No Indictment In Eric Garner NYPD Choke Hold Death

03 Dec, 2014

A New York City grand jury decision not to charge a white police officer who killed an unarmed black man with a chokehold sparked outrage and protests on Wednesday, and the U.S. Justice Department said it would investigate the incident.

Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six, was illegally selling cigarettes on July 17 when police officers tackled him and put him in a chokehold. Police said he had been resisting arrest. The city’s medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

The deadly encounter on Staten Island, New York City’s smallest borough, was captured on video, which quickly spread over the Internet and fueled debate about how U.S. police use force, particularly against minorities.

On Wednesday, about two dozen demonstrators lay down in Grand Central Terminal’s main hall in Midtown Manhattan in a silent protest as the evening rush hour began. In Times Square, about 200 people gathered, chanting “No indictment is denial. We want a public trial.”

On Staten Island, near the site where Garner was apprehended, some demonstrators defiantly crushed cigarettes in front of reporters and passersby – a reference to the reason that police gave for approaching Garner in the first place.

President Barack Obama, while not directly commenting on the case, said the grand jury decision spoke to “the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.

“We are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of trust and strengthening of accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement,” he said.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking at a press conference on Staten Island, said he had spoken to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Loretta Lynch – whom Obama has nominated to replace Holder as attorney general.

“They made clear that the investigation initiated by the U.S. attorney would now move forward and would be done expeditiously, and would be done with a clear sense of independence and that it would be a thorough investigation,” de Blasio said.

The district attorney for Staten Island, Daniel Donovan, announced the grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, who placed Garner in a chokehold.

“It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner,” Pantaleo said in a statement released by the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association union.

In ruling Garner’s death a homicide, the city medical examiner said police officers killed him by compressing his neck and chest. His health problems, including asthma and obesity, were contributing factors, the medical examiner said.

The video of Garner’s arrest shows him arguing with police officers, saying, “Please leave me alone,” and later, “Don’t touch me,” before a group of four officers tackled him to the ground. He then began to plead with them, saying repeatedly, “I can’t breathe.” Police said later that Garner had been resisting arrest.

Reuters 

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