Eric Garner’s Killer Goes Free

Thoughts?

I hear water is wet.

I actually thought (silly me) that there was half a chance the officer would be indicted when the Feds first got hold of it. It was such an obvious case that it just had to happen.

Silly me.

And thanks AG Barr, you slimy f**k.

Excerpts from PBS webpage:  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-eric-garner-case-says-about-federal-prosecution-of-police-officers-on-duty

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U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Richard Donoghue: announced the decision. He said his team decided they could not prove the officer willfully intended to use excessive force that led to Garner's death.  We are committed to aggressively prosecuting excessive force cases whenever there is sufficient evidence to bring them.  Mr. Garner's death was a terrible tragedy. But having thoroughly investigated the surrounding circumstances, the department has concluded that the available evidence wouldn't support federal civil rights charges against any officer.

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Yamiche Alcindor (NYT Correspondent):

Let's dig in a little deeper on this reasoning and the larger issue as to why the federal government rarely brings charges against an officer in the line of duty.

Katie Benner covers the Justice Department for The New York Times, and joins me now.

Thanks so much for being here, Katie.

This decision to not charge this officer in the death of Eric Garner essentially came down to the attorney general, Bill Barr. What more do we know about why Bill Barr did not want to bring charges?

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Katie Benner (NYT Correspondent): Sure.  I think, if we just take a step back real quick, when this case opened, right after Eric Garner died, you saw the Eastern District of New York almost immediately decide that the case wasn't going to be one they could win. They struggled with it.

Some of the prosecutors, I'm told, based on people who worked on the case, they say that some of the prosecutors didn't even know that they felt that Eric Garner had acted wrongfully.

Very, very soon after that, the Civil Rights Division down here in Washington decided that there was a crime committed and they could prosecute this case, setting off a long-running, years-long battle between these two sides. They just didn't agree.

We saw the case languish. We saw the case get caught up in the Sessions Justice Department, where not a lot was happening because of the Russia distraction and then Sessions' firing.

So, finally, when Bill Barr gets to the Justice Department, when he becomes the U.S. attorney — I'm sorry — when he becomes the attorney general, he now has to clean up this mess.

He held multiple meetings with constituents from both sides. He heard arguments from prosecutors in Brooklyn, arguments from prosecutors in the Civil Rights Division. He reviewed the tape himself multiple times.  And, ultimately, he agreed with the prosecutors in Brooklyn, who were really worried that this wasn't a case that they could bring before a jury and win.

So the issue is, why can such a case not be won.

drummerboy said:

And thanks AG Barr, you slimy f**k.

Have forgotten that Eric Garner's killing occurred during the Obama administration. Obama's justice department had 2 1/2 years to prosecute the cop. They didn't.

Will you also be thanking Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch?

BG9 said:

drummerboy said:

And thanks AG Barr, you slimy f**k.

Have forgotten that Eric Garner's killing occurred during the Obama administration. Obama's justice department had 2 1/2 years to prosecute the cop. They didn't.

Will you also be thanking Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch?

 No, because they didn't personally intervene to stop the indictment like Barr did.

NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill has fired Ofc. Daniel Pantaleo for murdering Eric Garner. In making the announcement he artfully pirouettes between acknowledging that Pantaleo’s actions ran contrary to his training and departmental policy and blaming Eric Garner for his own death. 

 O’Neill says that his decision to fire Pantaleo represents a loss for everyone, the Garner family, the community and the members of the NYPD who will of course be angry with him. In one stupefying moment he says that had he been in Pantaleo’s position he might have made the same ‘mistake’. In another, he says that Pantaleo should have just released the hold sooner.

So, after establishing that this particular chokehold was not to be used by his NYPD personnel because it often led to the deaths of New Yorkers, the Commissioner says he might have used it himself and that the real problem was that the officer using the disallowed deadly technique just didn’t let up sooner. 

These guys are deadly and stupid.

This is Elie Mystal: https://abovethelaw.com/2019/08/daniel-pantaleo-fired-nypd-bad-speech/

And this is a clip of the press conference and the mainstream media reworking from Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/nypd-fires-officer-pantaleo-eric-garner-1455064

And this is the police force in NYC, under a liberal mayor. Can you imagine cops in other places? Beware of the police, especially if you are not white.

Yeah, we can all imagine cops in other places. Unfortunately this type of police brutality is driven by racist policy and is therefore consistent in municipalities across the country regardless of the political party in power. NYPD was dangerous under Giuliani, Dinkins, Koch, Bloomberg and De Blasio.

Mayors have little control over the behavior of the NYPD, thought characters like Giuliani probably bring out the worst in them. But they're generally awful anyway, so it's hard to tell the difference.

Today's presser was a total embarrassment.  Garner died because he was selling cigarettes and one cop lost control of himself. That's just effed up. End of story.

drummerboy said:

Today's presser was a total embarrassment.  Garner died because he was selling cigarettes and one cop lost control of himself. That's just effed up. End of story.

When is the last time a NY cop lost control of himself and strangled a white cigarette seller to death?

basil said:

drummerboy said:

Today's presser was a total embarrassment.  Garner died because he was selling cigarettes and one cop lost control of himself. That's just effed up. End of story.

When is the last time a NY cop lost control of himself and strangled a white cigarette seller to death?

 Dunno.  

Here's an easier one though:

When's the last time a naked Black guy killed three people, chased an armed police officer, tried to strangle a church worker and then jogged away from cops and didn't get shot?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/27/naked-virginia-man-triple-murder-captured-police-reports/2136932001/

flimbro said:

basil said:

drummerboy said:

Today's presser was a total embarrassment.  Garner died because he was selling cigarettes and one cop lost control of himself. That's just effed up. End of story.

When is the last time a NY cop lost control of himself and strangled a white cigarette seller to death?

 Dunno.  

Here's an easier one though:

When's the last time a naked Black guy killed three people, chased an armed police officer, tried to strangle a church worker and then jogged away from cops and didn't get shot?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/27/naked-virginia-man-triple-murder-captured-police-reports/2136932001/

Gee, that would be NEVER. They would have shot him while he was undressing.

drummerboy said:

BG9 said:

drummerboy said:

And thanks AG Barr, you slimy f**k.

Have forgotten that Eric Garner's killing occurred during the Obama administration. Obama's justice department had 2 1/2 years to prosecute the cop. They didn't.

Will you also be thanking Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch?

 No, because they didn't personally intervene to stop the indictment like Barr did.

I know this reached them. Too political not to.

It was assumed the Garner case would be handled locally. But in December 2014 the Grand Jury decided not to indict.

After that the push for Federal charges started or ramped up. Whereupon the Eastern District and Main Justice disagreed on whether to prosecute. Holder was leaving office then. Lynch took over, deferred action. To defer an action is an intervention. 

Why? I don't know. Hoping it will "go away?"