The death of a New York City man after he was put in an apparent chokehold by police has cast a new spotlight on police misconduct and how law enforcement officers confront citizens, especially minorities.
A funeral was held on July 23 for Eric Garner, the 43-year-old Staten Island resident, who lost consciousness and died after city police officers attempted to arrest him on July 17.
Garner’s death while in police custody has led to accusations of police misconduct.
An amateur video shows a plainclothes police officer placing Garner in what appears be a chokehold on Staten Island. Garner can be heard gasping, “I can’t breathe!”
Autopsy results are pending.
One officer has been stripped of his gun and badge pending an investigation and another has been placed on desk duty. Two paramedics and two EMTs have been placed on modified duty.
The confrontation between Garner and police seemed completely unnecessary. Garner’s fatal encounter with police followed his arrest for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes on the street.
Unlike the fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999, Sean Bell in 2006 and other highly publicized deaths by New York City police, the Garner encounter was captured by video.
Garner’s arrest was captured on a widely distributed amateur video that appears to show an officer putting the asthmatic, 350-pound father of six in a banned chokehold after he refused to be handcuffed. He can be heard yelling, “I can’t breathe!” as several officers take him down.
The death of Garner comes at a time when the new administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio has sought to ease tensions between police and minorities by curtailing the department’s widespread use of street stops of young men—so-called stop and frisk—as a strategy to curb crime.
Garner’s death also comes at a time of another highly publicized case of apparent police misconduct of Marlene Pinnock, a 51-year-old grandmother, who was repeatedly pummeled in the face reportedly by a California Highway Patrol officer.
The videotape in this case shows a CHP officer punching this unarmed woman in the face and head 10 to 15 times as she lay on the ground.
Both outrageous incidents were caught on videotape, and both cases demand swift action. Both cases also underscore the need for police officers who take an oath to protect and serve be retrained on how to deal with citizens—especially minorities—and demand that officers be removed and prosecuted when they abuse their authority.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
