Hideous
December 3rd, 2014, 04:15 PM
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/12/03/nr-no-indictment-eric-garner-nypd-chokehold-death.cnn.html
(quick heads up: it's tough to watch, and it's incredibly graphic)
New York (CNN) -- A grand jury in New York on Wednesday decided not to indict white police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July choke hold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, according to two law enforcement officials. During the fatal encounter July 17 Garner raised both hands in the air and told the officers not to touch him. Seconds later, a video shows an officer behind Garner grab him in a choke hold and pull him to the sidewalk, rolling him onto his stomach.
"I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Garner said repeatedly, his cries muffled into the pavement.
The grand jury was made up of 14 white and nine nonwhite members.
The cause of Garner's death was "compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police," the medical examiner's office has said. The death was ruled a homicide. The New York City Police Department prohibits choke holds.
Garner, 43, was pronounced dead that day. Police had suspected Garner of selling cigarettes illegally. The death led to demonstrations around the city and came weeks before the racially charged police shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Ferguson and New York
In both Ferguson and New York, mostly African-American protesters took to the streets for weeks after both men died to decry police violence.
Demonstrators in New York have called the police response during Garner's arrest excessive and criminal, but during protests, the contact between police and demonstrators has been largely cordial.
"The NYPD appeared genuinely sympathetic to the marchers, giving everyone wide latitude to voice their frustrations," said photographer Joel Graham, who took pictures of a demonstration Upper Manhattan.
He found the demonstrators to be equally peaceful.
"This crowd was composed of good, well-meaning people who understood that peace was the only option and were adamant that things remain calm over Eric's death," he said.
Missing were the tear gas canisters, assault rifles, armored vehicles and the lootings and flying bottles that marred the St. Louis suburb in the wake of Brown's death. When the Missouri grand jury declined to charge Wilson, violence returned to Ferguson, as cars were set on fire.
On Monday, officials in Staten Island met with New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton to discuss the impending decision and the borough's preparedness for reaction to it.
read more at http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/justice/new-york-grand-jury-chokehold/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________
[Update]
Protests erupt in wake of chokehold death decision
VID: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/12/05/pkg-soares-nyc-chokehold-global-reaction.cnn.html
Protesters are flooding the streets of New York and elsewhere -- chanting, blocking traffic and demanding change after the decision not to indict in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. Demonstrators staged a "die-in" in Brooklyn, New York, late Thursday. They lay in the middle of Atlantic Avenue. An eerie silence descended as the protesters, who had cardboard coffins, stopped chanting. The march was being led by three mothers, all of whom had lost a son to police. Protesters stopped other marchers from getting ahead of the women. They wanted them to walk in front.
"I'm so happy that people of all cultures, all ethnicities, came out to show their love and support, and basically we have to make a change because they're killing us off," a protester told CNN.
A part of the Brooklyn Bridge was closed. Protesters marched up Broadway, and police used pepper spray on the West Side Highway near Houston Street. The vast majority of the demonstrations were peaceful.
"What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" protesters shouted in New York's Foley Square.
They chanted Garner's final words: "I can't breathe!"
Garner, a black man, died in July after a white officer put him in a chokehold on Staten Island. The case cracked open a wider discussion around policing practices in communities of color.
"I'm out here because the system has failed us too many times," Courtney Wicker, a protester, told CNN affiliate NY1.
"It makes me feel like there's no justice."
Demonstrations also erupted in Boston, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, where they shut down one of the major roads downtown.
Robert Spriggs, 22, a young protester in Washington, told CNN: It feels like we're moving backwards, so if we have to march like it's the '60s, we will.
Earlier in Pittsburgh, protesters marched and lay down in the middle of a street.
"It's happening in every city, every town. It's happening here in Pittsburgh," Julia Johnson told CNN affiliate WPXI.
"Police are racially profiling people. They are harassing people," she said.
"There is just no accountability and no justice for the victims."
The demonstrations raise the question: If the way we police in America is wrong, as many suggest, then what's right?
That's the problem police and communities now face in the wake of three high-profile investigations that, collectively, have sparked a national conversation around changing the status quo. In Ferguson, Missouri, violence and chaos erupted after a different grand jury elected not to indict a white officer for killing a black teenager. A nearly two-year investigation by the Justice Department revealed a pattern of excessive force by police in Cleveland. And in New York, officials are still in the midst of grappling with what to do in the wake of Garner's death. His encounter with Officer Daniel Pantaleo was captured on video. Another video shows the dying man lying on the street for more than six minutes as officers calmly wait for an ambulance, showing no sign of urgency.
