re: So was Garner put in a choke hold or not?

Sure I know the difference (I went to the school of laws, bro). Generically speaking, when people run around screaming murder, they tend to be referring to the premeditated type, and my commentary in this thread has simply taken that for granted.

But whether you call it first or second degree, I see no glaring signs that it was either.

I'm on the side of the folks saying, "This is wrong." My point is simply that we as a society should get our facts straight before we go about burning people at the stake. After all, when prosecutors feel public pressure to bring murder charges when murder clearly wasn't present, that's a sure fire way to bring the charge people want while ensuring nothing truly comes of it. Let's be more responsible before we run about dropping the M bomb every time someone dies in a racially sensitive case. In so doing, some of these people may actually be charged with the correct thing in the first place.