Daniel Pantaleo has been fired from the NYPD but he is already cashing in. The family has a GoFoundMe Page and it has already made over $66,000.
The GoFundMe Page reads, “Support NYC Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo and his family. Mayor de Blasio’s anti-police rhetoric contributed toward the decision to fire him. Let’s help an officer in need who was only doing his job! It’s the least we can do for a brother in blue with a newborn and bills to pay!”
Within 17 days and only 1,307 donations, the page has raised over $66,000. Allegedly, Pantaleo made over $100,000 a year as a police officer.
On the other hand, Eric Garner’s GoFundMe Page has only raised $150.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill decided to fire Pantaleo more than two months after the conclusion of an NYPD administrative trial to decide the professional fate of the officer, who has remained gainfully employed by the department since a video showed him using a banned chokehold on Garner, who was supposedly suspected of the nonviolent crime of selling loose and untaxed cigarettes in public. The status of Pantaleo’s NYPD pension was unclear after O’Neill’s announcement.
When asked if he thought justice was delivered, O’Neill said the process was “fair and impartial” while describing it as a “tragedy for the Garner family.”
Judge Rosemarie Maldonado recommended earlier this month that O’Neill should fire Pantaleo. On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Maldonado said Pantaleo’s version of Garner’s death was “untruthful” and “disingenuous” during the disgraced cop’s accounts to investigators. She also said the other officers who testified were “unhelpful or unreliable.”
O’Neill said he “agreed with the content” of Maldonado’s recommendation.
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 have maintained that his death was a murder.
The Department of Justice failed to bring any criminal charges against Pantaleo.
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