George Will notes this morning that the death of Eric Garner by police choke hold came for the high crime of . . . selling an untaxed cigarette, and wonders whether this isn’t an overextension of the “broken windows” theory of community policing:
Garner died at the dangerous intersection of something wise, known as “broken windows” policing, and something worse than foolish: decades of overcriminalization. . .
Overcriminalization has become a national plague. And when more and more behaviors are criminalized, there are more and more occasions for police, who embody the state’s monopoly on legitimate violence, and who fully participate in humanity’s flaws, to make mistakes.
But about the proximate cause of the infraction that led to Garner’s death, let’s remember who it was that demanded high taxes on cigarettes and the consequent heavy-handed enforcement: Liberals.
As usual, Michael Ramirez gets it:
And would liberals who are complaining about the Garner grand jury verdict (with good reason) please contemplate this image, which we and others have shared before:
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.