The Daily News reports that Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Gregory Meeks and Yvette Clark called Thursday for the U.S. Department of Justice to open investigations into both the controversial tactic of aggressively enforcing low-level offenses to prevent more serious ones — a cornerstone of NYPD policing — and the July 17 death of the Staten Island man after being placed in a chokehold by a police officer.
“The family of Eric Garner deserves an independent and impartial investigation,” said Jeffries. “The only way for that to happen is for the Department of Justice to step in and get involved.”
The trio joined three New York congressional colleagues — Charles Rangel, Nydia Velazquez and Jose Serrano — in sending a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder about the case.
The nation’s top prosecutor has said his office is “closely monitoring” the city probe into Garner’s death.
In a packed congregation at the Greater Grace Church in Ferguson Missouri, Rev. AL Sharpton along with the parents of Michael Brown and other civil rights leaders, held a “Unity Rally for Justice for Michael Brown” meeting, focused on getting justice for the slain 18 year old murdered by police officer Darren Wilson.
“These parents, they’re not going to cry alone … we have had enough,” he said. Brown’s shooting will be a “defining moment on how this country deals with policing,” Sharpton said. “Michael Brown’s going to change this town.”
“We need to thank him for the change he’s going to make,” said Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who has been put in charge of security in Ferguson, where nights of unrest, looting, and confrontations with police have broken out since Brown’s death. A curfew instated by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon would hold for a second night Sunday and last from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m., according to the State Highway Patrol.
Before the rally closed, Sharpton had the crowd repeat after him as he said: “I pledge, with all that I am capable of, to do my duty to stand for justice and for peace, and let Michael Brown be a point in history where we stopped devaluing the lives of people.”
All across the globe people are seeing the injustice in the murder of Michael Brown. All across the globe, except right here at home, where Mike Brown is essentially being blamed, his character being assassinated, as if he caused the cop to murder him.
Yahoo News released this photo and reports that six months before he shot and killed an unarmed teenager, police Officer Darren Wilson earned a commendation for his “extraordinary effort in the line of duty.”
Yahoo News confirmed the award through the February 11 Ferguson City Council meeting minutes and photos Wilson’s father posted to his Facebook page.
“Very proud of my son, Darren Wilson on his receiving a Commendation from his Police Department,” John Wilson wrote on February 11. “Congratulations Son.”
Wilson gunned down an unarmed and retreating Michael Brown in the streets of Ferguson Missouri last weekend.
People are angry and they have every right to be. One of their own was gunned down in the streets like an animal in his own community, his lifeless body displayed where it fell like a trophy for all to see.
His crime? Walking the street of Ferguson Missouri as a black man. That act is apparently a crime that carries with it an automatic death penalty, to be administered by the first police officer on site.
The officer who pulled the trigger, and pulled the trigger, and pulled the trigger, pumping multiple bullets into Michael Brown’s body, was quickly whisked away by police and put in their protective custody for a job well done.
Yes, people are angry and they should be. But these people are black. The bullet-riddled body of the dead teenager, whose apparent crime was walking, was also black and based on eyewitness reports, the trigger-happy police officer who committed the crime of murder was white and belongs to a police force that’s 97% white.
These combinations should have made this unfortunate situation a teachable moment – bringing together the community and the police and ensuring justice for Michael Brown and his family. But instead, scenes of white officers in military gear with heavy artillery, spiced up with the heavy smoke from exploding tear gas canisters and flash grenades, illuminated the area where just days before, an unarmed teen spent the last moments of his life, kneeling down on the cold hard asphalt, hands raised and begging for his life.
Michael Brown’s pleads for life fell on deaf ears as the bullets destroyed his internal organs. And ironically the angry community, using their constitutional rights to protest the killing of one of their own, also found themselves, sitting on the cold hard asphalt with their hands raised, yelling “hands raised don’t shoot, hands raised don’t shoot!”
