Protesters have invaded the
streets of New York after a grand jury decided not to charge a white police
officer who choked an unarmed black man to death.
43-year-old Eric
Garner was put in a chokehold, which eventually led to his
death, byOfficer
Daniel Pantaleo in July after he was caught illegally
selling cigarettes.
His
death was ruled a homicide by the city’s medical examiner but the grand jury
ruled on Wednesday, December 3 that Pantaleo did not intend to cause Garner’s
death with his actions.
The
altercation between Garner, a father of three, and officers of the New York
Police Department was caught on video and the deceased was heard clearly
stating several times “I can’t breathe”.
Protests
began in the city after the decision on Wednesday and continued into early
Thursday and protesters expressed their anger with chants of Garner’s last
words “I can’t breathe.”
Garner’s
wife, Esaw expressed
her disbelief at the verdict saying:
“Oh my God, are you serious? I’m very disappointed. You can see in
the video that he (the cop) was dead wrong!”
Officer
Pantaleo issued a statement after he was cleared expressing his condolences to
Garner’s family and saying that he feels very sorry for the incident.
“I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their
loss,” he said.
However,
Esaw Garner said in response that it’s too late for condolences:
“The time for remorse was when my husband was yelling to breathe,
that would have been the time for him to show some remorse or some type of care
for another human being’s life.”
“No, I don’t accept his apology. I could care less about his
condolences. My husband is 6 feet under. (The cop) is still working. He’s still
collecting a paycheck and I’m looking for a way to feed my kids,” Mrs
Garner said.
President Barack Obama has
also spoken out on the decision of the grand jury saying that it speaks to “the
concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is
not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.”
The
latest grand jury decision comes after a similar panel refused to indict Officer
Darren Wilson for the August 9 shooting death of
18-year-old Michael
Brown in Ferguson,Missouri leading
to a wave of unrest all
around the country.
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