New York City officials, activists, and attorneys have expressed outrage at the failure to indict a New York City police officer who held 43-year-old father Eric Garner in a chokehold, leading to his death.
Protesters were already beginning to gather at a Staten Island courthouse less than an hour after news of the decision broke on Wednesday afternoon. There were also reports of protesters gathering at Union Square in Manhattan, and near the city’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center.
In July, Daniel Pantaleo, an eight-year veteran of the New York police department, locked Garner in a chokehold after suspecting Garner of selling untaxed cigarettes. A video of the encounter galvanized public reaction against the NYPD for the use of the chokehold, which has been officially banned by department policy for more than two decades.
“This was a terribly disappointing outcome and is not reflective of the events that led to Eric Garner’s death,” New York city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said. “What makes this even more infuriating is the frequent lack of accountability, which is why I urge the U.S. Department of Justice to launch its own investigation.”
A lawyer for the family of Eric Garner, attorney Jonathan Moore, said he was “astonished based on the evidence of the video tape, and the medical examiner, that this grand jury at this time wouldn’t indict for anything.”
“On that video you can see the most cruel, horrible thing that someone could do to someone,” Garner’s daughter Erica told the BBC. “It’s just not right.” She called the grand jury “not even human.”
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio stopped short of condemning the decision, saying the city has a “proud and powerful tradition of expressing ourselves through non-violent protest.”
“We trust that those unhappy with today’s grand jury decision will make their views known in the same peaceful, constructive way.”
News that Pantaleo would not be indicted by a special grand jury in Staten Island broke initially through anonymous sources, and was later confirmed by Moore.
Staten Island district attorney Daniel Donovan said the grand jury found “no reasonable cause” to indict the officer, despite a four-month inquiry by the 23-member panel. Donovan said his investigation focused on identifying “civilian witnesses” to Garner’s death, and that the grand jury also heard from expert witnesses.
Donovan said prosecutors in New York are barred from releasing grand jury testimony. That is in direct contrast to the prosecutors’ decision to release all grand jury documents in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed black teen was shot by a white police officer. That failure to indict sparked violent protests throughout the St Louis suburb earlier this month.
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