11/3/2025

 Thursday, December 4, 2025

1674 Father Marquette built the first dwelling in what is now Chicago

1943 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and former MULS dean announced that any baseball club may sign Negro players

1961 MOMA hung Henri Matisse's picture "Le Bateau" right side up, after a visitor noticed it was displayed upside down, the first of 116,000 people in 47 days to notice 

2014 US authorities promised a "fair" investigation into the death of Black Eric Garner after a White NYC  police officer who held him in a chokehold faced no charges

2024  United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson is shot and killed outside a hotel in Manhattan, New York, in a targeted attack by Luigi Mangione

2024  Israeli settlers attack Huwara and Beit Furik in Nablus Governorate, West Bank, and sets fire to several buildings and vehicles. The attacks are in retaliation for Palestinians destroying illegal farming outposts. 

On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, an African American man, was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island by Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, after the latter put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him.  NYPD officers approached Garner on July 17 on suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps. After Garner told the police that he was tired of being harassed and that he was not selling cigarettes, the officers attempted to arrest Garner. When Pantaleo placed his hands on Garner, Garner pulled his arms away. Pantaleo then placed his arm around Garner's neck and wrestled him to the ground. With multiple officers pinning him down, Garner repeated the words "I can't breathe" 11 times while lying face down on the sidewalk. After Garner lost consciousness, he remained lying on the sidewalk for seven minutes while the officers waited for an ambulance to arrive. Garner was pronounced dead at a hospital area approximately one hour later.  The medical examiner ruled Eric Garner's death a homicide. Specifically, an autopsy indicated that Garner's death resulted from "[compression] of neck, compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police".  Asthma, heart disease, and obesity were cited as contributing factors. On December 4, 2014, a Richmond County grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo. This decision stirred public protests and rallies, with charges of police brutality made by protesters. By December 28, 2014, at least 50 demonstrations had been held nationwide in response to the Garner case, while hundreds of protests against general police brutality counted Garner as a focal point. On July 13, 2015, an out-of-court settlement was reached, under which the City of New York would pay the Garner family $5.9 million. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to bring criminal charges against Pantaleo under federal civil rights laws. On August 2, 2019, at a New York Police Department disciplinary hearing regarding Pantaleo's treatment of Garner, an administrative judge, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado, recommended that Pantaleo's employment be terminated.[7] Pantaleo was fired on August 19, 2019, more than five years after Garner's death.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.  Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he had made a purchase using a counterfeit $20 bill.  Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down in the street.  Two other police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd. Lane had also pointed a gun at Floyd's head before he was handcuffed.  A fourth officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from intervening.

Before being placed on the ground, Floyd had exhibited signs of anxiety, complaining about claustrophobia and being unable to breathe.  After being restrained, he became more distressed, still complaining of breathing difficulties, the knee on his neck, and fear of imminent death.  After several minutes, Floyd stopped speaking.  For the last few minutes, he lay motionless, and Kueng found no pulse when urged to check.  Chauvin ignored bystanders' pleas to lift his knee from Floyd's neck.

I wrote a long reflection on Eric Garner's killing on some unknown earlier date in this journal.  I have no idea when I wrote it, but I wish I could find it.  

In bed at 9, up and out to the TV room at 12:30, w/ Christmas thoughts.  9°, wind chill -8°, high of 18°, low +3° at 7 a.m. as I leave for the VA appointment with the infectious disease specialist.   

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 10 a.m.   

Message exchange with Andy:

HI, Son.  First, Peter said he would like the coupon for Bucks tickets but didn’t come over during the weekend to pick them up.  Do you have his address at the dormitory, where I can mail it to him?  Second, Christmas planning.  Steve and Nikki are coming up from Chicago on Christmas Eve and staying overnight, with their dog.  I expect David and Sharon to come over for Christmas Eve dinner.  Do you want to try a get together on either day or wait till after there’s no dog issue to deal with?  Have you firmed up your plans 

Andy:

I asked Peter for the address. As for Christmas, we having mom over for Christmas Eve and then going to midnight Mass. Then going to Trucker’s during the day on the 25th. I don’t think there’s any plan for Drew’s birthday yet, though.

1121 N Milwaukee st, Viets Tower 216

Got it, thanks! 

Facebook posting today:

With all the attention being focused on the extrajudicial killings being done by our military, in response to orders from our government, I am moved to post again the wisdom written by Louis D. Brandeis, arguably the finest jurist ever to serve on our Supreme Court in the 1928 case of Olmstead v. United States:  

“The government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that the end justifies the means -- to declare that the government may commit crimes -- would bring terrible retribution.”

I shudder when I think of the lessons our children and grandchildren are learning by watching what our government is doing.  I shudder even more when I think of what they learn by watching parents and grandparents who do not protest what our government is doing.  Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Pam Bomdi, Kash Patel: they constitute a faculty of wickedness, potent omnipresent teachers of our young ones.  As a former naval reservist and an old Marine, I am sickened to see how our military and naval forces are being used in the Caribbean.  As a human being, I tremble to see how immigrants are being persecuted regardless of their circumstances.  I can only imagine what Louis Brandeis would be saying and writing if he were alive today.