Eric Garner: Death Ruled Homicide by NYPD

This is one of the most heartbreaking stories I have ever heard in my life and honestly, it absolutely disgust me. I was out about in the city, celebrating my birthday when I first heard about the death of Eric Garner. Needless to say it really put shit in perspective. I took a moment of silence then thought... wait a minute. He was killed!? How does a man go from trying to stop a fight to being murdered in broad daylight by the police. Then I thought about Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing"and how "Radio Raheem" was killed in the same exact way. I remembered how distraught I was when I saw that scene and couldn't believe it was happening in real life.  Just minutes before Garner was subdued by police he was said to have broken up a fight between 2 men, but officers claim he was selling "Loosies" (cigarettes) and attempted to arrest him. That's when Garner exclaimed "Not today. Why are y'all always bothering me!" But they proceeded to arrest him, illegally. First off they had no business attempting to arrest him when they didn't even read him his rights! Second, the practice of placing someone in a chokehold was prohibited from use by the department in 1993 so why in the hell are these officers not, as my mother would say "under the jail"?

Daniel Pantaleo

To top it all off they (the 4 Cops) then wrestled Garner to the ground and  Officer Daniel Pantaleo 29,  placed him in a tight chokehold and although Garner repeatedly exclaimed "I can't breathe" Pantaleo never stopped, he never let go. He instead continued to push Garner's face further into the concrete while other officers stood by, watched and did nothing. Can someone, anyone tell me how any of this makes sense. How in the hell can you kill someone, have a medical examiner deem it homicide and not go to jail?  How could you continue to choke someone, depleting their oxygen and it not be murder! Oh wait never mind its called being a "Cop." As a matter of fact I can't recall any case where law enforcement was actually held accountable for killing innocent, unarmed persons. The acts of these officers were absolutely, unwarranted and unnecessary. They behaved like irrational, cold hearted animals. Eric Garner was a human being. Criminal or not he,  no, all of us need to be treated with respect, period. Thus far the EMT's who were called to the scene and did absolutely nothing to save Garner's life were suspended and the Cops were placed on desk duty, yes desk duty?!@# not fired and convicted like they have should have been. The EMT's weren't even the ones who committed the crime and this isn't the first offense for Pantaleo. An eight year veteran of the NYPD, was previously sued numerous times for violating civilian rights. In one case he and the city were sued by two men who claimed Pantaleo and another officer illegally stripped searched them. The city eventually settled and paid the two men a total of $30,000 (which of course came from taxpayer money). I never understand why us taxpayers have to pay for the criminal acts of government official  They want us to forget. They want us to think this is a coincidence and to ignore what has clearly been done to Garner and to other innocent victims but we can't and shouldn't... We have to address the inhumane actions brought forth by an institution that is suppose to protect and serve us. The NYPD and other policing agencies need to understand they DO NOT have to be abusive to people. That detaining criminals is not an opportunity to take our their frustrations. This is 2014 people there are better ways of subduing a perpetrator than choking them to death. I think we should all have the right to defend ourselves against ANYONE trying to harm us, cop or not.  -

Dj Nia Boom

#RIPEricGarner