Power corrupts, and sometimes an innocent man ends up dead

Eric Garner's death and the aftermath of it demonstrate two important lessons about the nature of power.

One lesson: When people have power over others, they are tempted to abuse it.

We don’t know why officer Daniel Pantaleo put Garner in a chokehold, pinned him to the sidewalk, kept the chokehold for 10 seconds and then pressed Garner’s head into the pavement. But here’s one very possible explanation: he did it because he could.

Physically, he could: Pantaleo is muscular, and clearly he had trained in takedowns. He had worked hard to acquire the strength and skills to take down a bigger man. Here was his chance to use that power.

But Garner's death demonstrates this danger of power in more general senses, too.

Police power is always and everywhere vulnerable to abuse — police are given a near-monopoly on the legal use of violence. This is why modern governments place so many restrictions on cops

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