Yesterday marked five years since Eric Garner was strangled on camera by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo. Sadly, the Justice Department decided Pantaleo will not be hit with federal charges. Now, the powers that be in New York are trying to point fingers, only due to the outrage, but they all have blood on their hands.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo babbled in a press conference that de Blasio failed by taking five years to bring administrative charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo, “This is an issue that should have been handled by the New York authorities much earlier on. How do you say no one did anything wrong, and no one is disciplined and no one is punished, but Eric Garner is gone.”
He continued, “But the best course for the city and for the NYPD is when and if someone does something wrong, you know what you say? The person did something wrong. That actually increases the credibility of the city and the police department.”
However, Cuomo refused to say if Pantaleo should keep his job after killing a man on camera and said, “That’s a decision for the NYPD and New York City. But I believe the facts should be reviewed and justice should be done and it shouldn’t be political.”
Sounds like they both could have done more to see that Eric Garner’s family received justice.
The Garner family is still waiting for the decision for the administrative NYPD trial to determine if Pantaleo could still be a police officer.
The trial ended on June 6 after a handful of delays since it began more than three weeks ago. The Civil Complaint Review Board (CCRB) repeated its stance to for Pantaleo to be fired.
“CCRB recommends a penalty of termination without his pension,” prosecuting lawyer Suzanne O’Hare said as part of her closing arguments. “Officer Pantaleo forfeitured his right and privilege to be a police officer in the city of New York.”
One seemingly damning fact revealed from the trial was the fact that an NYPD officer admitted that he trumped up the charges against Garner in an effort to justify his chokehold death.
“Officer Justin Damico testified that after riding in an ambulance with the dying Garner, he went ahead on his own and filled out arrest papers listing a felony tax charge that would have required prosecutors to prove Garner, a small-time street hustler, had sold 10,000 untaxed cigarettes,” the Associated Press reported.
Earlier in the trial, it was also revealed that NYPD Lt. Christopher Bannon was texting with another officer shortly after Pantaleo’s violently killing in Staten Island, where Garner was rushed to Richmond University Medical Center. When Bannon was told that Garner didn’t have a pulse, Bannon texted back: “Not a big deal.”
Garner was approached by undercover NYPD officers on July 17, 2014, for the alleged offense of selling untaxed loose cigarettes. When officers failed at handcuffing him for the nonviolent misdemeanor, Pantaleo was caught on video with his arms wrapped tightly around Garner’s neck from behind. The chokehold ultimately killed Garner. The entire deadly episode was captured on cellphone video and filmed by a bystander. Garner’s final words “I can’t breathe” — became a rallying call for social justice advocates who saw his death as a murder.
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