RZA: Cops in Garner Case ‘Give Us the Non-Value of Black Life’

The artist RZA, from the group Wu Tang Clan, spoke out this week on the case of Eric Garner, telling Gawker he thinks every single officer who confronted Garner should have been indicted. But he doesn’t think it’s necessarily all about race, saying “it was about authority and about empowering a man who didn’t have power before and who overexerted his power.”

He argued there were plenty of ways the situation could have gone down without grabbing him so aggressively. And after seeing the video of Garner being choked, RZA said, “All those cops should have been indicted. Those are the guys who give us the non-value of black life.”

RZA made it clear he’s not anti-cop or anything like that, but he’s concerned about some police officers having “criminal personalities and criminal minds.” At the very least, he said, the officer should have owned up to a horrible mistake on his part and should have been willing to face the consequences.

You can read the full Gawker interview here.

[image via Helga Esteb/Shutterstock]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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