Mostly the politicians who never seem to get caught when their bad laws cause problems. In this case a death of a citizen while in custody supposedly for selling “loosies”, cigarettes sold one at a time. Supposedly it’s a crime to sell cigarettes without a stamp showing the taxes have been paid. But cigarettes are all sold and taxes paid in packs of twenty. Somehow selling things has been under attack by the politicians since time gone out of mind.
The Boston Tea Party was due to a tax on tea. That started a revolution that ended the ownership of 13 colonies of England by the King of England which changed the ownership of America to being owned by the individual Americans who bought the property from sellers. The Boston Tea Party was in December, 1773, 241 years ago. No one died in Boston that night but 241 years later in an eerily similar protest against a tax on tobacco, not tea, Mr. Eric Garner died.
Mr. Eric Garner died because of many factors. The immediate cause was the physical arrest. The proximate causes are legion. Mostly the blame for the death of Mr. Garner was all of the causes that led to the ultimate cause which was his arrest.
Some would argue his death was an accident. That seems true enough. None of the police or EMT people wanted Mr. Garner to die but die he did while under their control. He was 6’3″ tall and 350 pounds. He was a big man but he should never have been arrested for selling cigarettes one at a time. Never.
He was not threatening anyone. He was agitated but not in any type of dangerous manner. He was upset because he was being hassled by the police for selling cigarettes on which all of the taxes that were due were paid.
One unexpected result of Mr. Garners death is increased disrespect for law enforcement. The reasons for that are also legion. The video shows what seems like a Saturday Night skit. “HE’S SELLING A CIGARETTE! GET HIM! GRAB HIS HEAD AND JUMP ON HIM UNTIL HE’S ON THE GROUND! WTF!
Sorry for the profanity but let me say it again. WTF! Mr. Garner should not have been arrested because of a cigarette tax, a tax which had been paid when the cigarettes he was selling were bought.
One of the absolutely sinful jobs done by legislators is to pass petty laws that allow bureaucrats to govern without the consent of the governed. Various politicians have tried to prohibit children playing football, grocers selling supersized sodas, and internet sites posting pseudonymous comments. It’s enough to cause more citizens to demonstrate and want to pick up their pitchforks. Somehow all of the taxes on tobacco seem wrong. What’s next? A tax on eating food?
A few cops in Staten Island screwed up for all of the world to see. The majority of the state’s legislators put them in the position to enforce petty, trifling statutes, i.e., to hassle people not hassling others. All of those people helped cause the premature death of Mr. Eric Garner.
“Every time you see me you mess with me,” Eric Garner said in his last remaining breaths. “I’m minding my business. Please just leave me alone.”
Mr. Garner can no longer speak but he spoke for many people who are fed up with the lawmakers and law enforcers. At the very least the New York Legislature should make selling loose cigarettes legal. All phases of selling them should be supported by all Americans.
No one should have to write this. It should be blindingly obvious how immoral the government has become when no one in government is trying to eliminate the barriers to selling loosies. What a shame. What shameful behaviors by the legislators and the police who passed and who enforce these trite laws that caused the death of Mr. Garner.
Hope a large bronze statue of Mr. Garner is erected on Staten Island in the middle of the street that depicts him holding a single cigarette for sale. It’s the least the rogue government of New York can do to honor the commercial principles of free trade in single cigarettes. What a shame that the laws of America have become so petty. A shame and a disgrace.
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