We live in a world where just about any outside action is somehow, in some place, caught on film. When it comes to law enforcement videos provide the court of public opinion an opportunity to decide what’s reasonable, what’s just. Here we provide two videos, the top one (with a misleading imbedded headline) from last May in Bridgeport captures city police officer Richard Cretella arresting a 16-year-old suspect on Stratford Avenue while enforcing the city’s curfew law. The video at bottom shows the tragic scene that led to the death of Eric Garner in New York. The police officer who helped employ the takedown of Garner was cleared of charges.
The video of Officer Cretella in Bridgeport, taken by a pedestrian, has received thousands of views on YouTube. Is the police officer using force necessary to overcome resistance? It appears the suspect is resisting, and a city spokesman says the suspect reached for the officer’s duty belt. The video shows the officer slapping the juvenile suspect and placing his arm underneath the suspect’s neck. Cretella also is composed enough to respond that the suspect is resisting arrest.
The arrest took place on a Sunday at approximately 3:30 a.m. Cretella has a regular beat on Stratford Avenue enforcing curfew laws as well as after-hour establishments in the East End, a beat that’s no walk in the park.
The juvenile was released to his mother. He was brought to Bridgeport Hospital where he was also combative and verbally abusive to hospital staff, according to sources. The video was initially posted on OIB last May as the city announced a settlement of a lawsuit involving a man who was stomped by three city police officers in Beardsley Park in 2011. The Cretella video also shows the challenges city police officers face trying to enforce the city’s curfew ordinance.
Eric Garner video.
American Justice, just us, who are from a certain group.
Ron, your statement in and of itself is racist. The 16-year-old was resisting arrest for violating the curfew law, what did you want the cop to do, ask the kid to put on the handcuffs “please?”
The guy in New York was grossly overweight, 300-plus pounds, had asthma and diabetes and did not die because of a choke hold or a beating. Should the cops have called an ambulance?
Look at the national crime statistics and see who is committing the crimes for the most part.
Andy, I have a problem with your statement “Look at the national crime statistics and see who is committing the crimes for the most part,” if it meant blacks commit more crimes than whites. The fact is according to the FBI statistics whites commit almost two and a half times more crimes in America than blacks. (6,500,000 to 2,600,000.)
Is it possible you and unscrupulous police look at blacks and automatically think of criminals? Why not associate a young black male with, let’s say Barack Obama is our president and he’s a black male, that kid walking down the street is a black male, he’s probably a future president! Hell No!
Eric Garner was killed because of his entrepreneurial spirit. He wasn’t selling drugs in his community, wasn’t breaking into homes or businesses, wasn’t shooting or stealing. He was providing a community service his community depended upon, selling loose cigarettes. I know it’s kind of hard for the white community to understand the need to buy one cigarette at a time, but that’s a part of the black community that has been going on for as long as I’ve been black. Brother Garner took his money and purchased a $12 pack of cigarettes, NYC prices and sold them to those in the community who couldn’t afford to buy a whole pack.
Those cops knew who he was and knew what he has done in the past and attacked him for what they thought he was doing at the time. No one found any loose cigarettes on him after he was killed! One would think the NYPD would have better things to do than to kill a man who was selling loose cigarettes. Do you know how many times they messed with him about selling loosies and how many times he was stopped by the NYPD Stop and Frisk policy just because he is a black male living in a certain neighborhood? Every black man in America has been stopped and questioned and fucked with by white cops our whole lives and God forbid you exercised your rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, your black ass is going to be arrested or like Erica Garner, KILLED.
It gets old Andy and sometimes you just have to say I’m no longer going to acquiesce my civil rights and you know when you do there are consequences to bear and that point in your life you have had enough of the bullshit and you say the hell with it. The death of these two young brothers had very little to do with stealing a few cigars and selling loose cigarettes. Andy, let me quote you about Bridgeport, “These kids coming from the ‘burbs to these public safety jobs have no idea how to relate to the inner city young people and young adults. The first time one of these guys is called a MF’er they take it as a personal insult and want to go after the person who said it but in the city it’s everyday language.” It’s the same all across America. Andy.
Donald Day, what I’d not talked about is white-on-white crime, 88% of white-on-white crime is committed by whites.
Wouldn’t 100% of white-on-white crimes be committed by whites? Unless it was a white guy and a black or ‘other’ guy committing a crime on a white?
Don–you are correct when you say 28.5% of crime is committed by blacks but blacks are only 15% of the population. That means a black is twice as likely to commit a crime than a white. If the statistics were even, only 1,300,000 crimes would have been committed by blacks.
www .youtube.com/watch?v=xpsQwl_19M4
First off, the police responded to a complaint from the store owner where Garner was selling his loosies. The cops did not make it illegal, politicians did with their feel-good laws. Now Garner weighed over 300 lbs, had diabetes and asthma. Do you think if he obeyed the police commands he would be alive today? I do agree with you, it is a bullshit law and if I were a cop I would turn a blind eye to it. Don, I stand by what I said and you quoted in your post. I believe that is true in many departments.
