Liberal Sacrifices to their Vengeful God

“The more laws, the less justice.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero.

“Before, we had crimes that oppressed us; Now, we have laws that oppress us.” – Tacitus. (56 B.C.)

Racism didn’t kill Eric Garner. Liberalism did.

Eric Garner was the New York City “loosie man” who perished shortly after he was subdued for resisting arrest. After a grand jury declined to indict the policeman who wrestled Garner to the ground, protests erupted around the country, inspired by the false narrative that his arrest and death were racially motivated.

That reaction was undoubtedly primed by the Ferguson, Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown.

In both cases, irresponsible and inaccurate reporting served a narrative that was dramatically at odds with freely available facts. For example, that now famous video of Garner being subdued on the sidewalk clearly shows that the policeman did not place Eric Garner in a “choke hold.”  Garner’s airway was in no way obstructed.

And the police who confronted Eric Garner were not just walking the streets trolling for black men, as the racial arsonists of the world would have us believe. They were part of a dedicated unit of the NYPD that was tasked with making the world safe from men who sell individual cigarettes on New York City’s streets.

Thanks to the voracious appetite of the state and the totalitarian instincts of New York’s previous mayor, Michael Bloomberg and it’s current mayor, Bill DeBlasio, a pack of smokes sells for between $12 and $14 per pack. This created a fertile ground for a black market that the loosie men exploit.

The New York Times, in 2011, published a lengthy article on the underground economy that serves New York’s nicotine addicts. A loosie man can make between $120 - $150 dollars per day selling unpackaged cigarettes (loosies). The story profiled one particular loosie man named Lonnie Warner. His customers know him as “Lonnie Loosie.” The police call him, “Fish.’ He gained his police nickname in recognition for how frequently he is caught selling loose cigarettes.

Lonnie Loosie views his frequent citations as part of the cost of doing business. After  

all, the same silly laws that he frequently violates created the environment that provides him with his livelihood: “The tax went up, and we started selling 10 times as much,” Warner said. “Bloomberg thinks he’s stopping people from smoking. He’s just turning them onto loosies.”

Under Bloomberg’s direction, the NYPD created a dedicated, plainclothes police division devoted to pursuing loosie men. And just two weeks before Eric Garner’s fatal confrontation with this unit, Philip Banks, New York’s highest-ranking uniformed policeman, ordered more aggressive enforcement of the city’s anti-loosie laws.

Like Lonnie Loosie, Garner was also a frequent target of the anti-loosie police.  Like Lonnie Loosie, he probably viewed the law as both opportunity and nuisance. All he wanted to do was feed his family without overfeeding the leviathan state. But the increased enforcement exhausted his patience and when he dared to resist, the police responded with the strong-arm takedown that ended his life.

He had to be wondering if the police had nothing better to do than harass loosie men. And statistics show that such concerns are justified. FiveThirtyEight.com analyzed policing in New York City and found that Garner’s precinct issued a disproportionate number of citations for minor violations.

There is no reason to suspect racism or any intent to injure or kill on the part of the police. Contrary to the media narrative, Officer Daniel Pantaleo did not apply a “choke hold.” The coroner’s report pointed to advanced heart disease and asthma as the causes of death and not asphyxiation. Choking leaves a wealth of forensic evidence that any pathologist could recognize.

And while Officer Pantaleo has assembled a troubling record, including two lawsuits for civil rights violations, during this incident he was under the direct supervision of his sergeant, Kizzy Adoni, an African-American woman. It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Officer Pantaleo could be prosecuted on state charges of murder or manslaughter, or for a racially motivated, federal civil rights violation without his sergeant as a co-defendant. Awkward!

But for the left, it’s not the facts, but the narrative that matters. To the left, the narrative is so sacred that it’s treated as if it were a vengeful god who requires the periodic sacrifice of a white guy.