In background, from the NYDailyNews.com:
NYPD officer in Eric Garner chokehold death not indicted by Staten Island grand jury
by Tina Moore, Thomas Tracy, Rocco Parascandola, Corky Siemaszko
Eric Garner’s widow reacted with shock and 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.
Background: NYPD came into the neighborhood in order to identify and arrest persons selling black market cigarettes — called “loosies,” because they are sold individually by persons who don’t charge the ridiculous taxes that area businesses must charge. Therefore, the local businesses asked NYPD to come in and clean up the illegal activity. They said it was unfair that individuals were undercutting brick-and-mortar neighborhood businesses who were required to collect NY and state taxes on cigarettes.
In other words, the businesses were asking the NYPD to stop crimes from being committed in their area.
The NYPD showed up, and you can see what occurred in the video above. NYPD was tasked with making an arrest. When a man who is clearly much larger than any of the four officers in the scene resists, the officers react.
You are now one of those NYPD officers. What do you do when a man the size of Garner resists? Take race out of it. Do you let him push you aside? Do you call for even more officers? Do you draw even more attention to the resistance? Do you walk away? Do you just issue a citation and allow him to continue selling cigarettes in front of local businesses?
You are the cop. What do you do?
BZ
P.S.
Now information from the NY Post indicating:
Man in chokehold death had no throat damage: autopsy
The forbidden chokehold used by a cop to take down a Staten Island man in a deadly encounter Thursday did not damage his windpipe or neck bones, sources said.
The preliminary autopsy findings could be welcome news for Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, now named as the cop who wrapped his arm around Eric Garner’s throat while trying to arrest him.
“If you’re the defense counsel in this case, this is very good news, because it’s consistent with what appears to be the case — that they didn’t mean to hurt him,” said John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Eugene O’Donnell.
But a source close to the Medical Examiner’s investigation said coroners are also investigating whether the chokehold still contributed to Garner’s death by aggravating his pre-existing conditions of obesity, asthma and possible heart disease. He died of cardiac arrest in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
Conflicts? Again, what would you do?