And for that instant, the protesters must have experienced a small piece of Michael’s last moments as they too looked down the street and saw the same police force, with their machine guns and snipers aiming directly at them… tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets the only conversation these police preferred.
While Ferguson police revved up their heavy artillery against peacefully assembled citizens, people gathered to protest against the unlawful shooting of a black teenager, something has been noticeably missing – the political leader of Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon and whether he approved of the snipers, teargas and flash grenades used against the citizens of Ferguson who were exercising their First Amendment Rights.
Well just before midnight, Governor Nixon made his presence known, tweeting that he was canceling all his appearances at the Missouri State Fair for Thursday and will be heading to St Louis with a statement to follow.
Hopefully, this would lead to a sensible solutions on how to appreciate the constitutional rights of the citizens on St Louis.
Who was there to protect the innocence of a black teenager walking on the street in Ferguson Missouri? That’s what he did. That’s what started the process that ended his life. He walked on the street, and he was shot multiple times by police for doing that.
Michael Brown’s innocence and his life were taken by a barrage of bullets fired by a police officer and now that police officer’s guilt is being protected by the Ferguson Police Department.
Police said death threats prompted them to withhold the name of the officer, who was placed on administrative leave after fatally shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, where the incident has stoked racial tension, rallies and a night of looting.
Investigators have released few details, saying only that a scuffle unfolded after the officer asked Brown and another teen to get out of the street. At some point, the officer’s weapon fired inside a patrol car, police said.
“The local authorities have put themselves in a position — hiding names and not being transparent — where people will not trust anything but an objective investigation,” Sharpton said during a news conference in St. Louis where he was joined by Brown’s parents.
He also echoed pleas for peaceful protests by the NAACP and Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr., who told the crowd: “I need all of us to come together and do this right. … No violence.”
Now that a NYPD officer has succeeded in using an illegal chokehold to choke a Staten Island man to death, other videos are surfacing online showing that although the chokehold is prohibited by the New York police department, it is apparently used more often than not.
According to NBC New York, the subway arrest video was taken just three days before the death of Eric Garner, who died in police custody after being placed in a chokehold.
Public outrage following Garner’s death in Staten Island has prompted NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton to announce that the department will retrain all officers. Using a chokehold during an arrest is prohibited.
The subway arrest footage was posted online by Rev. Kelmy Rodriquez. He reports receiving it in an anonymous email, and according to NBC New York, Rodriquez notes the suspect was resisting arrest, but still feels the chokehold should not have been used.
The Manhattan arrest of 23-year-old Ronald Johns took place on July 14 at the 125th Street and Lexington Avenue subway station in East Harlem.
Emotions are running high over the case of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died last week while under the restraint of NYPD officers. Social media activist have mobilized under the #JusticeForEricGarner hashtag. There is, however, another community online expressing their feelings about the case: police, and what many have to say is chilling. NYmag.com has the story:
In internet communities for law enforcement, like PoliceOne.com, “the One resource for Law Enforcement online,” and Thee Rant, an NYPD message board, the Garner story has stirred up racial, political, and professional tensions, most of them quite ugly. While all of the comments below are anonymous, and therefore not verifiable, both sites do require registration for membership (“No ID card, No Approval!” says Thee Rant). By no means a comprehensive view of law-enforcement feelings about the incident, the postings do provide a different — if beyond upsetting — perspective.
Here are just a few of the comments gathered by NYmag.com. We’ll warn you: they’re veryupsetting.
SAPDMAS: Again if Mr walking heart attack had simply put his hamburger shovels behind his back, he wouldn’t have had a heartbattackmfor over exerting himself. The NYPD did absolutely nothing wron. Tomthe guys slamming these NYPD officekrs, I and many here wouldn’t want any of you guys around us on a critical,incident. Hopefully you guys are desk jockeys.
esu5: I think they were very generous, maybe too generous in the amount of time they allowed this guy to vent. I wonder if that was because of his size? Or that they were awaiting backup, again due to his size. I also didn’t see any kicks, baton strikes, punches, nothing that could be construed as excessive.
kopinyc: A more accurate headline would be “Non Compliant Fat Bastard Gets Just Due In Resisting Law Enforcement Officers”
DisGraziato: I guess it’s the best thing for his tribe. He probably never worked a legit job. They city will pay off the family and they will be in Nigggaaa heaven for the rest of their lives!!