"Fundamental questions are being asked, and rightfully so, about how we respect peoples' rights -- how we reduce the use of force in the relationship between police and community, in each encounter between police and community -- how we get it right," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The mayor said: "This tragedy is raising a lot of tough questions. There's tremendous resolve here in this city to answer those questions, to get it right."
Feds launch civil right investigation
Pantaleo may not stand trial in Garner's death, but he's not off the hook. Attorney General Eric Holder said that the U.S. Justice Department will conduct an "exhaustive and fair" civil rights probe into the incident. The New York Police Department is taking a fresh look at the case as well, escalating its internal investigation of Garner's death by interviewing more officers. Even if it's not illegal, the city's police department patrol guide states its officers "will not use chokeholds," which it defines as any action pressuring the throat or windpipe.
"Whenever it becomes necessary to take a violent or resisting subject into custody, responding officers should utilize appropriate tactics in a coordinated effort to overcome resistance," the patrol guide says.
Once this investigation is finished, it's possible that a negotiated settlement will be reached or that there will be a department trial.
"If there's a finding of guilt, a decision will be made as to an appropriate penalty or discipline for that," said police Commissioner William Bratton, who would decide on the punishment.
read more at: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/04/justice/new-york-grand-jury-chokehold/
-nl3PQ31MLk 7zH1oUpCsn0 _DCaBy6ETpo VciY2opu_NY
Do you think this would bring change? Or do you think it would make matters worse?
________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________
[Update]
Al Sharpton & Eric Garner Family Press Conference On Grand Jury Decision
ljHlQi4h-Zw
Dec. 3, 2014
Al Sharpton, Eric Garner's mother and wife give a press conference on the Staten Island Grand Jury decision NOT to bring charges against NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Mr. Garner.
________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________
[Update]
Hundreds March as California Protests Continue
BERKELEY, Calif. — Dec 10, 2014, 12:09 AM ET
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/wp-content/blogs.dir/2290/files/east-bay-protests-dec-9/14_12_9_protests1210_1854.jpg
Caption: Protesters make a break for the freeway to block it off in Oakland while demonstrating against grand jury decisions in Ferguson and New York, in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, December 9, 2014.
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/wp-content/blogs.dir/2290/files/east-bay-protests-dec-9/14_12_9_protests1210_2010.jpg
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/wp-content/blogs.dir/2290/files/east-bay-protests-dec-9/14_12_9_protests1210_2145.jpg
Hundreds of protesters angered at the killing of unarmed black men by white police officers marched through downtown Berkeley streets Tuesday night as protests continued in Northern California.
Protesters stopped at City Hall, where a city councilman addressed the crowd and said he will ask for an investigation into police response to the protests over the weekend, when the latest wave of protests started.
Bay Area Rapid Transit officials said the station in downtown Berkeley was closed as a precaution. A City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday night was canceled after threats to disrupt it, said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.
Amtrak train service was suspended between the Oakland Coliseum station stop and Richmond because of the protest, officials said.
A California Highway Patrol official said 80 percent off its available staff would be deployed to monitor the protest in Berkeley after a crowd of about 1,500 blocked all lanes of Interstate 80 and blocked an Amtrak train Monday night.
The agency arrested 223 people Monday on suspicion of resisting arrest, obstructing police and other charges, said Ernie Sanchez, assistant chief of the CHP's Golden Gate Division. Berkeley police arrested another nine people.
Sanchez told the San Francisco Chronicle the agency will also ask the Alameda County district attorney's office to increase bails and charges.
Those arrested face bails of up to $50,000, and many remain in custody, he added.
A large group of demonstrators destroyed highway perimeter fencing, flooded lanes, and threw rocks and other objects at officers. It took about an hour and a half to clear the interstate, and no major injuries were reported, the CHP said.
A woman stuck in traffic went into labor during the protest, but fire crews were able to get her to a hospital, KPIX-TV reported.
"The CHP respects the public's right to gather and demonstrate, but it needs to be done in a safe manner," Sanchez said. "At this point, they've made their statement and we respect that. Now, we're asking them to stop."
