“I can’t breath!” Those were the dying words of 43-year-old Eric Garner on July 17, 2014, when he had a rear-naked chokehold applied to him by an NYPD officer after being accused of selling packs of cigarettes.
Garner eventually succumb to an asthma attack as a result right there on the New York City street and today the Justice Department has denied to file any federal charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo who was responsible.
The decision by Attorney General William Barr came after the Department decided to side with the Eastern District of New York’s recommendation not to prosecute despite the department’s civil rights division’s recommendation to move forward with a prosecution.
“This should not have ended with the death of a person, but that’s a very different question than what’s presented to a prosecutor when deciding under the Justice manual whether a person should be indicted,” the official said. “You can’t watch the video and not feel great sympathy towards Eric Garner but then I think you have to impose a rigorous legal examination of the facts.”
After the department apparently couldn’t establish the willful intent requirement, the official stated that the department didn’t even bother to determine whether or not Pantaleo’s actions were permissible or reasonable within the policies of the NYPD. Furthermore, the official confirmed that the circumstances and legal analysis of the situation would be different if Pantaleo was a civilian and not a police officer.
So another example of state-sanctioned violence and murder at the hands of law enforcement.
