Yea, that doesn't work for me. Like any ordinary citizen, police officers have to abide by the law. And there are restrictions on the force they can use...just like there are restrictions on the force a citizen can use in self-defense.
I don't care if the guy was belligerent, I don't care if the guy broke the law...he didn't deserve to die. The police officer deserves to be indicted for the CRIME he committed. Any ordinary citizen would be indicted if they tried to make a citizen's arrest in that manner. What he did was not legal, not ethical, and not acceptable.
Like it or not, Garner was an American and is protected by the laws those officers are sworn to uphold. That officer broke the law.
Excessive force really isn't BS for Brown. He was unarmed and the officer shot him when he could have retreated safely or used non-lethal force. He killed a man.
Both of these incidents were examples of excessive force and abuse of power. Those men don't have to be martyrs to be wrongly killed. The police should be held accountable but it's clear these prosecutors don't care about doing that. Criminals are still American citizens and don't deserve to be killed by overzealous police officers using excessive force.
You can choose to justify and dismiss these deaths because they were criminals but I happen to believe criminals are people and I'm not going to accept the killing of people without proper justification. Ferguson is a more iffy issue than New York...where it seems blatantly obvious that was an abuse of power.