“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black man from Staten Island, screamed as New York Police Department officers caught and put him in a chokehold, slamming his head against the sidewalk in front of a beauty supply store. He was being arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes.
Within moments of the incident on July 17, caught on cellphone video first published on the New York Daily News website, Garner stopped struggling and appeared to be unconscious as police called paramedics to the scene. Garner, a longtime asthmatic and diabetic, died later at a nearby hospital. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide by chokehold and tight compression of chest. Health issues, including obesity, were listed as contributing factors in the autopsy report.
NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is white, was identified in the video wrapping his arm aggressively around Garner’s neck as he screamed. He was the only officer who faced potential charges.
After four months of testimony, the grand jury in Staten Island announced their final verdict on Wednesday, Dec. 3 that there was no probable cause and not enough evidence to indict Pantaleo for the crime. Police officials and Pantaleo’s lawyer argued in court that the officer did not use a chokehold, but a “take down move” acquired from police training, and that he never thought the man was in mortal danger.
An attorney for the Garner family said in a statement that they are “very upset and disappointed that these officers are not getting indicted for any criminal conduct.”
Officer Pantaleo, who had been on modified desk duty and doing crime analysis statistics for the NYPD since the July incident, also issued an apology statement offering his sympathies: “I became a police officer to help people and to protect those who can’t protect themselves. It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner. My family and I include him and his family in our prayers, and I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss.”
Mr. Garner’s widow, Esaw Garner, said Wednesday that she did not accept the officer’s apology.
“Hell, no. The time for remorse for the death of my husband was when he was yelling to breathe,” she said. “[Pantaleo] is still feeding his kids, and my husband is six feet under and I’m looking for a way to feed my kids now.”
“[Garner’s death is] a terrible tragedy that no family should have to endure. This is a subject that is never far from my family’s minds—or our hearts,” said NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This also puts a spotlight on police-community relations and civil rights—some of the most critical issues our nation faces today.”
Determined to reform the department’s image and mend public relations with the police, De Blasio called for a retraining of the entire New York City police force on Thursday, Dec. 4. The program will be three-days for around 22,000 officers, featuring lessons of “nonjudgmental” street tactics and non-excessive “de-escalation” techniques.
A lawyer for the Garner family, Jonathan Moore, said they hoped that federal prosecutors would continue to examine the case, and urged the public to voice their dismay in a peaceful manner.
“We’re astounded by the outcome of the grand jury process, that after hearing months of evidence and having deliberated that they would find no true bill as to any potential criminal charge,” Moore said.
Surely the case has exposed lapses and errors in police tactics, such as the NYPD’s own guidelines, which completely bans chokeholds. It also raised questions about the aggressive, brutal policing of minor offenses, and hastened the police department’s efforts to scrutinize the way officers treat and violate the rules.
“Unless the Police Department aggressively deals with its culture of impunity and trains officers that they must simultaneously protect both safety and individual rights, officers will continue to believe that they can act without consequence, said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman.
The decision comes less than two weeks after a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., decided not to indict a white officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown.
The NYPD has been readying for a new round of protests throughout the city, which began shortly following the Ferguson decision and were expected to continue and possibly grow following the grand jury’s decision.
New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said that he expected any protests to be peaceful, and that police were prepared to deal with unlawful troublemakers by “taking forceful action” as internal investigation of the Garner case continues.
“We’ve had quite a bit of time to prepare for the events that will unfold here for the next few days,” Bratton said, as crowds began to gather on Wednesday at the Tompkinsville, Staten Island site where Garner died.
Mayor De Blasio, who called for “peaceful and constructive” means of expression, encouraged upset protestors not to resort to violence. “New York City owns a proud and powerful tradition of expressing ourselves through non-violent protest,” he said. “We all agree…that violence and disorder are not only wrong, but hurt the critically important goals we are trying to achieve together.”
After the news from Staten Island, officials called for a Justice Department intervention, saying the grand jury’s finding proved that justice could be found only in the federal courts. By Wednesday evening, the department announced it would open a civil rights inquiry, and Attorney General Eric Holder said federal prosecutors will conduct their own investigation.
Protests erupt nationwide; community speaks out
As news of the grand jury’s verdict quickly spread, the streets of New York City came alive with outraged demonstrations from Staten Island to Manhattan. Hundreds of angry but generally peaceful protesters took to the streets, chanting and blocking traffic, and people shouted, “This stops today!” and “I can’t breathe!”
New York police reported relatively fewer arrests and less civil disobedience, in contrast to the riots that unfolded in Ferguson earlier this month.
Police Commissioner Bratton also commended NYPD officers for their non-confrontational “restraint and professionalism” during the initial protests.
Across the nation, human rights activists and communities gathered together showing their support of the Garner family. From Seattle to Pittsburgh to Washington, in many downtown areas and universities, thousands of demonstrators held “die-ins” and silent protests in public areas, such as New York’s Rockefeller Center. More demonstrations were planned throughout the week.
President Obama, speaking from the White House, said both grand juries’ decisions highlighted the frustrations that many African-Americans have harbored about a legal system with a long history of discrimination against black people.
“When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that is a problem,” Obama said, “and it’s my job as president to help solve it.”National Urban League President Marc Morial said the lack of an indictment in the death of Mr. Garner was a “travesty of justice.”
“All of these incidents when taken together do not describe or encapsulate the sum of the concern, the sum of the outrage, the sum of the reawakening that you’re seeing all across America today,” Morial said.
Damayan Migrant Workers Association, a Filipino organization for migrant workers, issued a statement expressing its “solidarity” with the families of Garner and other victims of police force, such as Michael Brown.
“We view these murders and non-indictments as brutal reminders of the entrenched, institutionalized racism upon which US society and economy is built — the new Jim Crow, lynching by another name,” the statement said. Damayan also added that Filipinos should go “against any tendency we have to remain silent” and “join the ranks of this movement that centers the Black struggle and upholds Black leadership.”
Civil rights leaders met Thursday for a press conference at the New York City headquarters of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Sharpton, one of the country’s most outspoken civil rights activists, announced a civil rights summit to be held following a planned job march in Washington on Dec. 13, as part of an effort to start a national movement committed to necessary, constructive and peaceful change.
“We want the Justice Department and the federal government to deal with the fact that the grand jury systems on the state level are broken,” Sharpton said.
“People need to know that black lives and brown lives matter just as much as white lives,” said Mayor De Blasio at a press conference. “It’s an issue that goes back to the founding of our republic that we still haven’t resolved.”
(With reports from AP, Huffington Post, the New York Times, NY Daily News, and NBC4 New York)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(NYNJ December 5-11, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)
