No Indictment for Pantaleo
December 4, 2014
Last night, after a day of deliberation, the Staten Island grand jury ruled not to indict white New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo on charges of murder of Eric Garner, an unarmed African-American male. In arresting Garner for allegedly selling cigarettes, Pantaleo put him in a choke hold, a tactic banned by the NYPD. The video of the arrest went viral, and showed Garner yelling “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.” Garner then went into cardiac arrest and was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. After reviewing the video of the arrest and talking to several witnesses, the grand jury decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Pantaleo. The city of New York has since taken to the streets in protest, and has adopted the rallying cry “I can’t breathe.”