Although many activists in other parts of the country have gone home, protests in Berkeley and Oakland are still active, reflecting the area's long history of protest dating to the 1960s.
read more at: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/protesters-block-highway-stop-train-california-27463439
(quick heads up: it's tough to watch, and it's incredibly graphic)
New York (CNN) -- A grand jury in New York on Wednesday decided not to indict white police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July choke hold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, according to two law enforcement officials. During the fatal encounter July 17 Garner raised both hands in the air and told the officers not to touch him. Seconds later, a video shows an officer behind Garner grab him in a choke hold and pull him to the sidewalk, rolling him onto his stomach.
"I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Garner said repeatedly, his cries muffled into the pavement.
The grand jury was made up of 14 white and nine nonwhite members.
The cause of Garner's death was "compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police," the medical examiner's office has said. The death was ruled a homicide. The New York City Police Department prohibits choke holds.
Garner, 43, was pronounced dead that day. Police had suspected Garner of selling cigarettes illegally. The death led to demonstrations around the city and came weeks before the racially charged police shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Ferguson and New York
In both Ferguson and New York, mostly African-American protesters took to the streets for weeks after both men died to decry police violence.
Demonstrators in New York have called the police response during Garner's arrest excessive and criminal, but during protests, the contact between police and demonstrators has been largely cordial.
"The NYPD appeared genuinely sympathetic to the marchers, giving everyone wide latitude to voice their frustrations," said photographer Joel Graham, who took pictures of a demonstration Upper Manhattan.
He found the demonstrators to be equally peaceful.
"This crowd was composed of good, well-meaning people who understood that peace was the only option and were adamant that things remain calm over Eric's death," he said.
Missing were the tear gas canisters, assault rifles, armored vehicles and the lootings and flying bottles that marred the St. Louis suburb in the wake of Brown's death. When the Missouri grand jury declined to charge Wilson, violence returned to Ferguson, as cars were set on fire.
On Monday, officials in Staten Island met with New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton to discuss the impending decision and the borough's preparedness for reaction to it.
read more at http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/justice/new-york-grand-jury-chokehold/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________
[Update]
Protests erupt in wake of chokehold death decision
VID: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/12/05/pkg-soares-nyc-chokehold-global-reaction.cnn.html
Protesters are flooding the streets of New York and elsewhere -- chanting, blocking traffic and demanding change after the decision not to indict in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. Demonstrators staged a "die-in" in Brooklyn, New York, late Thursday. They lay in the middle of Atlantic Avenue. An eerie silence descended as the protesters, who had cardboard coffins, stopped chanting. The march was being led by three mothers, all of whom had lost a son to police. Protesters stopped other marchers from getting ahead of the women. They wanted them to walk in front.
"I'm so happy that people of all cultures, all ethnicities, came out to show their love and support, and basically we have to make a change because they're killing us off," a protester told CNN.
A part of the Brooklyn Bridge was closed. Protesters marched up Broadway, and police used pepper spray on the West Side Highway near Houston Street. The vast majority of the demonstrations were peaceful.
"What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" protesters shouted in New York's Foley Square.
They chanted Garner's final words: "I can't breathe!"
Garner, a black man, died in July after a white officer put him in a chokehold on Staten Island. The case cracked open a wider discussion around policing practices in communities of color.
"I'm out here because the system has failed us too many times," Courtney Wicker, a protester, told CNN affiliate NY1.
"It makes me feel like there's no justice."
Demonstrations also erupted in Boston, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, where they shut down one of the major roads downtown.
Robert Spriggs, 22, a young protester in Washington, told CNN: It feels like we're moving backwards, so if we have to march like it's the '60s, we will.
Earlier in Pittsburgh, protesters marched and lay down in the middle of a street.
"It's happening in every city, every town. It's happening here in Pittsburgh," Julia Johnson told CNN affiliate WPXI.
"Police are racially profiling people. They are harassing people," she said.
"There is just no accountability and no justice for the victims."
The demonstrations raise the question: If the way we police in America is wrong, as many suggest, then what's right?
That's the problem police and communities now face in the wake of three high-profile investigations that, collectively, have sparked a national conversation around changing the status quo. In Ferguson, Missouri, violence and chaos erupted after a different grand jury elected not to indict a white officer for killing a black teenager. A nearly two-year investigation by the Justice Department revealed a pattern of excessive force by police in Cleveland. And in New York, officials are still in the midst of grappling with what to do in the wake of Garner's death. His encounter with Officer Daniel Pantaleo was captured on video. Another video shows the dying man lying on the street for more than six minutes as officers calmly wait for an ambulance, showing no sign of urgency.
