sent to prison for overseeing the TORTURE of 100 black men.
- phocion - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:28 pm:
The cop who did the chokehold was wrong and should have been indicted. So too for his African American female supervisor who stood by as the horrible events unfolded. Nyberg wants to make this a clear cut racial issue. It isn’t.
- Formerly Known As... - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:36 pm:
== It’s racism, a culture of violence & a culture of impunity. We have cops who can act with impunity b/c a big chunk of the politicians want to access this power when they want it and another chunk of politicians are scared of the cops. ==
According to the New York Times and Chicago Magazine, replace ==cops== with ==gang leaders== and you could just as well be describing the dynamic that has developed in some parts of Chicago.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/25/us/chicago-gangs-extending-turf-turn-to-politics.html
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-2012/Gangs-and-Politicians-An-Unholy-Alliance/
Blaming this just on cops, just on laws, just on racism, or just on public apathy, is like blaming just one boulder on the side of a mountain.
- circular firing squad - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:37 pm:
While the line about Crédit default swaps is great the real interesting part is how video helped folks feel the cops were off course.
Wonder what folks would have said yeif there was video of Officer Wilson enforcing the jay walker in Ferguson?
- Gooner - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:39 pm:
QC,
Actually Burge’s acts were ended in 1991.
So yeah, that’s a pretty long time ago.
While the CPD is not perfect, overall the record is pretty good.
- Wordslinger - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:39 pm:
I covered cops for 10 years. The great majority were just regular folks doing a necessary job. No drama, no violence.
But there are cowboys, believe me, who want to show how bad they are every single day.
- Hacksaw Jim - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:40 pm:
As long as there are daily headlines of shootings and murders, assaults and rapes, drug deals and drug killngs, the general public, more likely than not, are going to give great deference to the police - especially because of the fact that they know the hammer is not likely to come down on them.
- walker - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:55 pm:
The only one who was actually charged in this tragedy, was a citizen who recorded it.
- Fred - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:58 pm:
This is a bit of a stretch by the libertarians. It’s not a completely analogous comparison, but it kind of reminds me of the criticism I heard of the feds when Blago’s pal Chris Kelly killed himself because of the stress from his criminal investigation — ‘the feds killed him,” many said. No, he was put in that situation by his own conduct.
Keep in mind, the cops didn’t jump out of their cars and put Garner in a headlock because he was illegally selling cigarettes, the confrontation got physical because Garner resisted arrest. Don’t get me wrong, the cops were way out of line and Garner didn’t deserve his fate by any stretch of the imagination, but if Garner cooperates he doesn’t get wrestled to the ground — and maybe, just maybe, he might have walked away with nothing more than a ticket.
What’s next, libertarians arguing nuclear reglatory inspectors should ease up so they don’t cause stress-related heart attacks among power plant managers?
- Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 3:59 pm:
@Nobody
As Josef Stalin might have said: “An Eric Garner dying during a police scuffle is a tragedy. 7.6 million children dying every year of poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes is a statistic”.
- Wordslinger - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 4:00 pm:
Walk, kind of amazing that the prosecutors could persuade a grand jury to indict the filmer, but couldnt persuade them of probable cause for manslaughter in the Garner case.
- cover - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 4:01 pm:
= The only one who was actually charged in this tragedy, was a citizen who recorded it. =
If it becomes law, will the new eavesdropping bill make that a felony in Illinois again? If I read the bill correctly, I believe the answer is, sadly, yes. Rich/others, please correct me if I misread the bill.
- illini - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 4:09 pm:
Agree with Cover and several others who commented on this aspect of the story.
- I'm Strapped - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 4:45 pm:
“But the policy looks worse when a white yuppie like me can live in the same city as Garner for 15 years and never even be asked the time by someone in uniform.”
I seriously doubt you stood on the street corner for 15 years performing an illegal act either. Had you done so, I feel confident at least some of the 35,000 NYPD cops would have had a discussion with you and while you may have mouthed of, I don’t believe for one minute you would have physically resisted in any manner.
- Chris - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 4:48 pm:
“Eric Garner was not choked to death by the cop. He actually suffered a heart attack, one hour after being placed in police custody.”
And if the cop had had a heart attack instead, Garner may well have been charged with manslaughter:
http://www.wistv.com/story/7496679/suspect-arrested-in-richland-co-deputys-death
- Kasich Walker, Jr. - Friday, Dec 5, 14 @ 4:52 pm:
I share many of the sentiments expressed above..
Another observation on grand juries, this from Jacob Appelbaum @ioerror — “Justice in America is an endless grand jury for wiki leaks and a quickly ended grand jury lets a cop go free after he murders an innocent man.”
I wouldn’t call it “murder” — at least not BY the individual officer — but has there even been a reprimand? Have the officers been relieved of duty?