Protests after N.Y. cop not indicted in chokehold death; feds reviewing case
updated 6:09 AM EST, Thu December 4, 2014
New York (CNN) -- Protesters poured onto the streets of New
York late Wednesday, upset over a grand jury's decision not to indict a police
officer in the death of Eric Garner.
They marched at the same time
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that federal officials were moving
ahead with a civil rights investigation.
Garner, an unarmed black man,
died in July after a white officer, Daniel Pantaleo, put him in a chokehold.
Garner's death was later ruled a homicide.
"This fight ain't over. It just
begun. I'm determined to get justice for my husband because he shouldn't have
been killed in that way. He shouldn't have been killed in any way," said Esaw
Garner, his widow.
"He should be here, celebrating
Christmas and Thanksgiving and everything else, with his children and his
grandchildren. And he can't. Why? Because a cop did wrong. Somebody that gets
paid to do right did wrong and he's not held accountable for it. But my
husband's death will not be in vain. As long as I have a breath in my body I
will fight the fight till the end."
Protesters gathered at various
points in Manhattan, including Times Square and Union Square, marching
peacefully north as crowds formed near Rockefeller Center for the lighting of
the Christmas tree. Columbus Circle was blocked for a time.
There were demonstrations in
other cities too, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Oakland,
California.
"No Justice. No peace,"
protesters chanted in New York. "No racist police."
Garner's mother, who spoke
alongside his widow, said she was disappointed by the grand jury's decision. She
called for calm.
"We want you to rally, but rally
in peace. Make a statement, but make it in peace," said Gwen Carr.
On New York City's West Side
Highway, a group of protesters stood face to face with rows of police officers,
shouting, "I can't breathe, I can't breathe."
The protesters sat down on the
road, crying out, "What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!"
"Ferguson is Everywhere," one
demonstrator's sign read, referring to the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson,
Missouri.
'I can't
breathe'
During the fatal encounter July
17 on Staten Island, Garner raised both hands in the air and told the officers
not to touch him. Seconds later, a video shows an officer behind Garner grab him
in a chokehold and pull him to the sidewalk, rolling him onto his stomach. The
New York City Police Department prohibits chokeholds.
"I can't breathe! I can't
breathe!" Garner said repeatedly, his cries muffled into the pavement.
Garner, 43, was pronounced dead
that day. Police had suspected Garner of selling cigarettes illegally.
The grand jury was made up of 14
white and nine nonwhite members, according to law enforcement sources. A total
of 12 jurors who have heard all the evidence must be in agreement for a
decision. The grand jury found that there was no "reasonable cause" to
indict.
The case became emblematic of
longstanding tensions between police and minority communities, especially given
that the majority of people stopped under the former "stop-and-frisk" police
policy were African-American or Hispanic.
A federal court ruled that
stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional and tantamount to racial profiling.
The Garner death led to
demonstrations around the city and came weeks before the racially charged police
shooting of Brown, who was unarmed, in Ferguson.
'National
moment of grief"
President Barack Obama said the
Garner case reflected a longtime "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 the trust, and a strengthening of the
accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement," he
said.
Standing outside the Staten
Island store where his son was put into a fatal chokehold, Garner's father, Ben,
told a crowd that he was hopeful about the federal investigation and urged
demonstrators to remain peaceful.
"We want justice for Eric," he
said. "We ain't tearing up nothing. We ain't burning up nothing... The police is
our problem. No violence. That is all I ask."
Mayor Bill de Blasio sought to
allay tensions, saying that he had received assurances from Washington that the
federal investigation of Garner's death would move forward "expeditiously and
with a clear sense of independence."
De Blasio said the grand jury
decision has created "a national moment of pain, a national moment of grief and
searching for a solution."
Pantaleo, according to a
statement from his union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said: "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."
Staten Island District Attorney
Daniel Donovan Jr. said the grand jury conducted dozens of interviews with
witnesses, including 22 civilians, and met between September 29 and December 3.
