Eric Garner
December 11, 2014
Eric Garner is another American citizen dead due to excessive police force.
On July 14th, 2014, Garner (an unarmed man) was choked to death by officer Justin Damico and Daniel Pantelo. Damico claims he was suspicious of Garner selling “loosies” also known as single cigarettes. Garner explained he had not been selling single cigarettes and felt like he was being harassed. Both of the officers proceeded to arrest him and soon enough, Pantelo had put Garner in a choke-hold position. Desperately repeating that he could not breathe, Garner was announced dead an hour later at a hospital. City medical examiners declared that Garner died because of neck compression and the positioning during the restraint of the officers, other factors included bronchial asthma, heart disease, obesity, and hypertensive cardiovascular disease have been killed by police . Are the poor families of all these victims ever going to get the justice they need? Damico and Panetelo were put on desk duty and later grand jury decided not to indict Pantelo. Unlike the other cases, there was videotaped evidence and it still came out to be the same result.
“Here, there is is none of that [ambiguity]. The coroner called it homicide, the guy’s not acting threatening, and we know that because we are (expletive) watching it. Someone taped it.”
-Jon Stewart, Host of the Daily Show
It’s crazy to think that we live in a world where racism still exists. Some officers are going beyond their authority at this point and I may be wrong but it’s just such a coincidence that Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner are all of the same skin color as they are all victims of excessive police force. This is causing outrages, rallies and protests not just in New York or Ferguson but it’s becoming a world wide thing. Are we doing anything to make things better? I completely understand being a police officer is a hard job but I also believe there is a small percentage of officers that are slightly racist and that’s what needs to change. How do we change it? It honestly up to the people of this nation to take a stand on this issue. Who knows what they outcome will be but hopefully some justice will be served.
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/a9bg2k/the-eric-garner-grand-jury-decision
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/eric-garner-map-twitter-world_n_6301352.html
The Map Below shows the active Twitter feeds worldwide on this story.
EMV • Feb 6, 2015 at 2:44 pm
These latest cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner are truly a subject to be outraged about. A case when innocent men die because of police brutality and racism, this is not the first this has happens but it has had more media attention and more evidence. The thing that pisses me off the most is that you might say there’s a shady area with Michael Brown’s case but with Eric Garner there’s clear video footage of the victim not resisting and begging and yelling because he cannot breathe and yet the police officers could care less about what he says. There definitely has to be something done about this and the fact that the officers were found not guilty is unacceptable.
alexiadiaz • Dec 17, 2014 at 9:20 am
It’s not that I am surprise, but what shocks me is that racism is still a thing. Because things like this shouldn’t happen and I know this happens everyday but it’s just like the 1950’s, mainly African Americans are being targeted. I completely agree with you, they are constantly going beyond their authority. I don’t think anyone ever feels safe when police officers are around and especially now. It’s like you have to watch for back for people who are supposed to be protecting us.
SavySo_Vicious • Dec 12, 2014 at 2:13 pm
If you are surprised then you have been blind to all the other stories. The sad thing is some stories dont even hit the news. This happens everyday in our society. Sometimes its not even that the cops are racist, just they simply abuse their power. If you think about it cops are at the bottom of the totem pole. What makes them think that KILLING a citizen for selling single cigarettes is okay. They are taking there power too extreme. Instead of doing their job and keeping the streets safe for citizens they are causing the unsafe enviorments. They demand respect but treat citizens like they are animals. I truly believe some cops are pigs.