"Fundamental questions are being asked, and rightfully so, about how we respect peoples' rights -- how we reduce the use of force in the relationship between police and community, in each encounter between police and community -- how we get it right," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The mayor said: "This tragedy is raising a lot of tough questions. There's tremendous resolve here in this city to answer those questions, to get it right."
Feds launch civil right investigation
Pantaleo may not stand trial in Garner's death, but he's not off the hook. Attorney General Eric Holder said that the U.S. Justice Department will conduct an "exhaustive and fair" civil rights probe into the incident. The New York Police Department is taking a fresh look at the case as well, escalating its internal investigation of Garner's death by interviewing more officers. Even if it's not illegal, the city's police department patrol guide states its officers "will not use chokeholds," which it defines as any action pressuring the throat or windpipe.
"Whenever it becomes necessary to take a violent or resisting subject into custody, responding officers should utilize appropriate tactics in a coordinated effort to overcome resistance," the patrol guide says.
Once this investigation is finished, it's possible that a negotiated settlement will be reached or that there will be a department trial.
"If there's a finding of guilt, a decision will be made as to an appropriate penalty or discipline for that," said police Commissioner William Bratton, who would decide on the punishment.
read more at: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/04/justice/new-york-grand-jury-chokehold/
-nl3PQ31MLk 7zH1oUpCsn0 _DCaBy6ETpo VciY2opu_NY
Do you think this would bring change? Or do you think it would make matters worse?
________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________
[Update]
Al Sharpton & Eric Garner Family Press Conference On Grand Jury Decision
ljHlQi4h-Zw
Dec. 3, 2014
Al Sharpton, Eric Garner's mother and wife give a press conference on the Staten Island Grand Jury decision NOT to bring charges against NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Mr. Garner.
________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________
[Update]
Hundreds March as California Protests Continue
BERKELEY, Calif. — Dec 10, 2014, 12:09 AM ET
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/wp-content/blogs.dir/2290/files/east-bay-protests-dec-9/14_12_9_protests1210_1854.jpg
Caption: Protesters make a break for the freeway to block it off in Oakland while demonstrating against grand jury decisions in Ferguson and New York, in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, December 9, 2014.
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/wp-content/blogs.dir/2290/files/east-bay-protests-dec-9/14_12_9_protests1210_2010.jpg
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/wp-content/blogs.dir/2290/files/east-bay-protests-dec-9/14_12_9_protests1210_2145.jpg
Hundreds of protesters angered at the killing of unarmed black men by white police officers marched through downtown Berkeley streets Tuesday night as protests continued in Northern California.
Protesters stopped at City Hall, where a city councilman addressed the crowd and said he will ask for an investigation into police response to the protests over the weekend, when the latest wave of protests started.
Bay Area Rapid Transit officials said the station in downtown Berkeley was closed as a precaution. A City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday night was canceled after threats to disrupt it, said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.
Amtrak train service was suspended between the Oakland Coliseum station stop and Richmond because of the protest, officials said.
A California Highway Patrol official said 80 percent off its available staff would be deployed to monitor the protest in Berkeley after a crowd of about 1,500 blocked all lanes of Interstate 80 and blocked an Amtrak train Monday night.
The agency arrested 223 people Monday on suspicion of resisting arrest, obstructing police and other charges, said Ernie Sanchez, assistant chief of the CHP's Golden Gate Division. Berkeley police arrested another nine people.
Sanchez told the San Francisco Chronicle the agency will also ask the Alameda County district attorney's office to increase bails and charges.
Those arrested face bails of up to $50,000, and many remain in custody, he added.
A large group of demonstrators destroyed highway perimeter fencing, flooded lanes, and threw rocks and other objects at officers. It took about an hour and a half to clear the interstate, and no major injuries were reported, the CHP said.
A woman stuck in traffic went into labor during the protest, but fire crews were able to get her to a hospital, KPIX-TV reported.
"The CHP respects the public's right to gather and demonstrate, but it needs to be done in a safe manner," Sanchez said. "At this point, they've made their statement and we respect that. Now, we're asking them to stop."
Although many activists in other parts of the country have gone home, protests in Berkeley and Oakland are still active, reflecting the area's long history of protest dating to the 1960s.
read more at: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/protesters-block-highway-stop-train-california-27463439