An attorney for Pantaleo said his client testified for approximately two hours
on November 21 in front of the grand jury.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who
represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, called the decision "a miscarriage of
justice" an "outrage" and a "disgrace."
"He was killed in plain sight
for all of America to see because this was captured on video. And so it's
inexplicable that this grand jury could not return a single charge," said
Jeffries.
Patrolmen's Benevolent
Association President Patrick Lynch said, "there are no
winners" from the grand jury decision.
"It is clear that the officer's
intention was to do nothing more than take Mr. Garner into custody as instructed
and that he used the take-down technique that he learned in the academy when Mr.
Garner refused," Lynch said. "No police officer starts a shift intending to take
another human being's life and we are all saddened by this tragedy."
Brown and
Garner
The grand jury's decision came
on the same day that the New York Police Department, in an attempt to bolster
public confidence, announced plans to start having some officers wear body
cameras.
"When something happens, to have
a video record of it, from the police officers' perspective, is going to help in
many, many ways," de Blasio told reporters. "And God forbid, when something goes
wrong, we are going to have a clearer understanding of what happened."
Parallels mark the deaths of
Garner and Brown, both black, starting with crimes they were suspected of: Brown
allegedly stole cigars from a convenience store; Garner was allegedly selling
cigarettes tax-free.
Another similarity that has
become the hallmark of protests in Ferguson: Garner put his hands up in the air,
as the crook of Pantaleo's elbow tightened around his throat. Some eyewitnesses
have said Brown also made that gesture in surrender. But other witnesses
contradicted them.
No video was rolling, so doubts
over that and other details will always hang over the moment that former
Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot the unarmed teen.
That has led Obama to call for
law officers all over the country to record their operations with body
cameras.
In Garner's case, there can be
little doubt what happened.
Before he gasped what appeared
to be his final breaths, someone hit record on a cell phone camera. The details
of his takedown spread through the Internet as the video went viral.
Wilson
and Pantaleo
In the Ferguson case, Wilson
argued before the Missouri grand jury that he shot Brown -- who Wilson said
tried to wrest away his gun and then charged at him -- in self-defense.
In the Staten Island cell phone
video, Garner did not go after Pantaleo but had his back to him; the officer
jumped him from behind then tackled him to the ground.
The New York Medical
Examiner has ruled Garner's death a homicide. The cause of death was
"compression of neck (chokehold), compression of chest and prone positioning
during physical restraint by police."
But the medical examiner also
listed acute and chronic bronchial asthma, obesity and hypertensive
cardiovascular disease as contributing factors in Garner's death.
In Ferguson, Wilson went into
hiding after death threats and kept his status of police officer but was placed
on leave. He resigned shortly after the grand jury decision. After the
chokehold, Pantaleo was put on modified assignment and stripped of his badge and
gun amid the investigation, and the
NYPD's commissioner ordered an extensive review of training procedures.
Two lawsuits have previously
been filed against Pantaleo. The plaintiffs in both suits allege false arrest,
unlawful imprisonment, civil rights violations and other charges.
One suit from 2013 was dismissed
in January 2014, while the second, from February 2014, remains open.
Ferguson
and New York
In both Ferguson and New York,
mostly African-American protesters took to the streets for weeks after both men
died to decry police violence.
Demonstrators in New York have
called the police response during Garner's arrest excessive and criminal, but
during protests, the contact between police and demonstrators has been largely
cordial.
Missing were the tear gas
canisters, assault rifles, armored vehicles and the lootings and flying bottles
that marred the St. Louis suburb in the wake of Brown's death.
When the Missouri grand jury
declined to charge Wilson, violence returned to Ferguson, as shot were fired,
stores were looted and cars were set on fire.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO-
WHEN-
WHAT-
WHY-
WHERE-
HOW-not given
Keywords：
1.unconstitutional 違憲
2.tantamount 無異
