Instead of being EITHER pro-cop or pro- Garner, can't we be BOTH??

By far the saddest aspect of the controversy over the recent murders of two NYPD officers( and before them the killing of African American Eric "I can't breathe!" Garner) has been the polarized response, with conservatives rushing to defend "our "NYPD and some protestors allegedly chanting"What do we want?- dead cops! When do we want them?- NOW!". There have been claims that they have been miscquoted but as Mark Twain pithily observed, "the lie is halfway around the world before truth even gets its boots on!"- and that was in the 19th century-long before Twitter, Facebook and the Internet).

Much like capital punishment, you tend to get a polarized response- if opposed to state mandated death you must be a "bleeding heart liberal" indifferent to the sufferings of the victim and his or her family, or conversely you are really loyal to the victim then you will support the "perp's" execution.

Personally I see no contradiction in being opposed to killing either of police officers OR of civilians such as Eric Garner_ I am opposed to the killing of human beings save in demonstratable self defence and I don't see any contradiction in being sympathetic to the families of the two murdered NYPD officers or to the families of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Nor do I regard it as a "liberal versus conservative" matter. Human compassion (which ultimately comes from God to my mind) is not like a cake which can only be cut up into so many pieces, it is all-encompassing!. To their credit, the families of Eric Garner and Michael Brown (along with Mayor of New York Bill De Blasio , outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama) have expressly condemned the officers' murder along with #blacklivesmatter supporters).

Can ALL of us make our New Years resolution to find things we agree with even amongst those we usually disagree with, whether we be liberals or conservatives?

Have a happy Christmas!

Terry

I support good cops.

I don't support cops who don't do their job properly.

So to that end, yes. I can be pro-cop and pro-Garner.

Simple as that, really.

One of my childhood heroes wrote a whole article in Time magazine saying something similar. His point was that these protests are not against cops, but against institutionalized racism.

By the way, that childhood hero in question is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

@paracelsus: I support cops. Honestly do all the people who hate ALL cops even think about what would happen if their were 0? It would be chaotic.

The issue is NOT whether there should be police forces in the first place but whether they should be supported uncritically- my view is NO! We can respect those police officers(irrespective of race) who risk their lives to apprehend violent criminals every day(with some, black as well as white making the ultimate sacrifice-of their lives) but when it comes to the sort of thuggish behaviour associated with Eric Garner's killing I would say: NO WAY! And I don't regard this as an "anti-police" view.

Terry

How about none?

The problem is bad cops who are trigger happy and/or racist, not cops in general. You can't blame a population(in this case cops in general) by the mistakes of a few.