Reason for Hope after Eric Garner

       It does seem that there is some chance this time for meaningful action on the part of policymakers this time. While as you know I'm not a big fan of Republicans or a big believer in their social conscience, there is some reason for hope even in listening to them as as most of them seem to agree something very wrong happened in this case. 

      "House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Thursday that the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two unarmed black men who were killed by police in recent months, are "serious tragedies" that warrant more answers."

       "Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Boehner offered his first public comments on the decisions of two separate grand juries not to indict the police officers involved in the deaths of Brown and Garner. A grand jury declined last week to indict Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, for killing Brown, and on Wednesday, it was announced that Officer Daniel Pantaleo would not be indicted for the death of Garner in Staten Island, New York."

      "Clearly both of these are serious tragedies that we've seen in our society and I think the American people want to understand more of what the facts were," Boehner said. "There are a lot of unanswered questions that the Americans have and, frankly, I have."

       http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/john-boehner-eric-garner_n_6269922.html

       Now of course we don't want to go too far-Boehner certainly didn't say that there would be congressional action and wouldn't even commit to congressional hearings. 

       Boehner was unclear on whether Congress had a role to play in the matter or whether the cases should be left to the Justice Department, which has announced federal civil rights investigations into both deaths. The speaker did indicate he would be open to congressional hearings, although he declined to "rule that in or out."

"I do think that the American people deserve more answers about what really happened here and was our system of justice handled properly," Boehner said.

     Meanwhile, in watching Meet the Press this morning there were some good conversations including with Cyrus Vance, Jr. who's the Manhattan District Attorney who at least admitted taht the special prosecutor is something worth thinking about though he did point out special prosecutors can take us down the wrong path as well, pointing to Ken Starr.  His point  is well taken though that was something of an outlier-Starr was just a blatant politicization of the office by a GOP Congress that was in the throes of a certifiable temper tantrum. 

     He did say that as prosecutors he agreed now was the time to be self-reflecting and to ask if there has been any conflict of interest in the way cases handling police. He seemed to think that the GJ system can work but was open to any reforms and didn't close the door on a SP.  He also did say that now is an opportunity to do more and better. 

     As I noted above, at least we have agreement that something really went wrong here. Conservatives and Republicans aren't denying it, though as Greg Sargent has noted they are mostly denying that race played a big part in the problem. 

     Still even admitting there is a problem is major progress. I see that the neoconservative John Podhoretz even suggested that maybe community policing has run its course-something that even John Lewis the famed civil rights marcher who has been Congressman of Atlanta for many years disagrees with. 

     Al Sharpton was on with Garner's wife in the first segment with Chuck Todd. She mentioned that he was constantly 'harassed' by the police as 'the Cigarette Man.' Well, in all honesty, he did systematically break the law. Of course this doesn't 'mean he deserves death' nor does it at all justify what the video seems to show as a pure excessive use of force. Still he should not have been selling cigarettes illegally. 

     His widow said something to the effect that he had tried to get a job as a park ranger but his weight got in the way and that 'he was lazy' which seems to be an admission that he could have gotten another-legal-job. 

     I do think there was some truth in what Charles Barkley said-police are there to uphold the law. It's easy to say that Black people's interactions with them are all negative, forgetting that that's the nature of what you do-if you obey the law you shouldn't have dealings with the police at all. 

    Sharpton then said that there is no denying that Garner was not all innocent-he'd been to jail. Still, he seemed to be suggesting that there was different treatment of white people who similarly continually disobey the law. I'm not sure if this isn't overstated. I agree that there needs to be a rebuilding of these neighborhoods, and help from Washington. However, when we hear that African American parents don't now what to tell their kids about interacting with the police one thing they can do is don't break the law. If an officer calls you on breaking the law, don't continue to do so and flout it in the cops' faces. 

    I think we all have something to learn but I do think it's important not to whitewash illegality which should not be white washed-we don't want to go back to the 70s and 80s in crime in NYC and I say this as a New Yorker.