New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that people of his city should always cooperate with police officers when placed under arrest.
“When a police officer comes to the decision that it’s time to arrest someone, that individual is obligated to submit to arrest,” de Blasio said at a press conference, The New York Post reported.
De Blasio was responding to a statement made Tuesday by the city’s police commissioner Bill Bratton, who said in a radio interview “[t]he place to argue your case is in court, not in the middle of the street.”
More broadly, the mayor’s remarks came on the heels of recent outrage over the death of Staten Island resident Eric Garner, killed in a chokehold by a NYPD officer.
No, Mr. Mayor, cops shouldn’t menace citizens when they are in police custody.
You. Are. Not. Helping.
Don’t conflate the issue, Mr. Mayor.
It’s not as if the words in his throat were what kept Eric Garner from breathing.
How does one argue your case in court when only 3% of those charged ever go to trial while the rest are bullied into taking a plea bargain under threat of a more serious charge?
Quite frankly, I have to agree with him.
Resisting arrest is MOST likely to get you killed and then the police officer will say that you were ‘aggressive’ towards him/her and so warranted the need to be annihilated.