Notizbuch
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SundayReview | A Week of Facts vs. Interpretation
Quick History
By SERGE SCHMEMANN | DEC. 6, 2014
A demonstrator being arrested in late November at a protest in New York against a decision not to indict a white police officer who killed an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo. Credit John Minchillo/Associated Press
There are no facts, only interpretations, Nietzsche said, and there was good evidence of that this past week in the decision of a grand jury on Staten Island, and in President Vladimir V. Putin’s take on Russia’s economic plight.
The video of Officer Daniel Pantaleo restraining Eric Garner with a chokehold, and the black man gasping “I can’t breathe,” provided what most people would accept as a clear record of what happened from beginning to end. There were none of the unknowns and ambiguities that apparently persuaded grand jurors in Missouri not to bring charges against the officer who shot Michael Brown dead in Ferguson, a case with no video. (nytimes.com)
