GothamistThe two police officers who were involved with trying to arrest a Staten Island man—and killing him in the process when one put him in a chokehold—were taken off the streets. Officers Daniel Pantaleo, an eight-year veteran, and Justin Damico, who has been with the NYPD for four years,are now on desk duty.
Police, who say that Eric Garner, 43, was selling untaxed cigarettes, attempted to handcuff him around 4:45 p.m. on Thursday outside 202 Bay Street in Tompkinsville. A disturbing video obtained by the Daily News shows Garner arguing with the police: “I was just minding my own business. Every time you see me you want to mess with me. I’m tired of it. It stops today!” When a number of cops try to subdue him, Garner, who weighed 350 pounds, is seen swatting their hands away and saying, “Don’t touch me, please.”
One officer puts him in a chokehold as the others struggle to pull him to the ground and get his arms behind his back. Garner, an asthmatic, can be heard repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe.” The NYPD says he went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at Richmond University Medical Center.
At a press conference yesterday, Police Commissioner Bratton said, “This would appear to have been a chokehold as defined in the department’s patrol guide. But the investigation will seek to confirm that.” Chokeholds are explicitly prohibited in the patrol guide.
A source told the Post, “There’s a very high chance that the officer who put him in a chokehold would lose his job. It violates protocol. It violates a direct rule which is never to put somebody in a chokehold.“
Mayor de Blasio, who delayed his trip to Italy by a day because of Garner’s death, said yesterday, “This is a terrible tragedy no family should have to experience. Like so many New Yorkers I was very troubled by the video.” But he did stress, “It is too early to jump to any conclusions about this case. We must wait for all the facts and details about the incident to emerge. I assure all New Yorkers there will be a full and thorough investigation.
Lloyd Thompson, a lawyer and former NYPD commanding officer, told the Staten Island Advance, “If choking is prohibited in the (police) Patrol Guide they shouldn’t have done it. But in the heat of the moment, you have to do what you have to do if someone doesn’t want to be arrested. You have to take a look at the circumstances.”
The Advance added, “Thompson emphasized that the Patrol Guide, which prohibits chokeholds, is a guide and is not the law,” and had more insight from Eugene O’Donnell, professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, “The fact that someone dies in police custody doesn’t make it a crime… The bottom line is that police are authorized to use force on people, but, truthfully, the police don’t have a lot of direction and training in using force. When the rubber meets the road, they sort of have to improvise in real time. Force is always ugly, it’s risky.”
Garner’s family is both upset and furious. His grieving wife, Esaw Garner, spoke to the News’ Dennis Hamill:
“I couldn’t watch the video of my husband being taken down last night. I was too upset. I never slept. I watched it this morning and I got even more upset.”
It was clear to her what happened to her husband, Eric Garner, outside a beauty shop in Tompkinsville.
“They killed him,” she said. “They choked him and took him down and I could hear him screaming that he couldn’t breathe. It was so hard to watch. He was a nonviolent gentle giant and they killed him.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton welcomed the Garner family at the National Action Network today:
Mom and wife of #EricGarner break down at National Action Network as @TheRevAl talks about chokehold banned by NYPD pic.twitter.com/XH06TWTli1
— Corinne Lestch (@clestch) July 19, 2014
Sharpton said, “We are not going to stop until we get justice for this man.”
http://gothamist.com/2014/07/19/unclear_if_cop_who_put_man_in_fatal.php
Trust me
All cops are going to be tried ..the clock is ticking
the trial wont be in a court of law …and their sentence will more than likely be life
they only have themselves to blame so don’t give into the crying when it doesn’t go their way
Well let us begin with statement #1 for these murderers.”It is too early to jump to Any conclusions about this case”……. Excuse me! It’s been captured on video!!!!!!!!! He was ‘choked out to death’. That/this is the obvious congruent conclusion. He wasn’t armed with any weapon, He wasn’t threatening or saying words that exemplified him in any kind of a profile or common sense as being a threat to anyone. Anyone who uses this technique of choking is supposed to be trained as to it’s effects which can lead to death. The choke hold objective procedure is to put the subject into a state of unconsciousness so as to stop him from hurting himself or others,(Not necessarily in that order.) But anyone who has been trained to do this knows that it only takes 3-5 seconds to take effect. The one who does this, should know this. Of course since the body is being cut off the blood supply to the brain which also cuts off all blood FLOW to all of the body, the body itself will respond with undulations which are an automatic response to attack or and a response to being attacked physically which we see here in this ongoing episode of legalized murder on the streets. All that these legalized murderers have to say is we FELT/thought/imagined that ‘our life was being threatened’. When no such evidence is or will be forthcoming. Since they will simply do away with it, or suppress it, if it existed. That’s all they have to say to justify murder like this. This is what is going on, and it is license to murder who ever they want to. Whoever murdered this guy and all of those complicit in the murder and any of the higher ups who decide to not bring this murderer to justice should share in his conviction and will eventually!
“The rule couldn’t be clearer.
‘Members of the NYPD will NOT use chokeholds,’ the NYPD patrol guide clearly states.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gray-area-nypd-choke-article-1.1872738
It seems that justice will only be served by We the People. The current Just-us system sees us as the enemy and as chattel to be killed by the State’s hired guns without repercussion.
Doing this to a member of my family would end much differently for the perpetrators. Until We the People realize we are ALL members of a “family” and defend each other with the appropriate force against our common enemy….this criminal behavior will continue.
“Unclear” if he’ll be charged? It was perfectly clear to me when it happened that he’d be let off the hook.
They always say “we must wait for all the facts and details about the incident to emerge”. That gives them time to change the story, and allow the public to cool off.
The facts and details are all on videotape, and there’s no doubt in the mind of anyone who’s seen it that this was murder, but they hid the killer-pig behind a desk for a while so he can still get paid while the dirt gets swept under the rug.
and this same routine never changes. You’ll hear the exact same script being read into the cameras next time a pig murders someone too.
“…Police Commissioner Bratton said, “This would appear to have been a chokehold as defined in the department’s patrol guide.”
WOULD APPEAR???
As in “It would appear that the sun rises every morning”?
You mean THAT kind of “would appear”?