Innocent Blacks and White cops— All lives are valuable

(NNPA)—Rafael Ramos had been a school security guard before he joined the New York City Police Department two years ago. Ramos, 40, was married and had two children. The youngest child, Jaden, 13, fondly remembered his dad on Facebook and Twitter, describing his dad as “the best father I could ask for.” Already, many in the Ramos family say they have forgiven Ismaayl Brisley, the man who executed Ramos and his colleague, Wenjian Liu, on Dec. 20.
Liu, 32, attended the College of Staten Island and Kingsborough Community College. He was a dedicated police officer who, according to news reports, chose his career out of a sense of duty and obligation. He had been married for just two months.
Eric Garner, 43, was also married and had six children; the youngest, Legacy, was born just three months before his father died. Garner’s death was ruled a homicide, probably because he was placed in a chokehold, a forbidden police maneuver. At 400 pounds, he suffered from diabetes and asthma, but—despite sinister efforts to blame Garner’s health for his death—those diseases did not kill him. A cursory view of the last moments of his life show excessive police force and medical indifference to a man whose dying utterance, “I can’t breathe,” has become the mantra for a movement.