NYPD Officer in Eric Garner Death Testifies Before Grand Jury By Murray Weiss on November 21, 2014 4:11pm
Eric Garner died after an officer used a chokehold on him while trying to arrest him in Staten Island. New York Daily News
STATEN ISLAND — The NYPD officer at the center of the tragic apparent chokehold death of Eric Garner testified Friday morning before a Staten Island grand jury, DNAinfo New York has learned.
Officer Daniel Pantaleo spent hours telling his story to the 23-member panel that will decide whether he and any other officers should face criminal charges in the death of Garner, a man who died while being arrested for selling loose cigarettes in Tompkinsville.
Sources say Pantaleo insisted that he did not use a chokehold, which is barred by the NYPD, but not illegal, and that he employed tactics and techniques that he was trained to use while subduing a suspect.
Pantaleo also told the panel what he was thinking when he approached the burly Garner: He was unaware that the 350-pound suspect had medical problems, and he did not intend to do anything to seriously harm the Staten Island father when he tried to arrest him.
The medical examiner, however, ruled Garner’s death a homicide resulting from the use of a chokehold and chest compression. The ME also said a combination of factors, including Garner’s asthma, obesity and other health and heart maladies, contributed to his death.
Pantaleo’s appearance before the grand jury signals that the three-month inquiry is nearing its conclusion because police officers are generally given an opportunity to testify during the final stages of the panel’s inquiry.
Sources say the grand jury is expected to complete its work between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
A spokesman for Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan declined comment or to confirm or deny Pantaleo’s appearance.
Garner’s death was captured on a video that went viral and prompted demonstrations against NYPD tactics and aggressive police policies, including Commissioner Bill Bratton’s vaunted “Broken Windows” policy of targeting minor criminal offenses to curtail serious crimes.
On the video, Garner, who had been arrested dozens of times before, repeatedly refuses to be handcuffed as he is surrounded by a handful of officers.
The officers finally move in, with Pantaleo grabbing Garner around his neck from behind trying with other officers to bring him to ground.
During the struggle, Garner, 43, a father of six and a horticulturalist with the city’s Parks Department, can be heard numerous times saying he cannot breathe. Tragically, he finally goes silent on his side as paramedics arrive, but they provided virtually no emergency care.
Pantaleo, 29, an officer with eight years on the force, was placed on modified assignment, stripped of his gun and badge. Another officer, Justin D’Amico, was put on desk duty. Four EMTs were also suspended.
In the wake of Garner’s death, Bratton ordered the entire 35,000-member force to undergo retraining, and he has ordered his brass to review the way the NYPD subdues suspects.
Pantaleo’s testimony also comes as a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., is poised to make its decision in the controversial police shooting of Michael Brown.
Last Wednesday, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is planning Ferguson demonstrations around the country when that grand jury completes its work, criticized that the length of time the Staten Island case has taken.
This sh!t is happening all over the country!!!!!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
...as the bankers across town on Wall Street line their pockets with $800 billion in taxpayer money.
It's illegal to avoid paying taxes, but completely legal for congress to steal taxes collected and give it to bankers.
American exceptionalism!
protecting the sh!t out of the taxpayer....I heard"it from a NYS government lawyer...
it's about policing the products and the tax collection on such products.... A WHITEWASH FOR THE PLEBS AND A PASS GO TICKET FOR THE GOVERNMENT WELFARE CORPORATIONS.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I was looking at the thread title and was wondering, is there a statute that allows for "legally choking someone to death"?
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
WOW.....they call the dead guy FATSO????? Anyone seen cops lately???
Quoted Text
Police officers' shocking responses to the Eric Garner decision
PoliceOne.com is a discussion forum for law enforcement officers, and while anyone can access some of the site content, commenting privileges are available exclusively to verified police. The PoliceOne.com staff "confirm[s] the status of all officers registering for PoliceOne by calling that officer's department directly."
That detail is important, because it means that these responses to the Eric Garner verdict were definitely made by actual police officers:
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
There is a lawyer expression... "A good DA can indict a ham sandwich". If the DA wants to indict a defendant, it is a relatively easy process. In both of the recent cases, the DA DIDN'T WANT TO INDICT, so the defendant walked.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
If justice wasn’t served in the shocking death of Eric Garner, irony certainly was.
In this case, irony twists around the contorted concept that justice is blind, and that, ideally, the dirty work of cops peace officers is better done out of sight and out of the mind of the general public.
There are plenty of police and other authorities who long for the days past before cameras, phones and other digital devices were everywhere, potentially recording anything going on.
Ironically or not, Officer Darren Wilson, now infamous for killing Michael Brown in an alleged justified homicide, was caught on tape threatening to arrest someone for filming his actions as a public officer.
It is no secret that many citizen journalists have been threatened with arrest for daring to film cops, particularly during ongoing arrests. And the Supreme Court has upheld that doing so is a right protected under the First Amendment, and otherwise in the interest of open, transparent good government.
In the case of Eric Garner, no good deed goes unpunished, apparently.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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