Eric Garner's Mom Accuses NYPD, City Of Protecting Killer Cop

NEW YORK CITY HALL — The mother of Eric Garner on Thursday accused the NYPD and City Hall of protecting the cop who killed the Staten Island man with a banned chokehold.

The Police Department has yet to bring disciplinary charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo more than three years later, despite the Civilian Complaint Review Board finding that he was responisble for Garner's death. Video showed Pantaleo holding Garner in a chokehold, which NYPD policy has long prohibited.

The review board recommended bringing charges against Pantaleo in September, according to news reports. But the NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio have agreed not to start an internal trial until the U.S. Department of Justice finishes its investigation of the 2014 killing.

Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, said the city's agreement with federal officials is only delaying justice for her son while Pantaleo remains on the force. The NYPD is actively obstructing the Civilian Complaint Review Board from formally recommending charges by withholding a case number it needs to reference Pantaleo's case, police-reform advocates said.

"They are holding back. They are procrastinating," Carr said Thursday at a news conference outside City Hall. "We must tell them they must stop procrastinating."

Garner and several other cops piled on Garner near the Staten Island Ferry terminal nearly four years ago trying to attempt him for selling untaxed cigarettes. Garner was seen on video repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" as he was wrestled to the ground. His death was ruled a homicide.

Advocates cited previous cases in which cops accused of killing civilians were fired before federal prosecutors brought charges. Francis Livoti, the last NYPD cop to face federal prosecution in such a case, was fired in 1997, a year before he was indicted in connection with the 1994 chokehold killing of a man named Anthony Baez.

More recently, South Carolina cop Michael Slager was fired soon after shooting and killing the unarmed man Walter Scott in 2015. It wasn't until 2016 that he was indicted federal charges, to which he pleaded guilty.

Then-Attorney General Eric Holder, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, launched a probe of Garner's death in December 2014 after a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo. The investigation has dragged on for more than three years.

"As we have said many times before, the NYPD’s internal disciplinary process has been placed on hold at the request of the Department of Justice," Det. Kellyann E. Ortt, a police spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Advocates expressed skepticism that the probe would go anywhere, given the conservative shift in Justice Department policies under Attorney General Jeff Sessions. City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-Staten Island) argued the city's agreement with federal officials should be moot because a new administration is in power.

"If they didn't move under Obama, they're not moving under Trump," Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) said, referring to the Republican president who appointed Sessions.

But a mayoral spokesman, Austin Finan, said the city could jeopardize a criminal case against Pantaleo. The city's Law Department is in "regular communication" with the Department of Justice about the case, he said.

"We share the family’s frustration. This process has taken too long and we once again urge DOJ to reach a conclusion," Finan said in a statement. "Until then, it would be irresponsible for the City to take any preemptive action that could hurt any future prosecution."

Pantaleo's lawyer, Stuart London, has told the New York Daily News the Civilian Complaint Review Board reocmmended discipline against the cop without even interviewing him.

"It is highly irregular — and a violation of my client’s due process rights — for charges to be substantiated without speaking to the subject of the investigation," London told the paper in September.

(Lead image: Gwen Carr, Eric Garner's mother, speaks at a news conference outside City Hall on Thursday. Photo by Noah Manskar)