Just watch the video and you will see why so many whites were marching in NYC yesterday.
www .youtube.com/watch?v=j1ka4oKu1jo
Ron, people participate in a demonstration against the death of Eric Garner after he was taken into police custody. The cause of Garner’s death was “compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police,” said Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office. The death was ruled a homicide.
Donald, I appreciate your comments and the research you’ve done on this matter. I feel your frustration and agree with your assessment. I wish I could articulate the issue as well as you.
Thank you Lisa, I just try to show another side to the madness blacks had and have to endure on a daily basis in America.
BOE SPY, you can juggle the numbers to foster a racial stereotype to justify your racial animus or post a link to some black fool espousing foolish rhetoric, but you can’t deny underlying much of that subconscious racial bias is the most enduring, corrosive racial stereotype in America: the black-as-criminal mindset. “Whites commit crimes but blacks are criminals.” But when blacks violate the law, all members of the race are considered suspect.
While whites can and do commit a great deal of minor and major crimes (over 6,500,00 per year), the race as a whole is never tainted by those acts. It would never enter your mind to wish a bad guy not be white, because no matter how sick the crimes, other members of the white race are not impugned.
Based on the tenor of your response, I believe if you were given a gun and a badge we would be reading about you and how you violated the civil rights of some black person. Just my opinion, whether right or wrong!
Isn’t it the same racial stereotyping you do assuming the cops are guilty even though rwo grand juries failed to indict? What about all the black men shot by black cops?
www .nydailynews.com/opinion/john-lott-dangerous-distortions-cops-shooting-black-men-article-1.2030545
“If their claim is right–if police do unjustly shoot blacks at vastly higher rates–it is a serious indictment of the police. But, fortunately, these allegations are false.”
You assume both black men were innocent. You assume I am white because I disagree with your opinion. The truth is, you just do not know what you are talking about.
BOE SPY, tell me when has a white cop ever been indicted by a State Grand Jury for killing a black man in America? Let’s say everything that was said about Michael Brown and Eric Garner were true, they still shouldn’t have been killed.
I make no indictment of police in general, but anyone who feels we don’t live in a more sophisticated racial environment is in denial or just not getting it. In too many instances “Racism is alive and well.”
BOE, nowhere in my response to you did I insinuate or intimate you were white and contrary to your belief it doesn’t matter for my answer to be relevant. I find it somewhat humorous you would reference an opinion piece from the NY Daily news to buttress your argument, REALLY, an opinion piece, not a news article from the Daily News at that, you’ve got to be kidding me!
You asked if I’m racial stereotyping even though two grand juries failed to indict the police in these two cases. Did the grand jury indict the NYC police officers who sodomized Abner Louima with their batons and/or Rodney King who was brutally beaten by four police officers in California? No they didn’t, even though Federal civil rights complaints sent these police to prison for their crimes. The fact is when white police officers go before a grand jury they treat them not as citizens but as super citizens. It doesn’t matter that officer Pantaleo who choked Eric Garner to death had two prior racial incidents in his past and one resulted in NYC paying out $30,000 for one his indiscretions.
Prosecutors have incentives to not antagonize police officers and their unions because they work with police officers daily on cases and because prosecutors generally must stand for election. Finally, you hide behind the cloak of anonymity and inscrutability while sowing your moronic views; you my dear are an internet TROLL, no offense Bobby. Quit hiding and put your name to what you write, TROLL.
Donald Day, BOE SPY is a real coward because they are scared to let people know who they are but they can act real tough by hiding. Oh, I know what it is, they are scared their boss will find out who BOE SPY really is, no, BOE SPY is just a scared coward.
Again Don, you do not know what you are saying. In both the King and Louima cases, the cops were indicted and went to court. I believe the cops in the King case were found innocent by a jury and the Louima cop pleaded guilty. So much for moronic views. Those are the facts.
BOE SPY, they were NOT indicted by the state grand jury, they were found guilty by the FEDERAL GRAND JURY.
Grand juries do not find people guilty. They just decide if there is enough evidence to go to trial. The Louima cop was not found guilty by anyone. He confessed. The King cops were indicted in CA and found innocent and one hung jury. In federal court the jury found Officer Laurence Powell and Sergeant Stacey Koon guilty, and they were subsequently sentenced to 32 months in prison, while Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno were acquitted of all charges. King himself had a number of alcohol problems after the trial and finally died of accidental drowning, and alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, and PCP found in his system were contributing factors. Louima had no future legal problems and did some great things for himself and others.
BOE, the aforementioned cases are a narrative on the post, police brutality of black men in America.
A friend who is white just made me aware of this:
www .bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-04/s-carolina-grand-jury-indicts-ex-cop-for-man-s-death.html