I'm sure Al Sharpton will be all over this one.
NYPD officer in Eric Garner chokehold death not indicted by Staten Island grand jury ‘Oh my God, are you serious?’ Garner’s widow, Esaw Garner, told The Daily News about the grand jury’s decision not to charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo. ‘You can see in the video that he (the cop) was dead wrong!’ There had been warnings earlier that a decision not to indict the white policeman with a crime for killing a black man would fan tensions.
BY TINA MOORE , THOMAS TRACY , ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , CORKY SIEMASZKO
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Eric Garner’s widow reacted with dismay Wednesday after a Staten Island grand jury chose not to indict the NYPD officer who killed her husband with a chokehold.
“Oh my God, are you serious?” Esaw Garner, her voice rising in shock and anger, told The Daily News. “I’m very disappointed. You can see in the video that he (the cop) was dead wrong!”
Garner was referring to the shocking cellphone video first published on NYDailyNews.com that showed Officer Daniel Pantaleo placing Garner in a chokehold — a move banned by the NYPD — and wrestling him to the ground.
“The grand jury kept interviewing witnesses but you didn't need witnesses,” the anguished widow said. “You can be a witness for yourself. Oh my God, this s--- is crazy.”
Esaw Garner said she is now placing her hopes for justice with the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Well, I guess I have to go with the next step,” she said.
Then Esaw Garner left for the offices of the National Action Network in Manhattan, where she was expected to make a further statement alongside the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Meanwhile, Staten Island was bracing for Ferguson-like trouble. There had been warnings earlier that a decision not to charge Pantaleo, who is white, with a crime for killing a black man, would fan tensions.
And as word of the panel’s decision seeped into the Staten Island neighborhoods where anti-police sentiment is strongest, cops were on high alert and prepared for the worst.
“How can anyone in the community have faith in the system now?” asked Vincent Warren, head of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “First Ferguson, now Staten Island.”
Garner, a 43-year-old father of six, was killed July 17 when Pantaleo subdued him on a Tompkinsville street with a banned chokehold.
Police said they approached Garner because he was selling unlicensed cigarettes —better known as loosies —and that he resisted arrest.
They noted that Garner’s rap sheet listed 31 arrests, beginning when he was 16.
But Garner’s death sparked national outrage after the video of his deadly encounter with police was obtained by The Daily News.
It later drew comparisons to Ferguson, Mo., where another black man — unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown — was killed in August by another white cop. And there was mayhem in that Missouri town last week when a local grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson.
Pantaleo, who had been accused of false arrest and violating police procedures in two previous lawsuits, was yanked off the street.
The Staten Island district attorney and the Civilian Complaint Review Board launched probes. And the medical examiner’s office ruled Garner’s death a homicide.
But after several months of reviewing the evidence, a majority on the panel, which sources said consisted of 15 white and 8 black or Hispanic jurors, concluded there was not enough there to charge Pantaleo with manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.
Pantaleo, 29, an eight-year veteran of the force, could still be hit with departmental charges that could end his career as a New York City police officer.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-eric-garner-chokehold-death-not-indicted-article-1.2031841
