NEW YORK — Wednesday marks 10 years since the death of Eric Garner Made by the hands of New York City police officers “I can’t breathe” a battle cry.
Bystander videos showing Garner saying the phrase while in a chokehold with police sparked Black Lives Matter protests in New York and across the country. More demonstrations followed weeks later when Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014.
Six years later, George Floyd was recorded saying the exact same words while pleading for breath as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, sparking a new wave of mass protests.
Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, planned to lead a march in her son’s honor Wednesday morning on Staten Island, the borough where Garner died after being restrained by Officer Daniel Pantaleo. Carr told TV station NY1 that she is still trying to keep her son’s name relevant and that she is fighting for justice.
Garner died on July 17, 2014 after a confrontation with Pantaleo and other officers, who suspected he was selling loose, tax-exempt cigarettes on the street.
Video footage showed Pantaleo, who is white, putting his arm around the neck of Garner, who was Black, as they struggled and fell to the pavement. “I can’t breathe,” Garner gasped repeatedly before losing consciousness. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
New York authorities determined that Pantaleo had used a chokehold that had been banned by New York police in the 1990s. The city coroner’s office ruled Garner’s death a homicide. However, no charges have been filed against Pantaleo or the other officers present, either at the state or federal level.
“Even if we could prove that Officer Pantaleo’s hold on Mr. Garner constituted unreasonable force, we would still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Pantaleo willfully violated the law,” Richard Donoghue, then the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said in announce in 2019 that no federal civil rights charges would be filed.
Pantaleo was fired in 2019 following a disciplinary police procedure.
Garner’s family settled a lawsuit against New York City for $5.9 million, but continued to seek justice in the form of a judicial inquiry into Garner’s death for 2021.
The court proceedings, which took place virtually due to the pandemic, were held under a provision in the city’s charter that allows citizens to petition the court for a public inquiry into “any alleged violation or neglect of duties relating to the property, administration or affairs of the city.” The purpose of the inquiry was to compile a record of the case rather than to find anyone guilty or innocent.
One of the attorneys representing Garner’s family was a civil rights attorney Alvin Braggwho was then campaigning for the position of Manhattan district attorney, a position he won in November of that year.
Bragg, who successfully prosecuted former president Donald Trump Carr and other family members of Garner praised him Tuesday for making hush-money payments to a porn actor this year.
“While I remain deeply saddened by the loss of Eric Garner, I am awed by the strength of his family and moved by their dedication to using his legacy as a force for change,” Bragg said. “Their courage continues to inspire me as District Attorney, and I pledge to always honor Mr. Garner’s memory by working to build a safer, fairer, and more equal city.”
Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, said at a news conference Tuesday that he remembered Garner’s death “like it was yesterday.”
Adams, who was serving as Brooklyn borough president when Garner died, said he prays there will never be an “Eric Garner situation” again.