Most people by now have heard of the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, USA, and the subsequent grand jury failure to indict former police officer Darren Wilson. But that case is sadly one in a long line of police using excess force in the United States and probably elsewhere. I remember an incident in 2010 that friends in another country asked me not to pursue because those friends were concerned for my safety if I stepped forward about the situation that left another friend lying in the parking area of a school in that nation. I was the last one to speak to him. On the other hand, this situation in the United States still warrants more looks, more questions, and far more answers.
On the heels of the Ferguson grand jury failure to indict former officer Darren Wilson, the following is again disturbing and brings to mind excess use of force and the question of what police agencies in the USA are doing:
Is this a matter of race relations, or of excess force regardless of race? I fear the answer.
I think of the woman who was manhandled by police in California, the child in Cleveland who was killed, of course Michael Brown in Ferguson, this situation in Staten Island, and I know there are others. To say it’s disturbing is an understatement and disturbing in itself. I can do nothing but shake my head in utter horror of the implications.
There are several links below my analysis.
One of the first things that struck me about Eric Garner’s chart–even untimed–was transiting Saturn in opposition to natal Saturn (22 TAU 29 Rx) as it prepared to move toward the transiting conjunction to natal Neptune (28 SC 29). I’m noting these degrees because transiting Saturn tells a chilling tale especially on July 17, 2014, at the time of his death. On July 20, transiting Saturn turned direct at 16 SC 39 in partile sextile to Garner’s natal Mercury and transiting Uranus moved to retrograde motion on the 21st of July. Both of these energies would clearly have been lending additional emphasis to the time of his death.
Take note as well that his Sun, no matter how we want to see the placement in the untimed natal chart, was conjunct the Midheaven of the rounded (approximated) time of his death. I wish it were a more exact time, but this is good enough to call it especially with his natal Mars falling in the 9th house of the chart in square to the Ascendant of that transiting chart.
Transiting Mars in 41-minute partile square to the transiting Sun and in a 22-minute partile conjunction to Vesta at the time of his death brings to mind the issue of work ethics. Work or not, “ethics” is the key word here. (Yes, I’m aware that Garner was accused of selling loose cigarettes, but his ethics are not what are being questioned here. He’s not alive to defend himself.) That Mars was also so tightly squaring the Sun (in an out-of-sign conjunction to transiting Jupiter at 00 Leo 19–yet another red flag), it seems quite logical to assume that excessive force was indeed present at this time.
By all accounts I’ve read, chokeholds are against the law and against police policy in New York City. Here is where ethics comes into play, of course. It’s no wonder why the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, in this case was stripped of his badge and gun and is facing possible termination. I’d like why he hasn’t been already. A chokehold is a chokehold, and it’s on that video quite clearly!
Now if Officer Pantaleo has been freed from indictment by the Grand Jury, I wonder whether that is only freedom from indictment as a police officer, or whether there is still a possibility that he could be indicted as an individual separate from his position with the New York City Police Department. .
Take note of the transiting Moon at 9 AR 42 in 1°35′ quincunx to Garner’s natal Uranus. It seems to me that Officer Pantaleo might have allowed his own emotions to override sensibility here. I’d like to know why the other officers present didn’t step in to relieve tensions.
Transiting Neptune was also in a partile opposition to Garner’s natal Mars, which can point to health issues although his Mars in the 9th house of the time of death chart points directly to the involvement of the law in this case. Transiting Neptune was also in trine to transiting Mercury in Cancer. It seems as if someone among police officers present that day–if not Pantaleo himself who was in question–should have picked up on his intuition that this situation was going to endanger a man’s life. I don’t care how big Eric Garner was by height or weight, police officers are not only trained to deal with these situations, I’m under the impression they also know how to use some form of martial arts as well. If I’m wrong, perhaps this is training that should be part of the training officers receive.
There are too many of these incidents of police brutality in the United States. Even locally, police have been charged at times with exceeding their legal authority. The badge does not give anyone the right to overstep his/her authority, and yet too many of these officers seem to think it does.
Frankly, with a transiting chart like this, I have to wonder if perhaps there was some behind-the-scenes sharing of events between any of the officers present as those events went down. I hate to think that because we are often taught to believe in the men in blue, and I’d like to think the majority is still worthy of that belief. Nevertheless, it seems as if there needs to be a little more investigation and a whole lot more training and stepping up to the plate to look at the issue of race versus authority in this country. It’s not about white cop versus minority citizen (with a strong emphasis on black here although there are enough incidents as well related to all people of color), it’s about copping too much authority for the sake of a badge. Scary, scary stuff here.
In Eric Garner Chokehold Case, Grand Jury Is Said Not to Charge N.Y.P.D. Officer