PH1nAlLY Phr33: As they go down, one can clearly see the cop (Green Jersey) holding-on to his neck with his left arm ONLY while trying to grab perp’s right hand with his. Within 1 second he lets go completely and twists to a seated position next to the perp. There was no continuous “Chokehold” of any kind. Though not surprised, I like how these rags try to portray/describe something that never happened.
NYPD finest: Hopefully I am totally wrong but they are going to try to crucify these cops for doing their job. If the fat fuk just put his hands behind his back none of this would have escalated into what it did. I think the cops are going to have a long uphill battle but thankfully this happened in Staten island and not the Bronx.
Career Path: Fuckin Bratton threw the cops under the bus by declaring it as a choke hold.The cop grabbed him from behind yes but did not hold this guy in a position where the breathing of this fat bast*rd was blocked.The medical examiners report will be in the cops favor.Tell Deblowzio to get his azz to Italy.
Officer Joe Bolton: It’s going to be an up hill battle for the cops, you can clearly hear the fat bastard crying out “I can’t breath”. If ever a person wanted to know why police work is so difficult, here is a good reason. Best of luck to those guys who’s lives (and their families) have just been turned upside down for all eternity.
There is a reason I read The Rude Pundit. Most of the time, Rude zooms in on things the other so-called pundits either willfully or accidentally miss.
Rude’s most recent piece focused on the killing of a Staten Island man named Eric Garner. Garner was killed when New York Police applied an illegal chokehold on him, slamming him to the ground and forcing his head into the concrete pavement. Much was said and written about this incident of police brutality, but Rude’s take is always amazing!
That screenshot shows two New York City cops trying to convince the corpse of Eric Garner that he’s not dead. Garner, 43 and black, died after being put in a chokehold by the police for not allowing them to arrest him for, as the NYPD says, selling cigarettes illegally. That is, he was selling individual cigarettes for 50 cents each from untaxed boxes, and he needed to be stopped.
No, really. That’s why the police were confronting him in the first place, according to the cops involved. They could have written him a ticket. Instead, he was tackled and handcuffed by a group of cops who thought Garner, obese with asthma, was lying when he said, repeatedly, “I can’t breathe.” One officer was kneeling on Garner’s head on the sidewalk as he tried to breathe. So he died and the white officers kept leaning in to talk to him to tell him to get up. Being dead, he could not obey the officers’ commands. It’s shocking they didn’t arrest his body.
As more than one editorial writer has pointed out, Garner was not a threat, was unarmed, was not doing anything violent – people on the scene claim he had just broken up a fight, and was, at most, committing a petty crime. When he was on the ground, he received no medical attention, no CPR, no dosage of asthma drugs, nothing. It’s still unknown if he was killed by a heart attack, asthma, or strangulation.
What is known is that Garner had been arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes before. What is known is that Garner had once handwritten a lawsuit claiming that he had been strip searched on the street. What is known is that the cop who put the chokehold on Garner, Daniel Pantaleo, had two civil rights lawsuits filed against him. One of them, where Pantaleo and another cop strip searched two Staten Island men in public, led to a $30,000 payout. Another case is about unlawful arrest and is ongoing. In both cases, Pantaleo submitted reports that were sketchy at best. Now, he’s had his gun and badge taken away and he’s on unpaid leave, as are the EMTs who arrived on the scene, took Garner’s pulse, and did nothing else, which more than likely means he was dead already and there was nothing they could do.
By the way, chokeholds are prohibited by the NYPD. That’s probably why the police report does not mention one. The report also says that Garner did not seem to be in distress, so “I can’t breathe” must be something that cops hear all the time.
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