紐約市警察局 NYPD 員警於這個月17日在Staten島逮捕黑人 Eric Garner，指控他販賣未稅香菸，執行逮捕時一位員警使用勒喉方法鎖住他的脖子，其他員警蜂擁而上將他壓制在地上，並繼續勒住他的脖子，其間， Garner 大叫：「我不能呼吸，我不能呼吸」，沒多久，這黑人就死在街頭，Garner 失去意識後員警還繼續搜身，並未立即將他送醫。
此一案例讓我想到發生在美國 1989 年的真實案例 Graham v. Connor. 這是一個很有名的聯邦最高法院判例。此一案例警察僅憑主觀判斷逮捕罹患嚴重糖尿病之 Graham，將他推上車，Graham 要求送醫，警察毫不理會，最後導致其多處受傷，最高法院判決警察不得主張正當程序，因為其使用過度武力。
17日這個案例與 Graham 案例類似，該局對於執勤員警做出明確立即的停職、調職處分，因為其使用過度武力導致嫌犯死亡。
很難想像，這麼粗壯的一個黑人被警察鎖住脖子壓在地上後馬上就一命嗚呼。警察執行逮捕任務時應注意嫌犯是否罹犯疾病，以免執行逮捕時或逮捕後導致嫌犯死亡，將遭致嚴重懲處甚至停職處分。
另外，錄下這段警察暴力影片的 Orta 表示他會繼續錄警察暴力影片檢舉，目前手機都可以照相，執法人員執法時更應謹慎，避免遭民眾檢舉。
依據 Graham vs. Connor 聯邦法院判例，此一案例顯示警察人員在對方並未對執法人員產生生命危險下使用過度武力，鎖住他的脖子並將他的頭壓在地上，使得原本就患有氣喘的嫌犯無法呼吸死亡，執法人員將會遭到法院起訴。
來源：http://time.com/3016326/eric-garner-video-police-chokehold-death/
- Josh Sanburn @joshsanburn July 22, 2014
TIME talks with the man who filmed the fatal incident on Staten Island
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On July 17, Ramsey Orta was talking to his friend, Eric Garner, about where to eat dinner — Friday’s, maybe, or Applebee’s. They eventually decided on Buffalo Wild Wings, but Garner never made it. Soon, a fight broke out nearby, Orta says, and after Garner helped break it up, New York Police Department officers on the scene accused Garner of selling untaxed cigarettes and attempted to arrest him.
Garner, a 43-year-old father of six who was unarmed at the time, argued with the officers about why he was being targeted. To corral Garner, one officer used what appeared to be a chokehold, a technique banned by the NYPD. Several others helped drag him to the ground. Garner, who had a history of health problems, died soon after.
Orta recorded the incident on his phone and the video has helped turn the fatal encounter from a local tragedy into a national debate over the use of force by police. Orta, 22, says he’s known Garner for several years and called him “the neighborhood dad.” Orta’s video shows what appears to be one officer pressing Garner’s face into the sidewalk as other officers attempt to subdue him. On the ground, Garner can be heard repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe.”
“I felt like they treated him wrong even after the fact that they had him contained,” Orta says.
Since Orta’s video became public, the officer who grabbed Garner by the neck, Daniel Pantaleo, was ordered to turn in his badge and gun; another was reassigned to desk duty. The four emergency medical workers who responded to the scene have also been suspended without pay. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was “very troubled” by the footage, and both prosecutors and the NYPD are investigating the incident.
Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, criticized the department’s response as “a completely unwarranted, kneejerk reaction for political reasons and nothing more.”
Orta recorded another violent arrest at the same location in Staten Island a week earlier. He says officers have harassed him since the Garner video became public, but he says he isn’t likely to put his camera away if something happens in his Staten Island neighborhood again.
“It just gives me more power to not be afraid to pull out my camera anytime,” he says. “Even if they’re pushing me back, I might just like keep going forward and if I get arrested, hey, I got something on camera.”
Video reported by Paul Moakley, edited by Raymond Chu
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